Biden calls for quicker distribution of Covid vaccines, while Trump points out he predicted vaccine’s arrival
In a New Year’s Eve message, Donald Trump reflected on his accomplishments in office, calling them “historic victories”, while his incoming successor, Joe Biden, struck an upbeat tone in looking ahead to 2021.
After weeks of fighting to remain in office, Trump said in a video posted on Twitter: “We have to be remembered for what’s been done.”
Continue reading...Amid four years of corruption, caging children and trashing democracy there were some light-hearted moments – no really
Donald Trump’s presidency will soon come to an end, and his time in the White House will almost certainly be best remembered for the chaos and controversy caused by his oft-criticized choices on everything from immigration to the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading...Tehran says it will defend itself forcefully as tensions rise ahead of anniversary of Suleimani killing
The Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, on Thursday accused Donald Trump of attempting to fabricate a pretext to attack Iran, and said Tehran would defend itself forcefully.
Separately, a military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader warned Trump “not to turn the New Year into mourning for Americans”.
Continue reading...Seizures of the synthetic opioid fentanyl by Mexican security forces have increased by at least 486% in 2020, the country’s defence secretary has announced.
Mexico’s military and police forces seized an estimated 1.3 tons of the synthetic opioid this year, compared to 222 kilograms in 2019.
Continue reading...Joe Biden is expected to receive Secret Service protection with a new team that is more familiar to him and replacing some agents amid concerns that they may be politically allied with Donald Trump.
Continue reading...The cover-up has to stop – and with it, the huge sums in aid for a country with oppressive policies towards Palestinians
Every recent US administration has performed a perverse ritual as it has come into office. All have agreed to undermine US law by signing secret letters stipulating they will not acknowledge something everyone knows: that Israel has a nuclear weapons arsenal.
Part of the reason for this is to stop people focusing on Israel’s capacity to turn dozens of cities to dust. This failure to face up to the threat posed by Israel’s horrific arsenal gives its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, a sense of power and impunity, allowing Israel to dictate terms to others.
Continue reading...Yolanda Coar was 40 when she died of Covid-19 in August this year in Augusta, Georgia. She was also a nurse manager, and one of nearly 3,000 frontline workers who have died in the US fighting this virus, according to an exclusive investigation by the Guardian and Kaiser Health News.
The Guardian has profiled hundreds of healthcare workers in a year-long project. Read their stories here
Continue reading...Police in Minneapolis shot and killed a man in an exchange of gunfire during a traffic stop on the city’s south side on Wednesday night, authorities have said.
The police chief has said officers bodycameras where active and the footage would be released to the public on Thursday.
A crowd of people rallied at the scene of the fatal shooting which happened about 6.15pm during a traffic stop with a man suspected of a felony
Continue reading...From the racial wealth gap to the ‘forever chemicals’ poisoning our bodies, there is no shortage of stories that need to be told
It would be comforting to think that 2021 will offer a break from some of the challenges of 2020. There is an understandable yearning for some relief, some light, or at least a brief pause so that we can find a new equilibrium, whatever that may look like.
Related: Congressman-elect Kai Kahele represents an 'awakened generation' of Native Hawaiians
Continue reading...A photographer tells us what she learned from her two young sons while photographing them during the pandemic
December marks the 10th month of the Covid-19 pandemic. For a child this can feel like their entire life with no end in sight. For my two sons, nine-year-old Joey and eight-year-old Jackson, the initial transformation from normal to “new normal” did not exactly start out smoothly but turned out to be an unexpected gift.
Continue reading...Lockdowns and curfews curtail celebrations, with limited exceptions, after year most would prefer to forget
In Sydney the fireworks soared into the sky above the Opera House, but the harbour below was empty. In New York, Times Square will be mostly deserted. No light show illuminated Beijing from the top of the TV tower.
With revelry around the world curtailed by lockdowns and curfews imposed to stem the spread of Covid-19, the lions of London’s Trafalgar Square will be barricaded off, and there will be no crowds in St Peter’s Square and no one diving into the Tiber in Rome.
Continue reading...Baldwin accuses critics of ‘misrepresenting’ her, and addresses her background and that cucumber ‘brain fart’ incident
Hilaria Baldwin has accused critics of “misrepresenting” her amid allegations she spent years faking being Spanish.
Speaking out in a New York Times interview on Wednesday, Baldwin addressed the controversy surrounding her heritage after it emerged she was born in Boston, not Spain, and was originally named Hillary.
Continue reading...Attempts by Donald Trump and Democrats for bigger coronavirus relief checks fade in the Senate
Donald Trump’s demand for $2,000 relief checks to Americans struggling financially with the pandemic was all but dead after Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday that a proposal from Democrats had “no realistic path to quickly pass the Senate”.
Declaring that he would not be “bullied” by Democrats into quickly approving the measure, McConnell effectively denied a final request for legislative action by the president in the waning days of his administration.
Continue reading...Democrats and Republicans are deploying their big guns for the state’s runoff elections that will decide who controls the Senate
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will travel to Georgia to campaign for next week’s high-stakes Senate runoff elections, it was announced on Wednesday, as Donald Trump called on the state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, to resign.
Continue reading...Television cameras tend to bring out the performer in the president, no matter how inappropriate the context
As we look back at the Trump presidency, it often feels like America has endured four years of reality TV – with its leader as a main contestant.
Related: Infinity culture war: what now for Trump's Hollywood supporters?
Continue reading...Arms deals with Middle East dictatorships are being rushed through by Trump, critics say, despite opposition over human rights records
The US state department has approved the sale of $290m in bombs to Saudi Arabia as part of a flurry of arms deals with Middle Eastern dictatorships in the last weeks of the Trump administration.
Critics of the sales say they are being rushed through despite broad congressional and public opposition to such military support because of the human rights records of the regimes involved and in the case of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the huge civilian death toll from the war in Yemen.
Continue reading...Twelve-year-old boy was killed when a white police officer shot him in a playground in 2014
The US justice department has closed its civil rights investigation into the fatal 2014 shooting by Cleveland police of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Black youth, and said that no federal criminal charges would be brought in the case.
The announcement came five years after an Ohio grand jury cleared two Cleveland officers, Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback, of state charges of wrongdoing in the death of Rice, who was shot in a playground while holding a toy gun capable of shooting pellets.
Continue reading...Investigation finds officer violated procedures for preparation of search warrant that led detectives to Taylor’s apartment
Louisville police have taken steps that could result in the firing of an officer who sought the no-knock search warrant that led detectives to the apartment where Breonna Taylor was fatally shot.
Detective Joshua Jaynes has received a pre-termination letter, media outlets reported Tuesday. It came after a professional standards unit investigation found he had violated department procedures for preparation of a search warrant and truthfulness, his attorney said.
Continue reading...As Covid-19 surges across the US, Colorado’s governor announced the case of B.1.1.7, a significantly more contagious strain
A man in Colorado has become the first known US case of the newly identified strain of Covid-19 circulating in the UK. The new variant is thought to be more contagious than other, established variants and has prompted some countries to restrict travel from the UK.
The Colorado man who contracted the new variant, called B.1.1.7, is in his 20s, and had no travel history, according to the state’s health department. In a statement, Governor Jared Polis said that health officials are conducting an investigation into how the man might have contracted the virus, while he recovers in isolation.
Continue reading...An Ohio death row inmate who survived an attempt to execute him by lethal injection in 2009 has died of possible complications of Covid-19, the state prisons system said.
Related: US judge again delays execution of woman on federal death row
Continue reading...