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California shooting: four killed, including child, in office building in Orange

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Four people, including a child, have been killed and a fifth person injured in a shooting at a southern California office building, with the suspected shooter wounded by police.

It happened at around 5.30pm on Wednesday at a two-storey office building in Orange, south of Los Angeles.

Police Lt Jennifer Amat said shots were being fired when officers arrived and police shot the suspect, who was taken to the hospital in unknown condition.

Amat said the victims also included one person who was wounded. Other details were unclear, including a motive for the attack.

“Officers arrived as shots were being fired and located multiple victims at the scene including fatalities. An officer-involved shooting occurred,” said the Facebook post, which was filed shortly after 7 pm. “The situation has been stabilized and there is no threat to the public.”

The Fire Department handled six patients, with two taken to a hospital, dispatch supervisor Sam Ahumada told the Orange County Register.

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Matt Gaetz claims ‘extortion’ amid reported investigation into relationship with teenage girl

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The prominent Republican congressman Matt Gaetz’s reported relationship with a 17-year-old girl remained under scrutiny on Wednesday, despite his insistence in an appearance on Fox News that the allegation was “verifiably false”.

The Florida politician, a close ally of Donald Trump, claimed during the Tuesday night interview that he was the victim of an extortion plot by a former justice department official, and questioned the motivation behind Tuesday’s original reporting by the New York Times.

Gaetz, 38, claimed his lawyers had been informed that he was the subject of an FBI inquiry “regarding sexual conduct with women” and that the official was attempting to extort $25m from his family “in exchange for a commitment that he could make this investigation go away”.

On Wednesday, David McGee, the former justice department employee named by Gaetz, now a lawyer in Pensacola, Florida, told the Washington Post that the politician’s claims of an extortion plot were “completely false”.

“This is a blatant attempt to distract from the fact he’s under investigation for sex trafficking of minors,” McGee, formerly an attorney in the department’s organized crime taskforce, said.

“I have no connection with that case at all, other than one of a thousand people who have heard the rumors.”

Meanwhile, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson said Gaetz’s appearance on his show “was one of the weirdest interviews I’ve ever conducted.”

“I don’t think that clarified much,” Carlson told his viewers. “But it certainly showed this is a deeply interesting story, and we will be following it. Don’t quite understand it, but we will bring you more when we find out.”

According to the New York Times, Gaetz was under investigation by the justice department to determine whether he violated federal sex trafficking laws and had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a 17-year-old, and whether he paid her to travel with him.

The investigation was launched in the final months of the Trump administration under attorney general William Barr, the newspaper said, and was part of a broader investigation into a Republican party official and political ally in Florida, Joel Greenberg, indicted last summer on charges of sex trafficking of a child and financially supporting people in exchange for sex, including at least one underage girl.

After the Times published its story, Gaetz, who was photographed visiting the Trump White House with Greenberg in 2019, took to Twitter to maintain his innocence and accuse the justice department official of attempting to smear his name. Gaetz said his family was cooperating with federal authorities investigating his extortion claims.

Adding to the intrigue was a story reported by Axios earlier on Tuesday, just hours before the Times published its allegations, that Gaetz told associates he was considering resigning his seat in Congress to take a job with the rightwing media outlet Newsmax.

An FBI spokesperson in Jacksonville, Florida, told the Guardian in a statement Wednesday that the agency “declines to confirm nor deny the existence or status of an investigation” and referred inquiries to the justice department.

The justice department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Round in circles – America’s endless gun debate: inside the 2 April Guardian Weekly

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A grim inevitability hangs over news of another American mass shooting. From the anguish of victims’ families to the intransigence of gun rights supporters, the sense prevails that nothing can, or will, ever change when it comes to US gun laws. It’s a reality writ large since the horrifying 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre, an event so shocking yet one that still failed to break opposition to gun law reform, despite the best efforts of the then-vice president Joe Biden.

Now Biden is in the Oval Office with a fresh mandate and a weakened pro-gun lobby before him. In the light of two recent mass shootings in Georgia and Colorado, Ed Pilkington traces the Groundhog Day nature of America’s gun reform debate. Then, Guardian US gun crime reporters Abené Clayton and Lois Beckett deliver a damning verdict on why everything about America’s national discourse on firearms reform is wrong.

In Britain, politicians of all stripes have long pressed the national flag into service to unite the nation, but its use as a stage prop or on official buildings is increasingly divisive. Tim Adams looks at the ironies of the UK government’s efforts to wrap itself in the flag at a time when Brexit has made the dissolution of the union more likely than ever.

As the Covid pandemic kicked in last year, Germany was held up as a model of civic adherence to lockdown restrictions – yet its insistence on propriety has now seen it fall behind in the mass vaccination drive. As tensions rise, Philip Oltermann reports on a moment of introspection for the EU’s powerhouse state.

While London’s centre remains becalmed by Covid restrictions, trouble is brewing in its suburbs. A radical, government-backed road closure scheme has sought to reclaim side streets for cyclists and pedestrians, shunting motor traffic back on to main arteries. With residents divided about the success of the low-traffic zones, Niamh McIntyre investigates whether they can bring about real change in urban transport habits – or if a raft of upcoming legal challenges will leave them by the wayside.

Finally, how many roads must a man walk down, before you can call him a brand? In Culture, as Bob Dylan nears his 80th birthday, Neil Spencer reflects on how the pop poet from Minnesota bridged the gap between academia and pop, turning his musical career into a world-conquering industry.

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States lift mask mandates despite Biden’s warnings and rise in Covid cases – live

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Rashida Kamal and Alvin Chang report:

The Guardian has visualized the proportion of vaccinated population in each state from data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The represented proportions reflect the overall state population. Children are not eligible to be vaccinated, though scientists believe they can spread Covid-19.

Read more:

reports:

Investigators are examining whether Mr. Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws, the people said. A variety of federal statutes make it illegal to induce someone under 18 to travel over state lines to engage in sex in exchange for money or something of value. The Justice Department regularly prosecutes such cases, and offenders often receive severe sentences.

It was not clear how Mr. Gaetz met the girl, believed to be 17 at the time of encounters about two years ago that investigators are scrutinizing, according to two of the people.

The investigation was opened in the final months of the Trump administration under Attorney General William P. Barr, the two people said. Given Mr. Gaetz’s national profile, senior Justice Department officials in Washington — including some appointed by Mr. Trump — were notified of the investigation, the people said.

The three people said that the examination of Mr. Gaetz, 38, is part of a broader investigation into a political ally of his, a local official in Florida named Joel Greenberg, who was indicted last summer on an array of charges, including sex trafficking of a child and financially supporting people in exchange for sex, at least one of whom was an underage girl.

Mr. Greenberg, who has since resigned his post as tax collector in Seminole County, north of Orlando, visited the White House with Mr. Gaetz in 2019, according to a photograph that Mr. Greenberg posted on Twitter.

No charges have been brought against Mr. Gaetz, and the extent of his criminal exposure is unclear.

Read more from the Times’ Michael S Schmidt and Katie Benner here.

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:

  • The trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin continued in Minneapolis. Witnesses who saw Chauvin keep his knee on George Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes testified about the events of 25 May. Donald Williams told the court that he called 911 after seeing the violence because “I believed I witnessed a murder.”
  • The Republican governor of Arkansas announced he is lifting the statewide mask mandate. The announcement came a day after Joe Biden urged state and local leaders to maintain or reinstate mask orders, due to the country’s recent uptick in coronavirus cases. “I’m reiterating my call for every governor, mayor, and local leader to maintain and reinstate the mask mandate,” the president said yesterday. “Please, this is not politics. Reinstate the mandate if you let it down.”
  • Biden is set to outline his proposed infrastructure package in a speech in Pittsburgh tomorrow. The president is expected to call for spending more than $3 trillion to improve the nation’s infrastructure systems. Congressional committees are reportedly being briefed on the proposal today.
  • The US and the UK signed on to a statement criticizing the World Health Organization’s report on the origins of coronavirus. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that China had “not been transparent” with the WHO about the early days of its coronavirus outbreak. She urged the WHO to take further steps to better understand the origins of the virus.
  • Biden outlined a series of new actions to address the recent surge in anti-Asian violence across the US. The president said his administration will establish a coronavirus equity task force focused on ending xenophobia against Asian Americans and launch a justice department cross-agency initiative to address anti-Asian violence.

Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Several states are pointedly ignoring the latest coronavirus warnings and fears voiced by Joe Biden and the government’s public health experts, as they disagree with the White House and amongst themselves.

Earlier today, Arkansas announced it would lift its statewide mask mandate, which has been in place to mitigate the spread of coronavirus, despite the US president pleading with state and local leaders to maintain or reinstate mask mandates as US infections rise again.

But other moves are afoot. The Republican-controlled Arizona senate voted yesterday to rescind its mandatory mask policy, the Associated Press reported.

Alabama governor Kay Ivey intends for her state’s mask mandate to end on 9 April as planned, though she urged people to wear masks as a matter of personal responsibility.

“We have made progress, and we are moving towards personal responsibility and common sense, not endless government mandates,” said Gina Maiola, Ivey’s spokeswoman.

Meanwhile, the Kentucky governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, said he would appeal to his Republican counterpart in neighboring Tennessee, Governor Eric Holcomb, to reconsider his move to drop the Bluegrass state’s mask mandate.

“Kentuckians are going to be more at risk if Tennesseans are not under a mask mandate,” Beshear said.

Infections are currently rising in around 30 US states, compared with 20 states last week.

The Republican governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson, announced today that he is lifting the statewide mask mandate.

Hutchinson said recent data on coronavirus case numbers in the state had led him to conclude that the mandate was no longer necessary.

“Please be respectful and mindful that while the mask mandate is lifted, many will continue to wear it and many businesses will continue to require it,” Hutchinson said at a press conference. “We need to honor those decisions.”

The Recount (@therecount)

President Biden yesterday: Masks, please.

Gov. Asa Hutchison (R-AR) today: pic.twitter.com/m20KMNVedE

March 30, 2021

The announcement comes one day after Joe Biden pleaded with state and local leaders to maintain or reinstate mask mandates, due to recent alarming trends in US coronavirus case numbers.

“I’m reiterating my call for every governor, mayor, and local leader to maintain and reinstate the mask mandate,” the president said. “Please, this is not politics. Reinstate the mandate if you let it down.”

The president echoed concerns shared by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hours earlier.

“I’m going to lose the script, and I’m going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom,” Dr Rochelle Walensky said at a briefing from the White House coronavirus response team.

“We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are, and so much reason for hope. But right now I’m scared.”

@PressSec says the @WHO COVID-19 origins report “doesn’t lead us to a closer understanding or greater knowledge than six months ago about the origins”, adding that China has “not been transparent, they have not provided underlying data” on the virus. pic.twitter.com/6KRK7112zn

March 30, 2021

She added that the WHO report “doesn’t lead us to any closer of an understanding or greater knowledge than we had six to nine months ago about the origin” of the virus.

Psaki urged the WHO to take further steps to better understand how coronavirus started spreading among humans in late 2019.

“There’s a second stage in this process that we believe should be led by international and independent experts,” Psaki said. “They should have unfettered access to data. They should be able to ask questions of people who are on the ground at this point in time, and that’s a step the WHO could take.”

The US and the UK have sharply criticised a World Health Organization report into the beginnings of the coronavirus pandemic in Wuhan, implicitly accusing China of “withholding access to complete, original data and samples”.

The statement, also signed by 12 other countries including Australia and Canada, came hard on the heels of an admission on Tuesday by the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, that the investigation was “not extensive enough” and experts had struggled to access raw information during their four-week visit to Wuhan in January.

Tedros also said there should be continued examination of the theory that the virus had escaped from a Wuhan institute of virology laboratory, even though the report deemed it “extremely unlikely” as a source of the pandemic – a theory promoted by some in the Trump administration.

The long-awaited report by experts appointed by the WHO and their Chinese counterparts said the global pandemic probably came to humans from animals.

The statement by the 14 countries, which criticised delays in the investigation, called for timely access for independent experts early in future pandemics, and once again underlined the highly contentious politics around the investigation during which WHO experts gained access to China after months of fraught negotiations.

@JoeBiden’s infrastructure bill.

From @JakeSherman and @bresreports

March 30, 2021

Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver a speech outlining his proposal tomorrow in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The White House has signaled it hopes the package will attract bipartisan support, but Democrats are also making plans to go it alone if Republicans oppose the bill, as is widely expected.

The prosecution’s questioning of witnesses through the second day of the Derek Chauvin murder trial has sought to establish several themes.

One is that police officers did nothing to help George Floyd, despite his growing distress and struggle to breathe as Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes.

Prosecutors also sought to head off defence claims that Chauvin’s actions were influenced by threats to his and other officers’ safety from an increasingly alarmed crowd of bystanders.

A succession of witnesses described attempts to intervene, and admonitions from the crowd directed at Chauvin and other officers, as intended to help Floyd, not threaten the police.

The fourth witness of the day, a young woman who was identified on the public feed of the trial only by her first name, Alissa, because she was 17 at the time of Floyd’s death, told the court she started to film the incident because she was aware the situation was deteriorating.

“A lot of people looked in distress on the sidewalk. And George [Floyd] looked in distress,” she said. “He looked like he was fighting to breathe.”

Alissa said she appealed to Chauvin to stop when she saw the officer pushing his knee deeper into Floyd’s neck.

“His eyes were starting to roll to the back of his head and he had saliva coming out of his mouth,” she said.

Alissa testified about the content of the phone video she recorded as it was played back to her in bursts. At times the distress in the voice of members of the public can be heard as some demand that the police check Floyd’s pulse.

At one point in her testimony, Alissa paused because she was crying, and said it was difficult to talk about because of the emotional toll of what she witnessed.

“I felt like there wasn’t anything I could do as a bystander. I felt like I was failing him,” she said.

Senator Ben Cardin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate small business committee, applauded Joe Biden for signing the PPP Extension Act into law.

“PPP has supported millions of small businesses through the pandemic, and it is clear that the program must continue to be a lifeline for small businesses and nonprofits,” Cardin said in a statement.

“It is vital that we in Congress continue working in a bipartisan manner to fine-tune PPP in the weeks ahead to make the program more fair and equitable.”

The Paycheck Protection Program was created by the first coronavirus relief package to help small businesses that were forced to close their doors because of the pandemic.

The program has received some criticism for distributing funds to large companies, and the Biden administration has worked to get PPP money to small businesses.

Moments ago, Joe Biden signed a bill extending the deadline to apply for the Paycheck Protection Program, a small business loan program created by the first coronavirus relief package.

The bill also grants the Small Business Administration additional time to process PPP applications.

Biden signed the legislation in the Oval Office, as Vice-President Kamala Harris and SBA administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman looked on.

Joe Biden signs the PPP Extension Act of 2021 into law in the Oval Office. Photograph: Doug Mills/EPA

The president described the bill as “a bipartisan accomplishment,” noting that 90,000 businesses are waiting in line to receive PPP assistance.

He specifically thanked Senators Ben Cardin, Jeanne Shaheen, Marco Rubio and Susan Collins for championing the legislation.

The president did not answer any of the questions shouted by reporters as they were escorted out of the Oval Office.

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Antony Blinken says the US will ‘stand up for human rights everywhere’

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The United States will speak out about human rights everywhere including in allies and at home, secretary of state Antony Blinken has vowed, turning a page from Donald Trump as he bemoaned deteriorations around the world.

Presenting the state department’s first human rights report under President Joe Biden, the new top US diplomat took some of his most pointed, yet still veiled, swipes at the approach of the Trump administration.

“Some have argued that it’s not worth it for the US to speak up forcefully for human rights – or that we should highlight abuse only in select countries, and only in a way that directly advances our national interests,” Blinken told reporters in clear reference to Trump’s approach.

“But those people miss the point. Standing up for human rights everywhere is in America’s interests,” he said.

“And the Biden-Harris administration will stand against human rights abuses wherever they occur, regardless of whether the perpetrators are adversaries or partners.”

Blinken ordered the return of assessments in the annual report on countries’ records on access to reproductive health, which were removed under the staunchly anti-abortion Trump administration.

Blinken also denounced a commission of his predecessor Mike Pompeo that aimed to redefine the US approach to human rights by giving preference to private property and religious freedom while downplaying reproductive and LGBTQ rights.

During Pompeo’s time in office, the state department was aggressive in opposing references to reproductive and gender rights in UN and other multilateral documents.

“There is no hierarchy that makes some rights more important than others,” Blinken said.

In another shift in tone from Trump, Blinken said the United States acknowledged its own challenges, including “systemic racism.”

“That’s what separates our democracy from autocracies: our ability and willingness to confront our own shortcomings out in the open, to pursue that more perfect union.”

Blinken voiced alarm over abuses around the world including in China, again speaking of “genocide” being committed against the Uighur community.

The report estimated that more than one million Uighurs and other members of mostly Muslim communities had been rounded up in internment camps in the western region of Xinjiang and that another two million are subjected to re-education training each day.

“The trend lines on human rights continue to move in the wrong direction. We see evidence of that in every region of the world,” Blinken said.

He said the Biden administration was prioritising coordination with allies, pointing to recent joint efforts over Xinjiang, China’s clampdown in Hong Kong and Russia’s alleged poisoning of dissident Alexei Navalny.

Blinken also voiced alarm over the Myanmar military’s deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, attacks on civilians in Syria and a campaign in Ethiopia’s Tigray that he has previously called ethnic cleansing.

The report, written in dry, factual language, did not spare longstanding US allies.

It pointed to allegations of unlawful killings and torture in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, quoting human rights groups that said Egypt is holding between 20,000 and 60,000 people chiefly due to their political beliefs.

Biden earlier declassified US intelligence that found that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman authorised the gruesome killing of US-based writer Jamal Khashoggi.

While the human rights report remained intact under Trump, the previous administration argued that rights were of lesser importance than other concerns with allies such as Saudi Arabia – a major oil producer and purchaser of US weapons that backed Trump’s hawkish line against Iran, whose record was also heavily scrutinized in the report.

The latest report also detailed incidents in India under prime minister Narendra Modi, an increasingly close US ally.

It quoted non-governmental groups as pointing to the use in India of “torture, mistreatment and arbitrary detention to obtain forced or false confessions” and quoted journalists as assessing that “press freedom declined” including through physical harassment of journalists, pressure on owners and frivolous lawsuits.

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‘Best and brightest’: Biden announces ‘trailblazing’ slate of judicial nominees

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Joe Biden has announced a “trailblazing” set of federal judicial nominees, 11 picks including three Black women.

Ketanji Brown Jackson, a US district judge, was nominated on Tuesday to replace attorney general Merrick Garland on the influential US appeals court for the District of Columbia circuit.

In 2016, Garland was nominated for the supreme court by Barack Obama but blocked from even receiving a hearing by Republicans determined to fill the vacancy themselves.

It was a hugely dramatic gambit by then Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, as he set out to transform the federal judiciary. With McConnell’s help, Donald Trump was able to do so.

On the campaign trail last year, Biden pledged to name the first Black woman to the supreme court. Jackson, who regularly clashed with the Trump administration, now moves into that spotlight. Many liberals are eyeing retirement for Stephen Breyer, at 82 the oldest member of the court, for whom Jackson once clerked.

When she was sworn in as a district judge, in May 2013, Breyer delivered the oath.

“She sees things from different points of view,” he said, “and she sees somebody else’s point of view and understands it.”

In December, Biden asked senators for a diverse slate of possible judicial picks.

“We are particularly focused on nominating individuals whose legal experiences have been historically underrepresented on the federal bench,” he said, “including those who are public defenders, civil rights and legal aid attorneys and those who represent Americans in every walk of life.”

His first set of picks, which the Washington Post called “the largest and earliest batch … by a new administration in decades”, also includes the first Muslim named to a district court.

In a statement to the Post, Biden said: “This trailblazing slate of nominees draws from the very best and brightest minds of the American legal profession.

“Each is deeply qualified and prepared to deliver justice faithfully under our constitution and impartially to the American people – and together they represent the broad diversity of background, experience and perspective that makes our nation strong.”

Nomination hearings could begin in April. Biden and the Democratic Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, have work to do.

McConnell and Trump placed three justices on the supreme court, giving it a 6-3 conservative majority. But the extensive reshaping of the judiciary below the highest court could be their most lasting legacy.

Observers have noted, for example, that though punitive voting rights restrictions being passed in Republican-led states are being challenged in court, the judiciary that will hear such cases is heavily staffed with conservatives.

McConnell was proud of his ruthlessness, telling Fox News there was one reason so many vacancies were left for Trump to fill.

“I’ll tell you why,” he said, in December 2019. “I was in charge of what we did the last two years of the Obama administration.”

Last April, he told an interviewer his “motto for the year is leave no vacancy behind”.

Trump’s success contributed to his strength at the polls. In 2019, Josh Blackman, a professor at the South Texas College of Law, told the Guardian: “Not all conservatives are happy with a lot of things Trump has done, but on judges he’s killing it. It’s an across-the-board success that we’ve seen in this area.”

Biden must now attempt to begin to redress the balance.

On Tuesday he also named Candace Jackson-Akiwumi for the Chicago-based seventh circuit and Tiffany Cunningham for the federal circuit in Washington.

If confirmed, Zahid Quraishi, a New Jersey judge, will be the first Muslim American on a district court. Among other appointments, Florence Pan will if confirmed be the first Asian American woman on the DC district court, while Lydia Griggsby will be the first black woman on the Maryland district court.

Judge Rupa Ranga Puttagunta, a Washington DC local judge of Indian ancestry, is nominated for DC superior court.

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Donald Trump uses new website to rewrite history of his presidency

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Donald Trump has launched a new website celebrating his time as US president that includes a very selective retelling of the history of his time in office.

45office.com is billed as a platform for his supporters to stay in touch and a place where Trump will continue his “America first” campaign.

The centrepiece of the site is an 885-word history of the Trump presidency, listing the achievements of what it describes as “the most extraordinary political movement in history”.

In a hyperbolic opening paragraph, it says he dethroned political dynasties, defeated “the Washington establishment” and “overcame virtually every entrenched power structure”.

The history does, however, omit several significant moments from Trump’s presidency.

On the economy, the site says: “President Trump ushered in a period of unprecedented economic growth, job creation, soaring wages, and booming incomes.” Trump frequently described his administration as building “the greatest economy in the history of our country”, a claim repeatedly debunked. It also fails to note that during the pandemic last year the US economy suffered one of its worst financial crashes.

The US recorded the world’s largest coronavirus death toll on Trump’s watch, but the website describes his handling of the pandemic as a success, saying: “When the coronavirus plague arrived from China, afflicting every nation around the globe, President Trump acted early and decisively.” It neglects to mention that Trump had in fact described coronavirus as a problem that’s “going to go away” five times in March 2020, even as case numbers rose.

A screenshot of Donald Trump’s new website. Photograph: Donald Trump official website

Also absent is that Trump became the first US president in history to twice face impeachment trials in Congress. And that he was the first US president to lose the popular vote twice. Hillary Clinton secured 2.8m more votes than Trump in 2016, and Joe Biden’s 2020 margin of victory was even larger, at 7m votes.

Nor does it mention that he became the first major world leader to be banned from social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter while in office after they deemed he had used their sites to cite an insurrection. The Capitol riot, which led to the loss of five lives, also does not warrant a mention.

The website’s homepage boasts that “the office of Donald J Trump is committed to preserving the magnificent legacy of the Trump administration, while at the same time advancing the America first agenda”.

It also promises that “through civic engagement and public activism, the office of Donald J Trump will strive to inform, educate, and inspire Americans from all walks of life as we seek to build a truly great American future”.

Trump retains significant influence over the Republican party despite his loss in the 2020 election and has hinted at a possible presidential run in 2024. He has also started actively backing Republican candidates who may be able to unseat fellow party members Trump feels were disloyal to him by failing to back his baseless claims of election fraud last year.

In an interview with Fox News this month, Jason Miller, a former Trump campaign spokesperson, said that following his bans from Twitter and Facebook, Trump would launch his own social media platform in the next few months.

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Barack Obama’s ‘beloved grandmother’ dies in Kenya aged 99

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Barack Obama’s step-grandmother, known affectionately to many as Mama Sarah, has died in Kenya at the age of 99.

Sarah Obama was the third wife of the former president’s paternal grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama. She died early on Monday in hospital in the western town of Kisumu after a short illness, the Daily Nation newspaper reported, saying her death was not Covid-19 related.

In a statement, Barack Obama said: “My family and I are mourning the loss of our beloved grandmother, Sarah Ogwel Onyango Obama, affectionately known to many as ‘Mama Sarah’ but known to us as ‘Dani’ or Granny. We will miss her dearly, but we’ll celebrate with gratitude her long and remarkable life.”

She became a celebrity in her own right after her step-grandson visited Kenya in 2006, two years before he was elected to his first White House term and while he was still a US senator for Illinois.

As Mama Sarah, she was known to generations of Kenyans for her social activism, largely centered on children’s and family issues. The Guardian met her in 2012 during an international reporting project trip to Kenya about reproductive health.

Sarah Obama, a Muslim, was born in 1922 as part of western Kenya’s Luo native group. She spent decades as head of a foundation to educate girls and orphans, AFP reported, despite being unable to read herself. She was popular with local schoolchildren for serving hot porridge and doughnuts.

Barack Obama (@BarackObama)

My family and I are mourning the loss of our beloved grandmother, Sarah Ogwel Onyango Obama, affectionately known to many as “Mama Sarah” but known to us as “Dani” or Granny. We will miss her dearly, but we’ll celebrate with gratitude her long and remarkable life. pic.twitter.com/avDY4f1PVu

March 29, 2021

Barack Obama made two further high-profile trips to Kenya, one in 2015 when he became the first sitting US president to visit, meeting Sarah Obama and other family members in Nairobi.

The other trip came in 2018, after he left office. He visited his father’s childhood village and jokingly apologized that he hadn’t returned to visit his grandmother sooner because Air Force One was too big to land at her local airfield.

Sarah Obama attended her grandson’s inauguration in Washington in January 2009, presenting him with a Kenyan oxtail fly swatter as a symbol of power. She also fiercely defended him from rightwing attacks, fuelled by Donald Trump’s lie that Obama was born in Kenya and raised as a Muslim.

Uhuru Kenyatta, the Kenyan president, paid tribute to Sarah Obama on Twitter.

“The passing away of Mama Sarah is a big blow to our nation,” he wrote. “We’ve lost a strong, virtuous woman. A matriarch who held together the Obama family and was an icon of family values.”

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Suspected Russian hackers gained access to US homeland security emails

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Suspected Russian hackers gained access to email accounts belonging to the Trump administration’s head of homeland security (DHS) and members of cybersecurity staff whose jobs included hunting threats from foreign countries, the Associated Press (AP) has learned.

The intelligence value of the hacking of then acting secretary Chad Wolf and his staff is not publicly known but the symbolism is stark. Their accounts were accessed in what is known as the SolarWinds intrusion, throwing into question how the US government can protect individuals, companies and institutions if it can’t protect itself.

“The SolarWinds hack was a victory for our foreign adversaries and a failure for DHS,” said Rob Portman, top Republican on the Senate homeland security committee. “We are talking about DHS’s crown jewels.”

The Biden administration has tried to keep a tight lid on the scope of the SolarWinds attack as it weighs retaliatory measures against Russia. But an inquiry by the AP found new details about the breach at DHS and other agencies, including the energy department, where hackers accessed top officials’ private schedules.

The AP interviewed more than a dozen current and former officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The vulnerabilities at homeland security in particular intensify the worries following the SolarWinds attack and an even more widespread hack affecting Microsoft Exchange’s email program, especially because in both cases the hackers were detected not by the government but by a private company.

In December, officials discovered a sprawling, months-long cyber-espionage effort done largely through a hack of widely used software from Texas-based SolarWinds. At least nine federal agencies were hacked, and dozens of private-sector companies.

US authorities have said the breach appears to be the work of Russian hackers. Gen Paul Nakasone, who leads the Pentagon’s cyber force, said last week the Biden administration was considering a “range of options” in response. Russia has denied any role.

Since then, a series of headline-grabbing hacks has further highlighted vulnerabilities. A hacker tried to poison the water supply of a small town in Florida in February and this month a breach was announced, involving thousands of Microsoft Exchange email servers, the company says was carried out by Chinese state hackers. China has denied involvement.

Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat and head of the Senate intelligence committee, said the government’s initial response to SolarWinds was disjointed.

“What struck me was how much we were in the dark for as long as we were in the dark,” Warner said.

One former administration official, who confirmed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was among agencies affected by the breach, said the response was hampered by outdated technology. The FAA initially told the AP it had not been affected by the SolarWinds hack, only to then say it was continuing to investigate.

At least one other cabinet member was affected. The hackers were able to obtain the private schedules of officials at the energy department, including then secretary Dan Brouillette, one former official said.

DHS spokeswoman Sarah Peck said “a small number of employees’ accounts were targeted in the breach” and the agency “no longer sees indicators of compromise on our networks”.

The Biden administration has pledged to issue an executive order to address “significant gaps in modernization and in technology of cybersecurity across the federal government”. But it faces highly capable foreign hackers backed by governments that aren’t afraid of US reprisals, outdated technology, a shortage of cybersecurity professionals and a complex leadership and oversight structure.

The recently approved stimulus package includes $650m for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to harden cyber defenses. Federal officials said that amount is only a down payment on much bigger planned spending.

“We must raise our game,” Brandon Wales, who leads the cybersecurity agency, told a recent House hearing.

The Biden administration tapped Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security adviser for cyber and emergency technology, to respond to the SolarWinds and Microsoft breaches. It hasn’t appointed a national cyber director, frustrating some members of Congress.

“We’re trying to fight a multi-front war without anybody in charge,” said Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine.

The administration says it’s reviewing how to set up the position.

“Cybersecurity is a top priority,” said White House spokeswoman Emily Horne.

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‘Everything is riding on the outcome’: Minneapolis braces for Chauvin trial

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The city of Minneapolis and millions across the US and around the world are bracing for Monday’s opening arguments in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the white former police officer charged with murdering George Floyd, who was Black, in the city last May.

Floyd’s death regalvanized the Black Lives Matter movement and set in motion the biggest US civil rights protests since the 1960s.

After bystander video went viral showing Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes during an arrest attempt, Americans coast to coast and thousands in cities overseas took to the streets.

Chauvin has denied the charges of murder and manslaughter against him and prosecutors are due to set out their case in the heavily fortified court building in downtown Minneapolis on Monday morning, in one of the most significant police brutality trials in US history.

Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s defence attorney, has not said whether the former officer, who was fired shortly after Floyd’s killing, will testify.

The defence team will try to focus the jury on aspects such as the fact that the opioid fentanyl was found in Floyd’s system, as well as methamphetamine, and that he had underlying health conditions.

The official autopsy concluded that Floyd’s death was a homicide.

Keith Ellison, the prominent Minnesota attorney general, leads the prosecution team and will rely heavily on the damning video that shows Floyd pinned to the street with Chauvin kneeling on his neck, a hand in his pocket, seemingly impervious to Floyd’s waning cries that he can’t breathe.

Darnella Frazier, who was just 17 when she recorded the video that went viral, as two other police officers restrained Floyd’s torso and another fended off bystanders, will be called as a witness.

Members of Floyd’s family were expected to attend a vigil and protest on Sunday night at the spot where their 46-year-old relative died, a junction in southern Minneapolis now known as George Floyd Square.

Mileesha Smith, one of several community members who look after the square, which is marked with barricades, murals and tributes, said Floyd was part of a long history of police-involved deaths not just in the US, or Minnesota, but in that exact neighbourhood, with little justice forthcoming.

“George Floyd wasn’t the first person to be killed by police on this block, but [in the past] media wasn’t the way that it is and a lot of it got swept under the rug”

She was at work at an elderly care facility last May when the incident took place.

“I happened to look up at the TV and see that somebody is dying in the neighborhood I grew up in. Somebody died, flat out in front of the store that I grew up eating at,” she told the Guardian, adding: “How do we prevent this from happening? That could be my son. I have two sons.”

Public and media presence in the court room is severely restricted because of coronavirus.

For the first time in the state of Minnesota, TV cameras are able to film a full criminal trial, which Court TV is livestreaming.

But the public is watching for signs that police officers can be held accountable when someone dies in their custody.

Civil rights attorney and commentator Areva Martin said: “The family is seeking justice, the public is seeking accountability.”

“Historically, jurors have been reluctant to hold police officers accountable … What the US is showing is that it’s well past due to end systemic racism in policing, and that police officers are not above the law,” she told the Guardian.

Martin added: “The world is waiting to see if the US will be courageous enough to stand up to a system that has a history of violating the rights of African Americans and, rather than protecting those lives, has actually destroyed them.”

Keith Mayes, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota’s department of African American and African studies, said a conviction was necessary for policing to be reformed.

“Everything is riding on the outcome of the trial,” he said.

“Yes, Chauvin is on trial, and it’s about the Floyd murder. But an argument can be made it’s about all the other folks that didn’t receive justice, too,” he told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

The right to peaceful protest will be respected during the trial, the city has pledged.

The three other police officers, all since fired, too, will stand trial in August for aiding and abetting murder.

On 12 March, Minneapolis agreed to pay a record $27m settlement to Floyd’s family.

Smith said: “I’m not saying that that settlement shouldn’t have been given, but the authorities are so quick to give to the dead and don’t invest in the life of Black people while they are living … things that people are trying to keep in the dark, housing, jobs.”

The case is expected to last for most of April and the verdict l will be closely watched after a year in which people demanded and took bold action toward systemic change, said Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and activist in Minneapolis.

The former Minneapolis NAACP branch president has watched her community rise up in response to unchecked police violence, only to have their spirits crushed by an acquittal and lack of grand jury indictments in previous police killings, such as the high-profile cases of Philando Castile, a Black man killed by police in a nearby suburb in 2016, and Jamar Clark, a Black man killed by city police in 2015.

“We have for too long lived inside of a culture of ignorance, not just in the US but worldwide,” she said.

“I don’t think that this country in particular, but the world itself, has ever had to reconcile the mistreatment, the abuse and the dehumanization of Black folks. But for some people, they’re now beginning to see we have a problem, and we need to begin to take steps to address these problems.”

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