John Steinbeck’s hometown of Salinas is the least affordable city in the US for the middle class, a recent Brookings Institution analysis found

Nestled between two mountain ranges at the crook of central California’s coastline sits a valley known as the “salad bowl of the world”.

Farm workers stoop over neatly lined rows of crops off Highway 101 to harvest more than half of the nation’s supply of lettuce and nearly a third of its strawberries. The soil here is so rich that author John Steinbeck made the Salinas valley the promised land in his literary depictions of people chasing the American dream: immigrants, farm workers, westward-moving hopefuls, hungering for a better life.

The popular Twitch streamer has been vilified by Republicans, but the socialist commentator has a large audience that some Democrats have courted

It’s only 9am and the latest media shitstorm is well under way. Hasan Piker scrolls through his social media feeds as he comes down the stairs of his home in West Hollywood.

An interview with Axios, in which Piker said the US had committed more atrocities than al-Qaida, is blowing up his phone. Requests from reporters are streaming in. Comments on the interview flood his replies.