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Tag: United States News

  • Ron Klain is heading for the exit. Who’s coming in?  

    Ron Klain is heading for the exit. Who’s coming in?  

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    ANITA DUNN

    Why she’ll be the choice: Few people in the president’s inner circle can match her experience or have earned his trust in the same way as Dunn has. A former White House communications director under President Barack Obama, Dunn’s specific areas of focus — messaging, politics and campaign management — line up with what the president wants as he begins the second half of his term and a likely reelection bid. Biden’s new reliance on her husband Bob Bauer as his outside counsel amid a classified documents probe only raises Dunn’s centrality to the president. And the opportunity to make history as the first female White House chief of staff could make the opportunity, should it be offered, hard to pass up.

    Why she won’t be the choice: Dunn doesn’t need the chief of staff title to have an outsized impact on Biden’s next two years. In fact, overseeing all West Wing personnel and day-to-day operations at the White House would limit her ability to mold Biden’s campaign operation and serve as a key go-between linking the administration and the reelect. If she is viewed as a co-equal of whoever winds up in Klain’s job, she’s better positioned to influence and integrate both operations in her current role.

    STEVE RICCHETTI

    Why he’ll be the choice: One of Biden’s longest-serving advisers and now a counselor to the president, Ricchetti expressed interest in the job in 2020 before Klain was picked. He also has experience in the position: he served as chief of staff to Biden when he was vice president. Ricchetti earned the trust of Biden and is often one of the last people with whom the president speaks before making an important decision, and he has been empowered to steer some of the White House’s most significant legislative efforts. Ricchetti, who also worked in Bill Clinton’s White House, has deep ties to many establishment Democrats.

    Why he won’t be the choice: Ricchetti has proven valuable in his current role and Biden may not want him shifting jobs. He also would be anything but a fresh voice for the West Wing, since he already has such a significant presence. Choosing him would also create fresh scrutiny on his ties to the lobbying world; in his many years as a lobbyist, his firms contracted with a long list of influential clients, including hospitals, drugmakers and telecom companies. His long Washington career has led to some accusations that he’s a corporate Democrat and no friend to progressives.

    JEFF ZIENTS

    Why he’ll be the choice: A former Obama administration official and close Biden confidant, Zients ran the White House’s Covid response, winning internal praise for his cross-government management skills and initial success in bringing the pandemic under control. He’s held a number of high-level positions across the Obama and Biden presidencies, giving him a broad understanding of the administration’s inner workings — experience that allies argue makes him among the most well-prepared Biden advisers for the all-encompassing chief of staff job. Zients also maintains close ties to Klain and other senior Biden aides dating back to the Obama administration, when he did stints atop the National Economic Council and Office of Management and Budget.

    Why he won’t be the choice: While he’s cultivated a wide array of relationships within Democratic circles, Zients has also been the subject of rising criticism from the party’s progressive wing over his background in management consulting and handling of the pandemic, which has persisted well beyond his exit as Covid czar. He also doesn’t have extensive political experience which may be important for a chief of staff as the president they serve likely run for reelection.

    MARTY WALSH

    Why he’ll be the choice: Biden and the former mayor of Boston have strong personal ties, which is key to a chief of staff position. The president spoke at Walsh’s 2017 inauguration and both have ties and dedication to the labor movement. Indeed, union issues have brought the two together multiple times over the last two years. Walsh’s role in the negotiations between railroad unions and managers was lauded by Biden as successful and quick; keeping the administration from an embarrassing political moment before the midterms. Throughout the administration, Walsh is well liked and would be considered an approachable chief of staff.

    Why he won’t be the choice: Walsh hasn’t been shy that he is interested in finding his way back home to Boston at some point, according to aides around him. His lack of ties to D.C. would make it hard for him to handle the day-to-day relationship building required for the job. And Walsh’s areas of focus — policy and labor — aren’t at the top of the list of requirements for a chief.

    SUSAN RICE

    Why she’ll be the choice: Rice, the domestic policy czar under Biden and U.N. ambassador under President Barack Obama, has seen her stock rise and portfolio grow in this White House. After a long career in foreign policy and stints in the Obama and Clinton White Houses, Rice has gotten much more experience on domestic policy as director of the Domestic Policy Council, working on issues like student loans and gun reform. Colleagues describe her as a savvy political operative who’s good at managing the White House policy process.

    Why she won’t be the choice: She is a newcomer into Biden’s inner circle and doesn’t have a long-standing close relationship with Biden. She remains a bit of a lightning rod from her time in the Obama administration. But, most importantly, she also has told colleagues in recent months that she’s not interested in the job.

    TOM VILSACK

    Why he’ll be the choice: Vilsack, the current Agriculture Secretary, is a former presidential rival of Biden’s turned fiercely loyal ally. He’s now someone Biden leans on to bridge the divide with rural and conservative communities from his Cabinet perch — a skill set that could come in handy should Biden run for reelection.

    Vilsack got behind Biden early in the 2020 race, and stuck by him even after a rough showing in Iowa ahead of the caucuses. He then returned to the administration to serve in the same role he held during Obama’s tenure, as a personal favor to Biden because he asked.

    Vilsack has expressed an interest in the chief of staff role, according to a person familiar with the discussions. His allies tout his experience as a mayor and governor of the now bright-red Iowa, and describe other possible chief of staff picks, including Zients and Ricchetti, as “whisperers.”

    “There’s a lot happening in the world right now,” said another person close to Biden. “Do you want a whisperer or do you want someone who can govern?”

    Why he won’t be the choice: USDA officials have long expected Vilsack to step down before the end of Biden’s tenure. He had a bad back (which is much better after surgery this past year) and grandchildren back in Iowa he’d like to spend more time with. He has strong bipartisan ties, but has less sway in rural communities than he once did. He also spent 90 minutes with senior USDA staff this week talking through plans for upcoming farm bill negotiations, and didn’t give any indication he might leave his post. But rumors about his possible departure grew so hot in recent months that allies of Marcia Fudge, the current secretary of Housing and Urban Development, have put out feelers to USDA officials about her potentially succeeding Vilsack, according to two people familiar with the conversations.

    Some progressives and civil rights groups have criticized Vilsack for pushing out a Black USDA official during Obama’s tenure, after right-wing media falsely accused her of being racist. Vilsack and the White House later apologized.

    With reporting by Adam Cancryn, Chris Cadelago, Jonathan Lemire, Eli Stokols, Daniel Lippman and Meredith Lee Hill.

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    #Ron #Klain #heading #exit #Whos #coming
    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Turkey condemns burning of Qur’an during far-right protest in Sweden

    Turkey condemns burning of Qur’an during far-right protest in Sweden

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    Turkey has condemned a demonstration involving the burning of Qur’ans in Sweden on Saturday, further inflaming tensions between the two countries amid Stockholm’s Nato bid.

    The protest in Stockholm, which took place under heavy police protection in front of Turkey’s embassy, gathered about 100 people and a crowd of reporters, Agence France-Presse reported.

    Far-right politician Rasmus Paludan, who staged the event, gave an hour-long speech against Islam and immigration before setting fire to a copy of the Qur’an.

    A day prior, Turkey’s foreign ministry summoned Sweden’s ambassador over the permission granted to Paludan’s protest. It was the second time Sweden’s ambassador to Turkey has been summoned this month, after having had to answer for a 12 January stunt during which a Kurdish group hung an effigy of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in Stockholm.

    Earlier on Saturday, Ankara cancelled a 27 January visit by Sweden’s defence minister, Pål Jonson, intended to be a discussion about Turkey’s refusal to ratify Sweden’s Nato accession.

    Turkey’s defence minister, Hulusi Akar, said the meeting was cancelled because it “has lost its significance and meaning”.

    Jonson, however, announced the meeting had been postponed after talks with Akar on Friday at the US military base in Ramstein, Germany.

    “Our relations with Türkiye are very important to Sweden, and we look forward to continuing the dialogue on common security and defence issues at a later date,” he tweeted on Saturday.

    Prior to Paludan’s event on Saturday, Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, called it a “hate crime” that could not be characterised as freedom of expression, and asked Sweden not to allow the “vile act” to take place.

    The Stockholm protest was also denounced by İbrahim Kalın, chief adviser to Erdoğan.

    “The burning of the Holy Qur’an in Stockholm is a clear crime of hatred and humanity,” Kalın tweeted. “We vehemently condemn this. Allowing this action despite all our warnings is encouraging hate crimes and Islamophobia. The attack on sacred values is not freedom but modern barbarism.”

    Sweden’s government has sought to distance itself from the demonstration, with the foreign minister, Tobias Billström, condemning it on Saturday.

    “Islamophobic provocations are appalling,” Billström tweeted. “Sweden has a far-reaching freedom of expression, but it does not imply that the Swedish government, or myself, support the opinions expressed.”

    Turkey has proved to be an obstacle to Sweden and Finland’s historic application for Nato membership after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which marked a reversal of the Nordic countries’ decades of neutrality. Sweden and Finland have gained the approval of 28 Nato members so far, bar Hungary and Turkey.

    In November, Hungary’s president, Viktor Orbán, said his parliament would ratify Nato membership for Sweden and Finland in early 2023. But Turkey is still holding back, demanding the extradition of people in Sweden it claims to have links to the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) – designated as a terrorist group by Turkey, the EU and the US – or to banned cleric Fethullah Gülen.

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    #Turkey #condemns #burning #Quran #farright #protest #Sweden
    ( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

  • Fight the Power: How Hip-Hop Changed the World review – Chuck D is a brilliant history teacher

    Fight the Power: How Hip-Hop Changed the World review – Chuck D is a brilliant history teacher

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    There’s almost no hip-hop in the first episode of BBC Two’s new four-part documentary about the genre, a series that labours under the vanilla title Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five only drop The Message in the last five minutes. Instead, we are given an hour-long history lesson on New York City in the 60s and 70s – the decades leading up to hip-hop’s birth.

    This, however, is the correct approach, and it signals that Fight the Power will treat its subject with the respect and rigour it deserves – not surprisingly, since Chuck D of Public Enemy is an executive producer as well as one of the main interviewees. Any music documentary with ambitions to inform as well as entertain is a trade-off between sociology and musicology: the records say this and sound like that because this is what was happening in the world at the time. In the case of hip-hop, the scene was a more direct response to political circumstances than any popular music before it, and those conditions – black citizens marginalised by racist authorities – have resonance beyond the US and beyond the 20th century.

    Back we go, then, to 1960, and John F Kennedy promising to improve black Americans’ life chances. By the end of the decade, their leaders were assassinated or imprisoned, their political movements infiltrated and undermined, their family members drafted into the US army and killed in Vietnam, their protests viciously put down. Fight the Power namechecks Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud by James Brown, Is It Because I’m Black by Syl Johnson and Seize the Time by future Black Panther party leader Elaine Brown as evidence of revolutionary spirit coursing through records released in 1969.

    The 1970s began with The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron prefacing hip-hop by talking, not singing, about black power on records with “revolution” in the title. Fight the Power’s fine roster of contributors – KRS-One, Grandmaster Caz, Melle Mel, Darryl McDaniels of Run-DMC, and indeed Abiodun Oyewole of The Last Poets – recall a decade in which black consciousness continued to rise, boosted by Shirley Chisholm’s run for the presidency in 1972 under the slogan “unbought and unbossed”, and in reaction less to overt state violence and more to administrative oppression. The documentary cites the phrase “a period of benign neglect”, used by one of Richard Nixon’s advisers in a January 1970 memo to the president and taken here as summing up the period when, with social programmes persistently underfunded and the South Bronx bisected by a new expressway that seemed designed to hasten urban decay, richer New Yorkers fled the city’s astronomical crime rates and left the poor black and Hispanic folk to it.

    Fight the Power’s central observation is that hip-hop comes from a community that has been abandoned. The New York police, no longer minded to intervene in poor neighbourhoods, happily allowed hundreds of working-class youths to attend block parties, at which a generation that hadn’t had the money to buy or learn to play instruments made a new kind of music by setting up two turntables, so that a funky horn motif from one record could be segued into a tight drum break from another. The documentary makes the point that one of hip-hop’s most important influences wasn’t musical: at the end of the 70s, no effort was made to stop graffiti covering every inch of the New York subway, so spray-painted slogans and art became an ocean of protest and propaganda, impenetrable to some observers but vital as a form of expression for artists and activists with no other outlet.

    Graffiti was, in other words, exactly what hip-hop lyrics would soon become, and was one of the four phenomena – along with rap, breakdance and DJing – brought together by DJ Kool Herc, credited here as hip-hop’s great pioneer. Then, as the 80s began, Ronald Reagan campaigned for the presidency by visiting the Bronx – we see him verbally jousting with angry residents in the rubble – and promising more federal aid, before gaining power and instead beginning the further systematic redistribution of wealth from poor to rich. Conditions are now perfect for a fierce new genre of music to take hold, as Chuck D explains: “Hip-hop is creativity and activity that comes out of the black neighbourhood when everything has been stripped away.”

    And so we arrive at 1982 and The Message, with its eerily contemporary lyrics (“Got a bum education, double-digit inflation / Can’t take a train to the job, there’s a strike at the station”). The story of hip-hop itself – some of the greatest American pop music ever made – begins next week. We’re ready.

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    #Fight #Power #HipHop #Changed #World #review #Chuck #brilliant #history #teacher
    ( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

  • Lula sacks head of Brazilian army after far-right insurrection

    Lula sacks head of Brazilian army after far-right insurrection

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    The head of the Brazilian army has been sacked by the country’s new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, after claims the commander tried to shield rightwing rioters from arrest after the 8 January insurrection in Brasília.

    Gen Júlio Cesar de Arruda, who only took up the role in late December, was removed from his position on Saturday, nearly two weeks after supporters of the former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro brought havoc to Brazil’s capital in what Lula’s administration called a botched coup attempt.

    Arruda, who some of Lula allies reportedly suspect is politically aligned with Bolsonaro, reportedly stopped police detaining suspected rioters who took refuge at an encampment outside Brasília’s army headquarters on the night of the attack.

    “You are not going to arrest people here,” Arruda allegedly told Lula’s justice minister, Flávio Dino, according to the Washington Post.

    That highly controversial decision is thought to have allowed scores of rightwing criminals to avoid capture after they ransacked Brazil’s presidential palace, supreme court and congress. And it has reinforced widespread suspicions that the uprising had at least some level of backing from members of Brazil’s armed forces.

    Bolsonaro, a pro-gun former army captain who has spent decades cultivating ties with Brazil’s security forces, enjoys significant support among military and police officials. A number of military officials are reported to have encouraged and participated in the pro-Bolsonaro insurrection while Lula has said he suspects the rioters received inside help that enabled them to invade the presidential palace.

    “Many people were complicit in this … many people in the military police were complicit. There were many people in the armed forces here inside [the palace] who were complicit,” the leftist political veteran told journalists in Brasília four days after the attack.

    “This chap has managed to pollute the entire armed forces,” Lula added of Bolsonaro, who flew to the US on the eve of the 1 January inauguration and has refused to publicly concede defeat in last October’s election.

    Lula has removed at least 80 military officials from their jobs in his administration in the last five days, according to the newspaper O Globo, in an apparent attempt to root out hardcore Bolsonaro backers.

    Arruda will be replaced by Gen Tomás Miguel Ribeiro Paiva, the 62-year-old head of the south-eastern military command in São Paulo.

    In a speech posted on social media on Friday, Ribeiro Paiva urged troops to respect the result of last October’s election, which Lula won by about 2m votes.

    “It doesn’t matter [what the result of an election is], it must be respected … It might not always be what we want, but that doesn’t matter,” Ribeiro Paiva said, insisting the military would fulfil their mission whoever their commander-in-chief was.

    One prominent Brazilian journalist, Lauro Jardim, claimed the immediate trigger for Arruda’s removal was his refusal to obey an order from Lula to sack Bolsonaro’s former aide-de-camp, Lt Col Mauro Cid, who who was put in charge of a specialist army battalion near Brasília in the dying days of Bolsonaro’s presidency.

    “As the supreme commander of the armed forces, there was nothing else Lula could do,” Jardim wrote. “Either he sacked Arruda, or he could never again hope to have control of the armed forces.”

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    #Lula #sacks #Brazilian #army #farright #insurrection
    ( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

  • European roundup: Napoli march on to bring Serie A title dream a step closer

    European roundup: Napoli march on to bring Serie A title dream a step closer

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    Goals from Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Victor Osimhen handed Napoli a 2-0 win at Salernitana 2-0 as they took another step closer to ending their 33 year-wait for a Serie A title.

    Napoli controlled much of the game and Victor Osimhen thought he had given them a 35th-minute lead but was ruled offside by VAR.

    The league leaders eventually went ahead during the first-half stoppage time when a cross fell to Giovanni Di Lorenzo who fired home. An unmarked Osimhen doubled the lead in the 48th minute when he tapped in a rebound after Eljif Elmas’ effort had come back off a post.

    The result means Napoli have won 16 of their 19 league games and stretched their advantage over second-place AC Milan, who play Lazio on Tuesday, to 12 points.

    Goals either side of half-time from Fabio Depaoli and Darko Lazovic helped Verona secure only their third league win of the season, a 2-0 home success over Lecce.

    Antoine Griezmann grabbed a goal and an assist as Atlético Madrid returned to winning ways with a 3-0 home victory over Real Valladolid in La Liga.

    First-half goals from Griezmann, Álvaro Morata and Mario Hermoso earned fourth-placed Atlético just their second win in their last seven league games, while a fifth straight defeat for Valladolid leaves them one point above the relegation zone in 17th.

    Diego Simeone’s side seized control of the game by scoring three quickfire goals in the first half. Griezmann set up Morata for the first in the 18th minute with a clever flick, before getting on the scoresheet himself with a delightfully improvised backheel.

    Antoine Griezmann celebrates scoring for Atlético Madrid.
    Antoine Griezmann runs away after doubling Atlético’s lead with a superb backheel finish. Photograph: Denis Doyle/Getty Images

    The Frenchman was heavily involved in the third as well, finding Hermoso with a free-kick. Hermoso’s header was denied by Valladolid goalkeeper Jordi Masip but the rebound fell back at his feet to make it 3-0 in the 28th minute.

    Real Sociedad are seven points and a place above Atlético, level on points with second-placed Real Madrid but having played two games more, after a 2-0 win at Rayo Vallecano. Alexander Sørloth and Ander Barrenetxea scored the goals.

    Martin Braithwaite scored the only goal just before half-time as Espanyol edged out Real Betis at home.

    In Germany, Wolfsburg crushed visitors Freiburg 6-0 with three goals in each half as the Bundesliga restarted after a two-month World Cup and winter break.

    Jonas Wind struck twice following Patrick Wimmer’s second-minute opener, with Yannick Gerhardt adding another early in the second half to seal their fifth straight league victory. Baku Ridle rattled in another in the 80th minute before a stoppage time Luca Waldschmidt penalty completed the demolition job.

    The win lifted Wolfsburg to sixth on 26 points while Freiburg, who had won four of their previous five Bundesliga matches, dropped to fourth place on 30. It was also Freiburg’s heaviest league loss since coach Christian Streich took over 11 years ago.

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    Eintracht Frankfurt moved into second place on goal difference after goals from Jesper Lindstrom, Rafael Borre and Buta earned them a 3-0 over bottom club Schalke. Bayern Munich lead the standings on 35 points after drawing 1-1 at RB Leipzig on Friday with Union Berlin third after they came from behind to win 3-1 against Hoffenheim thanks to a second half double from Danilho Doekhi.

    Cologne scored five goals inside the opening 36 minutes as they thrashed Werder Bremen 7-1 at home. Steffen Tigges was on target twice with Linton Maina, Ellyes Skhiri and Denis Huseinbasic also finding the net before Niclas Fullkrug pulled one back for Bremen before half-time. Skhiri made it 6-1 after the interval before a Marco Friedl own goal completed Bremen’s misery.

    Philipp Hofmann scored twice as Bochum moved out of the relegation zone thanks to a 3-1 home win over fellow strugglers Hertha Berlin.

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    ( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

  • The Starling Girl review – Eliza Scanlen shines in transgressive coming of age drama

    The Starling Girl review – Eliza Scanlen shines in transgressive coming of age drama

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    The Starling Girl, the feature debut from writer-director Laurel Parmet, sets forth two difficult, easily muddled tasks. First, striking the correct tonal balance for a sexual relationship separated by age and authority – in this case, an intoxicating, transgressive romance between 17-year-old Jem Starling (Eliza Scanlen) and her brusquely handsome, 28-year-old youth pastor Owen (Lewis Pullman, son of actor Bill). And the second, depicting an insular religious community – a group of fundamentalist Christians in present-day Kentucky – with enough specificity and emotional acuity to bridge the gap with viewers who will find such a place opaque, unrelatable or possibly even unbelievable.

    Parmet succeeds more on the former than the latter. The Starling Girl, anchored by a bristling performance from the always solid Scanlen, is at its best when it hews to the combustible suspense of a teenage girl glimpsing her own instincts – for honesty, for autonomy, and most threateningly for pleasure. It’s ultimately less a portrait of a toxic relationship – that’s not the tone of Owen and Jem’s connection here – than a familiar battle of faith and feelings, intuition versus indoctrination, the fine line between sin and sublime.

    Glance by glance, Jem is invariably drawn to Owen against the backdrop of shame-ridden conservatism. The two first reconnect on a stairwell outside church – Jem in snotty tears after a fellow congregant chastises her visible bra outline; Owen, recently returned from a missionary stint in Puerto Rico, the subject of gossip over why he and his wife (Jessamine Burgum) don’t have children yet. This is Duggar-type Christian fundamentalism – long skirts and covered shoulders, no social associations outside church and no secular culture.

    The honeyed Southern summer setting, lushly captured by cinematographer Brian Lannin, feels expansive in a way Jem’s social and emotional futures do not. By day, she escapes into dance practice and solo bike rides at dusk, the air thick with humidity and crickets (characters are dripping in sweat on multiple occasions, often coinciding with a melting of control). By night, she experiments with masturbation and curses her sinful hand. One afternoon, her strictly devout mother (Wrenn Schmidt) and father (Jimmi Simpson), a former secular musician and addict whose recovery is thornily bound up in faith, inform her that it’s time for her to court Owen’s painfully sheltered brother Ben (Euphoria’s Austin Abrams), and that’s that.

    Jem balks and bargains – it is never boring to watch Scanlen, most notably of Sharp Objects and Little Women fame, play a character whose inner fire scrabbles with her learned politeness, and whose lust is basically indistinguishable from a crucial curiosity about the world. This is where the casting gets tricky. Scanlen, who is 24, has such a deft handle on reckless, almost devious innocence that she can still pull off a high-schooler, but barely. In another movie, she and Pullman, who is 29, could play uncomplicated lovers. Last year’s Sundance standout Palm Trees and Power Lines managed to balance both the magnetism and grossness of a relationship between a 17-year-old girl and 34-year-old man largely through the casting of actual teenager Lily McInerny, who looked believably her age – as in, more child than woman, shockingly young.

    The Starling Girl manages to skirt the issue of credulity by framing the central relationship as less toxic than desperate. Pullman capably plays Owen as somewhat of a Peter Pan with a visibly fractured psyche. Her instincts are nascent and powerful; his have been so stunted by shame as to resemble that of a teenager. The 116-minute film plays, however intentionally, like a genuine if deeply flawed connection, one whose inappropriateness is outdone by the merciless expectations inflicted by their community. When he takes her virginity in the backseat of a car, in an expertly staged scene that focuses on her thrill and disappointment, it feels both achingly teenage and ominous. He cannot conceive of her pleasure; she will of course pay for it.

    Parmet maintains a firm grip on this slippery relationship throughout its doomed course, less so on their world – if the rules are so strict and the gossip so thick here, how could these two plausibly get away with time together? A side plot involving her father’s descent into alcoholism provides motivation for Jem to distrust her rigid world even more, but culminates in unnecessarily high stakes. The final act’s redemption feels almost gratuitous in its depiction of her family and community’s emotional cruelty. The conclusion is, thankfully, appropriately understated; Scanlen can portray miles of emotional growth with a few short minutes. Films of this tricky variety often hinge on the central performance, and in her hands, it mostly works.

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    ( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

  • Ron DeSantis moves to permanently ban Covid mandates in Florida

    Ron DeSantis moves to permanently ban Covid mandates in Florida

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    Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis has announced a proposal to permanently ban Covid mandates in the state.

    In a press release issued earlier this week, DeSantis said that he has proposed legislation to “make permanent Covid freedoms in Florida”, adding that the “strong pro-freedom, anti-mandate action will permanently protect Floridians from losing their jobs due to Covid vaccine mandates, protects parents’ rights, and institutes additional protections that prevent discrimination based on Covid vaccine status”.

    The proposal includes permanently banning mask requirements throughout the state, prohibiting vaccine and mask requirements in schools, prohibiting Covid passports in the state, and prohibiting employers from hiring or firing based on Covid vaccines, all in attempts to protect Floridians from the “biomedical security state”.

    The proposal also claims to protect “medical freedom of speech” by promising to protect medical professionals’ freedom of speech, the right to disagree with the “preferred narrative of the medical community,” as well as the religious views of medical professionals.

    “When the world lost its mind, Florida was a refuge of sanity, serving strongly as freedom’s lynchpin,” DeSantis said in the announcement of his proposal. “These measures will ensure Florida remains this way and will provide landmark protections for free speech for medical practitioners.”

    The recent proposal follows DeSantis’s repeated criticisms of Covid mandates. In 2021, DeSantis signed a series of measures that sought to protect Floridians from pandemic mandates set forth by local governments, which he called “unscientific, unnecessary directives”.

    Florida’s surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, supported DeSantis’s proposal, saying: “As a health sciences researcher and physician, I have personally witnessed accomplished scientists receive threats due to their unorthodox positions.”

    “However, many of these positions have proven to be correct, as we’ve all seen over the past few years. All medical professionals should be encouraged to engage in scientific discourse without fearing for their livelihoods or their careers,” he added.

    Last year, Ladapo announced that Florida will formally recommend against Covid vaccinations for healthy children.

    “We’re kind of scraping at the bottom of the barrel, particularly with healthy kids, in terms of actually being able to quantify with any accuracy and any confidence the even potential of benefit,” he said.

    The announcement contradicted guidelines set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the Food and Drug Administration.

    Last December, DeSantis petitioned the Florida supreme court to have a grand jury investigate whether Floridians were misled by Covid vaccine manufacturers over the shots’ potential side effects.

    The court granted DeSantis’s petition, and the grand jury will convene for a year before forming a decision.

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    ( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

  • Ron Klain to reportedly step down as Biden chief of staff

    Ron Klain to reportedly step down as Biden chief of staff

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    Ron Klain, Joe Biden’s chief of staff, is reportedly set to step down from his position, in what will be the biggest change to the US president’s inner circle of advisors since he took office two years ago.

    Klain will announce his departure in the coming weeks, according to the New York Times, after telling colleagues that he is ready to move on following a grueling period of successes and frustrations that stretch back to Biden’s successful 2020 election campaign.

    “Two hard years,” Klain tweeted on Friday, marking the second anniversary of Biden’s inauguration. “So much to be done. But so much progress.”

    The impending exit of Klain follows a period where the chief of staff worked to secure Biden’s legislative priorities, including the bipartisan infrastructure bill and last year’s inflation reduction act, which was achieved following 18 months of often torturous negotiations between the White House and lawmakers, most notably Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia.

    More recently, Biden has come under scrutiny for alleged improper handling of federal documents, as well as fresh pressure from Republicans in their new majority in the House of Representatives. The new chief of staff is expected to have to mount a defense of Biden’s victories so far, as well as oversee the lead-up to a likely re-election bid by the 80-year-old president.

    Klain, who is 61, has a long record in Democratic political circles, having been involved in both of Bill Clinton’s presidential campaigns, acted as chief of staff to both Al Gore and then Biden when the men served as vice president previously. Klain, a lawyer by training, also oversaw the Obama administration’s response to an outbreak of Ebola in 2014.

    He was named as Biden’s chief of staff just a few days after the 2020 election victory was secured.



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    ( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

  • Erling Haaland, system-based teams and the role of the goalscorer | Jonathan Wilson

    Erling Haaland, system-based teams and the role of the goalscorer | Jonathan Wilson

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    Erling Haaland is a phenomenon. It’s not just that he has scored 22 goals already this season, plus a further five goals in the Champions League. It’s the sense he offers of being unstoppable: almost unbeatable for pace, almost impossible to knock off the ball and with a clinical eye for goal as well.

    His phlegmatic, almost flippant, personality makes him more terrifying. He jokes about the secret target he has set himself for this season. He is not some driven self-improver: he scores goals in record-breaking numbers seemingly because he finds it funny. He plays football like the early developer in year eight and as such finds the game almost laughably easy. In the history of the sport there has been only a tiny handful of forwards who have combined such physical and technical prowess.

    There was Bernabé Ferreyra, the Argentinian dubbed the Mortar of Rufino for the power of his shot. When River Plate signed him from Tigre for £23,000 in 1932, it was the first time the world transfer record was held by a club from outside Britain. There was the Brazilian Ronaldo, who ticked along at a goal a game even in the relatively defensive 90s before knee injuries hit his explosive acceleration. And there was Eduard Streltsov.

    Streltsov now is best known as the brilliant young Torpedo Moscow striker who was arrested on the eve of the 1958 World Cup, convicted of rape and jailed for six years before returning to win the league. His time in the gulag, and the various attempts to clear his name, understandably dominate discussion of him but his career also throws up revealing tactical issues.

    At Dynamo Kyiv the following decade, Viktor Maslov would in effect invent modern notions of pressing. His ideas had not quite reached that point when he was reappointed at Torpedo in 1957, but he was already thinking of the team as an integrated unit, aware of how a player’s actions in one part of the pitch could have profound tactical implications elsewhere.

    He acknowledged Streltsov’s immense talent but he never seemed quite as in awe of him as others were. In part that was probably because he recognised early how dangerous his wild streak could be, and seems on occasion to have lost patience with his star in the difficult months between Olympic success in 1956 and the player’s arrest. But it’s also possible to trace tactical doubts and it was only after Streltsov had been jailed that Maslov led Torpedo to their first league title in 1960.

    When Streltsov returned from the gulag, he was a different sort of player. His pace had gone and he would drop deeper. A forward who had been defined by his power began to talk about preferring shots that rolled slowly over the line to those that crashed into the net. Physically diminished, he had to learn a new way to play and to an extent he did, well enough to help Torpedo to their second Soviet title in 1965.

    But the game had changed and he could not change sufficiently to accommodate himself to this new world of systems and responsibility. Streltsov won individual awards because he still did eye-catching things (and because of the power of the narrative of the player who had returned from the gulag to resume his career) but he clearly frustrated Nikolai Morozov, part of the great Torpedo tradition of thoughtful and innovative managers who had given him his debut as a 16-year-old in 1954 and returned to the club in 1967. Notably, as national manager, Morozov made no attempt to have Streltsov cleared to play at the 1966 World Cup.

    Which is a roundabout way of saying that since football became a game of systems in the 60s, even players of profound individual gifts, physical and technical, can be detrimental to a system-based team.

    Ronaldo did not win a national league title until 2002. Ruud van Nistelrooy scored roughly two goals every three games over five seasons for Manchester United, but won just one championship in that time. Late-era Cristiano Ronaldo was top-scorer in three seasons at Juventus and one at United while making the team worse.

    There is a sense Haaland’s goals may be slowing down, although such statements are relative: with anybody else, would the 333 minutes between his goals against Everton and Tottenham have been spoken of as a drought? He remains on course to obliterate the Premier League goalscoring record for a season.

    Yet City as a whole, halfway through the season, have scored 50 goals and conceded 20; over the whole of last season they totalled 99 and 26. The addition of Haaland, the great goalscorer, has barely changed their goals per game scored stats, while apparently having an adverse effect on goals conceded.

    Cristiano Ronaldo at Juventus
    Late-era Cristiano Ronaldo was top-scorer in three seasons at Juventus and one at Manchester United while making the team worse. Photograph: Peter Powell/EPA

    And it’s not just that. Haaland had 20 touches against Manchester United last Sunday. When City beat United at Old Trafford last season, no City player had fewer than 71. Pep Guardiola’s football has always been about control through possession. Haaland demands direct early passes that run contrary to Guardiola’s inclination to build slowly to set up a base to counter a potential counter, and his lack of involvement in general play means in effect trying to establish that characteristic stifling domination of the ball with a man fewer.

    There was a moment during the second half in last Saturday’s derby when, with play stopped, Guardiola, encroaching on to the pitch, screamed at Haaland, apparently gesticulating at him to drop deeper. Haaland’s body language suggested a teenager being told to tidy his bedroom, although there were a couple of occasions when he fell back and, in the manner of Harry Kane, spun to play passes to players advancing outside him.

    Which is not to say Haaland cannot be a success at City. A tension between two opposing visions can be creative. Indeed, it may be that his incisiveness gives City the edge in the sort of European tie they habitually lose. But there is a tendency in football to over-emphasise the role of the goalscorer. Just because a striker is prolific, just because he is obviously a great player, does not mean he is making the team better.

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    ( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

  • Henry Slade shows his old class as Exeter overcome card-happy Castres

    Henry Slade shows his old class as Exeter overcome card-happy Castres

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    They claim a home tie in the final 16, but Exeter looked as off-colour in overcoming a motiveless Castres as any of the English sides who have laboured through this year’s edition. Six tries and 40 points may look comfortable enough, but Castres defied expectation to cause their hosts real problems.

    Exeter came up trumps in this one on the card lottery. Castres were shown four of them, one red, three in three minutes just before the break. In the 37th minute they were penalised by first a red, then a yellow, then a penalty try. It is a wonder they did not implode, given that reduced them to 12. That they did in the last 10 was sort of inevitable.

    Castres have as bad a reputation in this tournament as any French team who might ever have shrugged their shoulders at an away assignment and, shall we say, not tried particularly hard. All the signs were here again – nothing to play for, three losses from three with no points, and another much-changed team.

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    But they retained a spine of quality – not the least of whose components was Rory Kockott at scrum-half, the old stager called out of retirement. He rarely does things by half and led a feisty resistance from the start. An early penalty by Ben Botica, another richly experienced campaigner, gave Castres a lead, but their aggression forced Exeter into mistake after mistake, until the second quarter, when the hosts finally made one of their visits to Castres territory tell.

    Henry Slade was as guilty as any of the fumbling men in pink, but all the old class returned as he swaggered over for Exeter’s first try in the 26th minute, after Jack Innard’s mini-break. It would be an exaggeration to describe that as settling the Chiefs’ rhythm.: their fabled pick-and-go routine was repelled again and again.

    After Leinster had visited the West Country last weekend and shown at Gloucester how imaginatively the new trend for tapped penalties could be exploited, Exeter reminded us of the English way. Tap to self and charge. And do it again.

    Castres’s Feibyan Tukino is shown a red card for a high tackle.
    Castres’s Feibyan Tukino is shown a red card for a high tackle. Photograph: Ashley Crowden/JMP/Shutterstock

    All the same, the tactic eventually led to Castres’s implosion with those three cards in three minutes. Baptiste Delaporte saw yellow for the umpteenth offence in defence of the Exeter barrage, but the Chiefs could not make it tell.

    So three minutes later, Feibyan Tukino greased their wheels by becoming the latest player to see red for a high tackle (the 12th of this tournament) to reduce Castres to 13. When Exeter drove the penalty they sent to the corner, Mathieu Babillot, Castres’s captain, pulled the maul down to concede a penalty try and complete the evacuation of the visitors’ back row when he was shown yellow for his pains.

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    Courtney Lawes limped off in the 29th minute of Northampton’s  31-13 defeat to La Rochelle in the Champions Cup to put in doubt his participation in this season’s Six Nations. Lawes has been beset with injuries of late and if he is ruled out it will be a serious blow to England’s chances of a successful campaign.

    Phil Dowson, Northampton’s head coach, said: “Courtney doesn’t appear to be downbeat, he never is, but he felt he couldn’t continue. His calf tightened up, he hasn’t had an issue with it before but he will need to see the physio tomorrow and possibly have a scan so it’s fingers crossed.”

    The loss of Lawes completed a miserable afternoon for Saints, as the centre Fraser Dingwall was sent off for a high challenge just 10 minutes after Lawes had left the field and the lock Lukhan Salakaia-Loto also received a red card in the dying moments.

    The replacement hooker Quentin Lespiaucq-Brettes scored two tries for La Rochelle, Levani Botia, Ulupano Seuteni and Grégory Alldritt the others, with Antoine Hastoy kicking three conversions. Tom James scored a try for Northampton, with Fin Smith adding two penalties and a conversion. 

    Leinster advanced to the last 16 as top seeds with a runaway 36-10 win over Racing 92 at the Aviva Stadium. The Irish province’s unbeaten record looked under threat until they cut loose with unanswered tries from Hugo Keenan (52nd and 69th minute), Josh van der Flier (65th), Jimmy O’Brien (73rd) and Garry Ringrose (80th+3).

    Two tries from George McGuigan proved vital as Gloucester moved into the knockout stages with a sensational 26-17 victory at Bordeaux-Bègles. The hooker, who has been named in England’s Six Nations squad, crossed twice from driving lineouts as Gloucester completed the double over the French side to be the final qualifier from Pool A in the last 16.

    Leinster’s success ensured the eighth and final place from their group remained open and Gloucester grabbed the opportunity. As well as McGuigan Albert Tuisue also crossed while a conversion and three penalties from youngster George Barton secured them a last-16 tie against either the holders, La Rochelle, or the record winners, Toulouse, in France in April. PA Media

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    There was a feeling then that the rest of the match would be even more of a formality than expected at the start. Actually, 12-man Castres were a fingertip away from scoring a try a few minutes into the second half. Olly Woodburn aside, and occasionally Josh Hodge, Exeter remained flat, even as the clock ticked down and that bonus point unsecured.

    It should come as no surprise that they eventually took it with two more sweaty lineout-and-drive routines. The first, in the 53rd minute was touched down by Sam Simmonds, but the Chiefs had to wait until the last 10 minutes to take the fourth try – this one by penalty try again, accompanied by a fourth card for Castres, yellow for Aurelien Azar.

    Jack Nowell, quiet all match, finished sharply for Exeter’s fifth with two minutes to go, and Christ Tshiunza even more so with none to go, and Castres a 13-man rabble of exhaustion. A sprinkling of stardust, perhaps, but no one was fooled. This was hard work.

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    ( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )