US

Police say Tiger Woods ‘lucky to be alive’ after car crash in California

45-year-old undergoes surgery after crash in suburb of LA
Reports say golfer suffered compound fractures to legs

Tiger Woods has been taken to hospital with serious injuries to both legs after a car accident, with a Los Angeles police officer saying the golfer is “very fortunate” to have survived.

Carlos Gonzalez, the first LA county deputy to respond to the scene, added that Woods was “calm and lucid” despite being trapped inside his vehicle. Woods was removed from the crash by firefighters, and his vehicle suffered “major damage”.

Source: theguardian.com

Rochester officers involved in Daniel Prude’s death won’t face charges

Body camera showed officers holding 41-year-old Black man down until he stopped breathing last winter

Police officers shown on body camera video holding Daniel Prude down naked and handcuffed on a city street last winter until he stopped breathing will not face criminal charges, according to a grand jury decision announced Tuesday.

The 41-year-old Black man’s death last March sparked nightly protests in Rochester, New York, after the video was released nearly six months later, with demonstrators demanding a reckoning for police and city officials.

Source: theguardian.com

US Senate hears testimony on Capitol riot: ‘These criminals came prepared for war’ – live

10.25pm GMT

Donald Trump used to promise his supporters that they would be winning so much, they would get sick and tired of winning. But the former US president is now on a seemingly endless losing streak.

He lost the presidential election, lost more than 60 legal challenges to the result, lost his bid to overturn the electoral college, lost control of the Senate and lost an impeachment trial 43-57, though he was spared conviction on a technicality. On Monday, Trump lost yet again – with potentially far-reaching consequences.

10.00pm GMT

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

Source: theguardian.com

Capitol mob ‘came prepared for war’, US Senate hears testimony – video

The former Capitol police chief, Steven Sund, said during a joint hearing on security failures that the insurrectionists during the 6 January attack ‘came prepared for war’.

Senators investigating the attack on the US Capitol last month heard testimony on training and equipping the Capitol police as the former police chief of that department and other security officials testified publicly for the first time Tuesday.

US politics: latest updates

Source: theguardian.com

US Capitol rioters ‘came prepared for war’, Senate hears in testimony

First congressional hearing on attack comes day after Merrick Garland said he would expand investigation into 6 January assault

US politics – live updates

Testifying on Tuesday in the first congressional hearing on the US Capitol attack, the chief of Capitol police who resigned over the riot said the pro-Trump mob which stormed the building “came prepared for war”.

Source: theguardian.com

Facebook’s message to media industry is clear: don’t rely on us | Antoun Issa

Facebook has been moving away from news for years, and users are turning elsewhere to consume news content

Facebook and Google could not have reacted more differently to Australia’s move to make them pay for news content. They both started from combative positions, but as the new media code drew closer to reality, Google lowered its fists, while Facebook went straight for the head.

Facebook’s dramatic use of its might to try coerce a government – it reversed its news ban in Australia on Tuesday after obtaining a few last-minute concessions – only reinforce growing concerns that the social media giant is too big, too powerful and needs to be reined in. Given several countries have signalled pursuing similar legislation, the global chain reaction of regulation Facebook sought to fend off might actually have been accelerated courtesy of its abrupt behaviour in Australia.

Source: theguardian.com

Johnson is subdued but his dog is causing havoc. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? | Marina Hyde

Forget the spad wars at No 10 – the real drama is over Dilyn, the prime minister’s sexually incontinent canine

“I won’t be buccaneering with people’s lives.” I think you dropped an “any more”, prime minister. But hey – let’s not tell our sad stories. Last night was the big roadmap press conference, where Boris Johnson looked into our eyes and told us he just wanted to take things slowly. He respects us too damn much for anything else.

I know we’re supposed to say better-late-than-never, but honestly – there is something slightly galling about being lectured by this guy on the next long weeks and months of serious caution. I’m not saying I want to tear the pants out of it – fine, I want to completely tear the pants out of it – but you can see why the pace of release feels confusingly slow to some people. This, alas, is inevitable when you’re governed by a prime minister who doesn’t like to set boundaries.

Source: theguardian.com

Biden must rethink the US migration system, not just reverse Trump’s policies | Daniel Trilling

Biden’s early reforms are promising – and what the US does can help set standards for the rest of the world

If Donald Trump’s presidency was a lesson in how symbolic acts of cruelty can be used to consolidate power, then his successors are trying to demonstrate that the same is true for benevolence. In just over a month, the Biden-Harris administration has issued a flurry of new directives aimed at reversing some of the worst aspects of the former president’s immigration policy.

Biden has declared an end to the travel restrictions imposed on numerous Muslim-majority countries, and committed to both reviving and expanding the US refugee resettlement scheme. The administration has presented sweeping new immigration reforms to Congress, which if passed would offer a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented people, promised a moratorium on deportations in most instances, and announced a plan to reunite children and parents torn apart by the grotesque family separation policy. On Friday, the US began allowing asylum seekers to cross its southern border for the first time since Trump’s “remain in Mexico” initiative was launched in January 2019.

Source: theguardian.com

Why did Governor Cuomo give nursing homes immunity from Covid deaths? | Ron Kim

Was the corporate immunity linked to $1.5m in political contributions from lobbyists? Only a full investigation can help us find out

Imagine fielding hundreds of calls from worried constituents at the peak of the first Covid-19 wave, trying to help scared families protect loved ones in nursing homes.

Imagine being stonewalled by those nursing homes and the department of health as you sought answers to life-and-death questions, knowing that Governor Andrew Cuomo’s directive forced these unprepared facilities to take in thousands of Covid-positive patients.

Source: theguardian.com

A corporate, commodified Black History Month is taking hold. We can’t let it | Malaika Jabali

Instead of transformative changes, we get Black History Month-themed Apple Watches and Black sitcom collections on Netflix

Black History Month, the annual commemoration of Black history in the United States that originated with Carter G Woodson’s Negro History Week, is winding down. I have to admit, this year’s celebration is among the worst yet. Instead of providing a platform to explore the rich history of Black people in America, this month has been a billboard for commodified representations of Blackness. Commercializing holidays and co-opting Black culture are both standard practices in America. Like the pat Black Lives Matter virtue signalling last June, branded co-optation of Black history has been rampant. For some, this visibility may indicate that Black people have advanced.

But what I see is an admission: powerful elected officials and corporations in the US resort to symbolism and token opportunities, because they’d rather not offer anything else. In a system that relies on exploiting labor and directing resources to an elite minority, actually advancing the health and prosperity of the masses of Black people undermines the exploitation that capitalism relies on.

Source: theguardian.com