Author: TheGuardian

The Chicago-based poke chain has been accused of cultural appropriation, after it sent cease-and-desist letters to similarly named shops. In June, the chain opened a Third Ward location in Milwaukee to sell its Hawaiian-style raw-fish bowls. Hawaii residents have criticized a Chicago-based poke chain after it tried to stop other U.S. restaurants selling the trendy sushi bowls from using “aloha” in their business names, accusing the company of cultural appropriation. In May, lawyers for Aloha Poke Company, sent cease-and-desist letters to a native Hawaiian family business in Anchorage, Alaska, ordering it to stop using “aloha” or “aloha poke” in...

Dear NFL owners: Whew! What a tumultuous year for your league. Slipping attendance and ratings. Continuing concussion controversy. Lawsuits from cheerleaders who refuse to shut up and smile. Domestic violence accusations against players. The Papa John’s founder mouthing off about something or other. Players taking a national anthem knee (NAK, for short). President Trump’s “problematic” rambling. Commissioner Roger Goodell under siege from, well, everybody. Bet it makes you fellas long for the good old days when all you had to worry about was Janet Jackson’s nip slip. Where’s faithful Hodor when you need someone to hold the door against...

On 30 April 2019, Emperor Akihito of Japan is expected to abdicate the chrysanthemum throne. The decision was announced in December 2017 so as to ensure an orderly transition to Akihito’s son, Naruhito, but the coronation could cause concerns in an unlikely place: the technology sector. The Japanese calendar counts up from the coronation of a new emperor, using not the name of the emperor, but the name of the era they herald. Akihito’s coronation in January 1989 marked the beginning of the Heisei era, and the end of the Shōwa era that preceded him; and Naruhito’s coronation will...

“It would be so simple to stop war. You just have to say that war is no longer a good business. That’s what keeps America at war. War is our biggest business.” – John Morris, recalling a century in Photojournalism John G. Morris, who has died a year ago in Paris, France on July 28, 2017 at age of 100, was a leading figure in the photojournalism of his native United States and in his adopted homeland, France. His career included spells at Life magazine, the Washington Post, the New York Times and National Geographic, and his close association...

Plymouth, Wisconsin, styles itself as “the cheese capital of the world”. The town of 8,445 people, about an hour north of Milwaukee, was once the site of the National Cheese Exchange where cheese commodity prices were set and today about 15% of all US cheese passes through the town. Now Plymouth residents are worried they will become one of the first big victims of Donald Trump’s escalating trade war. In retaliation for his administration’s tariffs on steel and aluminium, the US’s largest trading partners, Canada, China, the EU and Mexico, have all targeted the cheese industry with regulations and...

Over a year into Donald Trump’s presidency, commentators are still trying to understand the election and the explosion of intolerance following it. One common view is that Trump’s victory was a consequence of pervasive racism in American society. Studies make clear, however, that racism has been decreasing over time, among Republicans and Democrats. (Views of immigration have also grown more favorable.) Moreover, since racism is deep-seated and longstanding, reference to it alone makes it difficult to understand the election of Barack Obama and Trump, the differences between Trump and the two previous Republican nominees on race and immigration, and...