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Selecting a fourth Conservative prime minister in two years would make this country even more of a laughing stockThe threat facing Rishi Sunak on Friday has been clearly signalled for months. Disastrous Conservative performances in this week's local and mayoral English contests - the last significant test of the political mood before the general election - could open the window of opportunity for his party to topple his leadership. Before a single local election vote had been cast, it was clear that a minority of MPs were determined to attempt this. Mr Sunak has known for months that this is a moment of vulnerability.It is not yet clear whether the Conservatives' results are sufficiently dire to trigger a more widespread revolt. The votes have not even all been counted yet. But this will not deter the prime minister's committed opponents. Talk of MPs submitting letters to the chair of the backbench 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, demanding a confidence vote will grow predictably loud over the weekend. Whether a confidence vote will actually happen remains a question for the future. Continue reading...

Biden campaign spokesman says Trump's unwillingness to commit to election results reveals his campaign for revenge and retribution reigns supreme'Joe Biden spoke for just three minutes before wrapping up.Just after he finished, a reporter asked if the protests would make him reconsider any of his Middle East policies. Continue reading...

Kristen Clarke also tells CNN she was once arrested for expunged offense, sparking calls from rightwingers for her resignationA top US justice department official revealed Wednesday that she is a survivor of domestic abuse and was once arrested for an expunged offense, which has sparked calls for her resignation among rightwing politicians and commentators.Kristen Clarke, who leads the justice department's civil rights division, told CNN in a statement that she had been subjected to years-long abuse and domestic violence at the hands of my ex-husband" nearly 20 years ago. Continue reading...

Workers removed remnants of the Gaza encampment while pieces of plywood painted with We love you Gaza' lay aboutAt the University of California in Los Angeles on Thursday morning, staff were picking up the pieces after two nights of violence that shocked the urban campus.A loader heaved the remnants of the Gaza protest encampment that law enforcement had forcefully cleared early in the morning, into a large grey dumpster. Pieces of plywood spray-painted with We love you Gaza" and ACAB" (all cops are bastards") still lay about. Continue reading...

Protest encampments have been set up on more than 80 campuses across the US over the Israel-Gaza war, with unrest flaring at some after police moved in to clear out protesters

A visual guide to the protest movement and the police responseThe war in Gaza has unleashed the biggest outpouring of US student activism since the anti-racism protests of 2020.Tent encampments of pro-Palestinian protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies that support the war have spread across campuses nationwide. Ensuing police crackdowns have led to hundreds of arrests. Continue reading...

British golfer who was No 1 in Europe in the 1970s and compiled one of the finest records in the Ryder CupIn the gap during the 1970s between the pre-eminence of Tony Jacklin and the emergence of Nick Faldo, Peter Oosterhuis, who has died aged 75, was Britain's best and most successful golfer. He was No 1 in Europe for four consecutive years and compiled one of the finest records in the Ryder Cup, winning an unusually high percentage of his matches during an era when the US exercised total dominance. He was also a trailblazer in the States, where he became one of the first Europeans to commit full-time to the tour there, joining in 1975 and staying until 1986. Later he carved out a successful second career as a golf analyst for the American broadcaster CBS.In all, Oosterhuis won 20 tournaments across the world, including the Italian Open (1974) and two French Opens (1973 and 1974). He dominated the newly formed European tour from 1971 to 1974, ending up as leader of theOrder of Merit in each of thoseyears. Continue reading...

A 90,000 sell-out is expected for third visit to Florida and organisers believe the US fanbase is here to stayAs Formula One prepares for its first meeting of the year in the United States it is Miami, the party town, that will host the latest in what has been a series of season-opening celebrations by Max Verstappen. Yet the Dutchman's dominance does not faze race organisers in Florida, who are convinced of the continued growth of the popularity of F1 in the United States.F1 is here for the third time and is one of the meetings F1's owners, Liberty Media, wanted to promote when they took over the sport. An event" race in a destination city; a racing Super Bowl, an extravaganza where the show, the spectacle and the experience was considered as vital as the cars on the track. Inevitably, the very idea put the hackles up of diehards in Europe but F1 has room for a spot of showbiz alongside the stately classics. Continue reading...

Former president repeats lies about 2020 election loss in interview after Wisconsin rallyThe White House just announced that Joe Biden will imminently deliver remarks, but the topic was not specified.The speech was not previously scheduled. We will let you know what the president has to say. Continue reading...

Dog lover' South Dakota governor said 14-month-old hound was extremely dangerous' but failed to mention slowly killing a goatKristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota whose chance of being Donald Trump's presidential running mate was widely deemed over after she published a description of shooting dead a dog and a goat, claimed reports of the story were fake news" but also that the dog in question, Cricket, a 14-month-old wirehaired pointer, was extremely dangerous" and deserved her fate.You know how the fake news works," Noem told Fox News. They leave out some or most of the facts of a story, they put the worst spin on it. And that's what's happened in this case. Continue reading...

Useful idiots keep parroting provably false Israeli talking points. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me ...The Italians having a proverb," wrote the 17th century British courtier Anthony Weldon, He that deceives me once, its his fault; but if twice, its my fault.'"Today, we commonly summarize that old Italian proverb as: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."Timeline on repeat: Israel commits massacreMehdi Hasan is the editor-in-chief of Zeteo and a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Keith Davidson is expected back on stand on Thursday; judge Juan Merchan will hold hearing on further claims Trump violated gag order

Fitness company's sales boomed during the Covid pandemic as gyms closed but sales collapsed as the world reopenedBarry McCarthy has stepped down as CEO of Peloton, the company said on Thursday, as it decided to cut 15% of its workforce to tackle a post-pandemic slump in demand for its connected fitness equipment.In a note, McCarthy said: Hard as the decision has been to make additional headcount cuts, Peloton simply had no other way to bring its spending in line with its revenue." Continue reading...

Slow response from authorities left students shocked as people wearing white masks attacked pro-Palestine protestersWhen Meghna Nair, a second-year student at the University of California, Los Angeles, saw a masked group of people headed toward the pro-Palestine encampment on campus late on Tuesday evening, she expected trouble.I knew where they were going. I had an idea what they planned to do," she said. I didn't know what to do." Continue reading...

More than a thousand supporters at a pro-Palestine encampment in California face arrest by police, a day after it was attacked by pro-Israel counter-protesters

Flashbangs could be heard as police moved in on a pro-Palestinian demonstrators' encampment on the UCLA campus. The overnight law enforcement effort came after officers spent hours threatening arrests over loudspeakers if people did not disperse

Miguel Angel Luna Gonzalez was one of six construction workers killed when a container ship collided with bridge in MarchThe body of a fifth victim in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, has been recovered.Miguel Angel Luna Gonzalez was identified as the victim, per Unified Command salvage teams. The group, which is a joint effort by police, the coast guard and other government agencies, had reported one of their construction vehicles missing when the bridge collapsed in March and notified the Maryland department of state police, per ABC News. Continue reading...

LeBron James and JJ Redick's podcast contains in-depth basketball analysis - and plenty of oenophilia. They're not the only ones around the leagueLeBron James could have chosen anything as a hobby to shepherd him into early middle age. He could have started collecting vintage cars or investing in startups or flying planes; he could have gotten into Texas-style barbecue and joined the massed ranks of American males who index their self-esteem to the quality of their smoke rings; he could have launched an alt-coin; he could have become a Roman Empire guy, a pizza geek, an amateur rancher, or a whisky bore. Instead he has developed a passion for wine. Nowhere is that passion on fuller display than in Mind the Game, James's new show with JJ Redick, which sees this colossus of the boards dissect - in sometimes bewilderingly wonkish detail - the great plays and tactical trends of modern basketball while pouring a series of fabulously expensive wines for the pair's on-screen delectation.James, of course, is the perennial adult of American sport, an athlete who had the body of a man when he was still a boy and arrived in the NBA with all the elements of his mature game - the vision, the piano hands, the speed in transition and bulging power through the paint - seemingly already perfected. So it makes a rough kind of sense that he's chosen scholarly, contemplative, grown-up oenophilia - the most responsible form of adult irresponsibility, a pastime that educates while it intoxicates - as the signature off-court diversion of his twilight years in the NBA. The king of the court is now the king of the wine influencers. Continue reading...

Appliance manufacturers think they've made the world a better place by automating their online help service. They couldn't be more wrongFrom where I'm sitting at this moment I can order some groceries to be brought to my door in a matter of hours. I can get anything from a cup of coffee to a three-course meal delivered within minutes. In terms of personal services that I could summon at a moment's notice - well, put it like this, I wish I hadn't checked. I can buy almost anything I want from anywhere in the world for delivery at a set time. Big things and small. Big white things, for example, such as dishwashers, washing machines and tumble dryers. A couple of clicks and they'll be on their way, not a problem. Easy. But should my brand new dishwasher, washing machine or tumble dryer require a repair of some sort, that's a different story. At this point, time seems to slow down like the drum at the end of a spin cycle.If I may write the most boring sentence I've ever written, my new condenser tumble dryer worked fine but didn't seem to be collecting any water. An unnerving, unsettling state of affairs, I'm sure you'll agree. I went to the manufacturer's website and gave the chatbot short shrift by demanding contact with a human, who then materialised. This human, if it was a human, proved to be of limited use. During the early exchanges in this live chat tennis I felt as if I got across the nature of my problem quite clearly. Not so. At the conclusion of the opening rally, the human put me completely off my stroke by asking me what kind of machine I was talking about. I checked. I'd told them that. A dryer. Then the human asked me what it said in the manual about my problem. So I gave up on this human and asked for another, more competent human. And at this point, of course, if you set aside the infernal modern madness of chatbots' livechats and whatnot, we essentially return to the last century. Continue reading...

College under federal investigation after students with Palestinian and Muslim ancestry allege hostile environment', Guardian learnsThe US government has opened an investigation into Emory University's alleged discrimination against students with Palestinian, Muslim or Arab ancestry since 7 October, the Guardian has exclusively learned.The US education department notified the Council on American Islamic Relations, Georgia, or Cair-GA, and Palestine Legal, a national organization, on Tuesday that it would be investigating claims made in an 18-page complaint filed on 5 April on behalf of students at the university in Atlanta, Georgia, under title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Continue reading...

Some say the public bragging of the formerly obscure governor of South Dakota ends her chances. But with Trump, who can say?There is a familiar moment in Republican electoral politics when an obscure politician thrust into the limelight during election season comes under intense public scrutiny and is found to be not quite as first impressions suggested. This was Sarah Palin in 2008, or Ben Carson in 2016, and the inflection point is the moment at which the supposedly promising new face shades into what Mitch McConnell once delicately referred to as the Republicans' candidate quality problem". Or, as most of us know it colloquially, the moment we realise: oh, this person is unhinged.So it was last week for Kristi Noem, the formerly obscure governor of South Dakota, propelled into the big time as a possible running mate for Donald Trump, and who at first glance appeared appalling in all the ordinary ways. The 52-year-old, who was elected to the governorship in 2018, echoes the Republican party's hardline positions on abortion, immigration and offshore drilling in ways indistinguishable from the rest of the VP field. She is telegenic, charismatic, reliably rightwing, and, according to her forthcoming memoir No Going Back: The Truth on What's Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward, also killed her 14-month-old puppy, Cricket.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Hundreds of law enforcement officers massed on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles after darkness fell in preparation to clear out a pro-Palestinian protest camp attacked the night before by pro-Israel supporters. Protesters at UCLA have been told to disperse or face arrest. Throughout the evening, hundreds rallied to the campus in support of the protesters

After major police raids on universities in New York and Los Angeles, students continue to demonstrate against the war in Gaza Continue reading...

Nine photojournalists from across the US tell the stories behind their most powerful shots, as pro-Palestinian protesters face police crackdownsAs protests in support of Palestine sweep university campuses across the US, student journalists from New York to Texas have documented the reality inside the encampments. They have risen to the occasion, capturing the quiet moments, the celebratory elements, the tense scenes and the violent police arrests.We asked nine photographers - who have been covering the demonstrations at Columbia, Berkeley, the University of Texas and beyond - to tell the stories behind their most powerful photos. Continue reading...

Donald Trump opened the floodgates and bigoted attacks from the right became a new normal. It's been a sorry spectacleMayoral elections can seem set apart from the main drag of politics. People vote for individuals and their records, it's not outlandish to stand as an independent, and even candidates within a party can float above it. It would be unusual, for example, to think I can't stand Rishi Sunak" (wait! That's not the unusual bit) therefore I won't vote for Andy Street". But even though they stand alone, paradoxically, you can see a huge amount about the bigger picture, globally as well as nationally, from these purportedly local ballots.Sadiq Khan has pretty unusual international name recognition for a city mayor, and the reason - no offence to him, his Hopper bus fares are good too - is that he has been the focus of racist and Islamophobic outbursts ever since Donald Trump called him a stone cold loser" when the then-US president visited London in 2019.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

In Germany the AfD uses second-generation members to overhaul its xenophobic image - some buy into the messageLike many here in Germany, my home country, I have been following the rise of the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland obsessively, expecting it to dominate the state elections in eastern Germany this September: polls put it ahead in all three states that are set to vote. Imagine Reform UK winning the north of England by promising to target and deport refugees and immigrants. It feels threatening to people like me.I guess my alarm is no surprise, given that I come from a Vietnamese family. But I have been shocked to learn that even immigrant Germans are considering voting for the AfD. There are no numbers on this yet, but still, I cannot help but feel a personal sense of disappointment. How can people like me side with them?Khue Phm is a German journalist and writer. Her debut novel, Brothers and Ghosts, which is inspired by her Vietnamese family, has just been released Continue reading...

Arizona lawmakers have repealed the state's 160-year-old statute banning nearly all abortions. The repeal was passed by the Senate in a 16-14 vote and is expected to be quickly signed by Governor Katie Hobbs, a Democrat. Two Republican senators crossed party lines to vote in favour of repealing the ban.

At 19, Malinin is the only person in history to land a quadruple axel - a four-and-a-half-revolution jump - in competition, and he thinks he can go further. Will his incredible athleticism revive a tarnished sport?I always try to be a gamechanger or innovator," says Ilia Malinin, the American prodigy who has cut a swathe through the world of figure skating. In March in Montreal, the 19-year-old roared to his first world championship with a star-making long programme set to music from the TV show Succession. It was immediately hailed as the greatest athletic display in the sport's history.Malinin became the second person ever to land six quadruple jumps in a single programme, and the first to do it with a quadruple axel, the heart-stopping four-and-a-half-revolution jump that had never been landed in competition until he came along. Skating with verve and pace to the lumbering strings, dissonant piano chords and swaggering 808s of Nicholas Britell's crowd-pleasing score, he won the sport's biggest competition outside the Olympics with a record-shattering free-skate score more than 24 points clear of his closest rival. Continue reading...

Los Angeles mayor calls late-night attack by counter-demonstrators abhorrent' as footage shows people wielding sticks

On a day off from his criminal trial, the ex-president hit the campaign trail - and ran through his familiar litany of falsehoods and complaintsAt a remote rural airport in Michigan, an outsized plane touched down as music from Tom Cruise's film Top Gun boomed from loudspeakers. Late afternoon sunshine gleamed off five giant golden letters on the plane's side - TRUMP" - and its Rolls Royce engines. A crowd bedecked in red roared as the plane rolled to a standstill behind a blue TRUMP" lectern.A door opened and men in dark glasses and dark suits from what Donald Trump would call central casting" made their way down the stairs. Trump! Trump!" the audience chanted, raising hundreds of camera phones in eager anticipation. Great Balls of Fire, Macho Man and YMCA blared. Finally, the former and would-be future president emerged, clapping and fist pumping to the sound of whoops and cheers and Lee Greenwood's God Bless the USA. Continue reading...

Authorities described the student as a juvenile male but did not provide further identification or specifics pending an investigationWisconsin police shot and killed a student whom officials say came to a local middle school with a gun. The student never got into the school, but as a precaution the entire district was put on a lockdown late Wednesday morning.Students have since been reunited with their parents, some of whom waited up to five hours for their children to be dropped at a bus storage center in Mount Horeb, a village about 20 miles south-west of Madison, the state capital, according to WMTV 15 news. Continue reading...

So far, 2024 has been a busy year for animal escapes. From a sauntering circus elephant in Montana to huskies breaking out of a pet cafe in Shenzhen, here are five times animals went on the run

We're now closing this blog - but you can follow all the latest news and reaction from campus protests across the US in our new live blog:

Focus of rally went beyond immigration, to fear of authoritarianism, as Trump held campaign event nearbyLed by a mariachi band, hundreds of demonstrators on Wednesday morning marched across Milwaukee to the Fiserv Forum - the home of the Milwaukee Bucks and, in July, the venue of the Republican national convention.The rally, organized by the immigrant and workers' rights group Voces de la Frontera, is an annual event, but in 2024 it holds particular weight. The focus of the rally extended beyond immigration, to fear of authoritarianism under Republican candidate Donald Trump and critique of Joe Biden's handling of the US role in Israel and Gaza. Continue reading...

Democrats pick up support of two Republicans to repeal law reinstated three weeks ago, with governor expected to ratify repealArizona lawmakers have repealed the state's 160-year-old statute banning nearly all abortions.The 1864 law, which was reinstated by the state supreme court three weeks ago, has made abortion a central focus in the battleground state and galvanized Democrats seeking to enshrine abortion rights. Continue reading...

Bill to use language by International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance to define antisemitism, which critics say would chill speechThe US House of Representatives has voted to pass an antisemitism awareness bill, a controversial measure sponsored by a New York Republican amid controversy over pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses in Manhattan and across the US, as Israel's war with Hamas drags on.The bill passed 320-91 with some bipartisan support. Continue reading...

Manhattan's district attorney, Alvin Bragg, said that approximately 280 people were arrested between protests at Columbia University and Cuny. 'There were approximately 280 total arrest from these two events,' Bragg confirmed during Wednesday's press conference.New York police stormed Columbia University and City College of New York on Tuesday, evicting students from both campuses. Large-scale student protests have broken out across US universities, opposing Israel's war on Gaza and calling on their institutions to sever ties with Israeli institutions. Bragg added: 'We will look carefully at each individual case on our docket and make decisions based on the facts and the law'

State supreme court last month cleared the way for the awful' ban, but also allowed November ballot measure for abortionA six-week abortion ban went into effect on Wednesday in Florida, cutting off access to the procedure before many people know they are pregnant and leveling the south-eastern United States' last stronghold for abortion rights.The ban went into force weeks after Florida's state supreme court issued a decision clearing the way for it to take effect. Strict bans now blanket all of the American deep south, increasing the strain on the country's remaining clinics. The closest clinic for most Floridians past six weeks of pregnancy is now several states away in North Carolina, which outlaws abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy. Continue reading...

The US secretary of state has said the US continues to oppose an Israeli offensive on Rafah without a plan to protect civilians. More than a million Palestinians have taken refuge from Israel's assault in the city in southern Gaza. Speaking at the end of a lengthy trip to the Middle East, Antony Blinken also urged Hamas to accept the current offer for a ceasefire

Tensions continue after night of unrest at UCLA and Columbia, as New York mayor blames outside agitators' for escalation

Fed announces it will keep interest rates at 5.25% to 5.5% as rate of inflation remains above target of 2%The Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that it is holding interest rates steady at 5.25% to 5.5%, their highest level in two decades, as inflation continues to dog the US economy.Though some had hoped the Fed would soon cut interest rates, which are at their highest level since 2007, the annual rate of inflation has stubbornly remained above 3%. The Fed's target rate is 2%. Continue reading...

The pandemic accelerated the shift away from notes and coins. But China and others are realising that transition has a priceOne of the idiosyncrasies of China's huge appetite for luxury goods has been the high sales of man bags - a niche item in the west. Their popularity initially reflected not just the fondness of the newly rich for conspicuous consumption, but also the practical need to carry large wodges of banknotes in a country that hadn't truly embraced credit cards. Early last decade, it was unremarkable to pay a quarter's rent or buy a car in cash.Yet even vegetable sellers in small markets, or people begging on the streets, now use QR codes. By 2020, 98% of people in a survey said they most commonly paid using smartphone apps. The advantage, for the consumer, is convenience. For the authorities it offers not only efficiency but oversight, in a country which is battling corruption and which closely surveils its citizens. Beijing has also been promoting a digital yuan" developed by its central bank. Continue reading...

Away from the back-and-forth of the campaign trail, thousands of students are taking part in pro-Palestinian encampment-style protests at more than 50 university campuses across the US

A day with some blind and partially sighted walkers has shown me how much I barely notice - and how hard it is to find the right wordsHow many shades of green are there? Whatever the answer may be, I soon ran out of words to describe them. I was walking north along the Grand Union canal, trying and failing to adequately describe what I could see, to a friend who couldn't. This was Dave Heeley, ultra-runner, who in 2008 became the first blind person to run seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. Today we were walking rather than running - which, with me guiding him, was just as well.I had guided a blind adventurer once before when I took part in the television series Pilgrimage. One of my fellow pilgrims was the remarkable Amar Latif. We were high up on the side of a deep, lush valley in eastern Serbia. I was focused on the trickiness of the path itself, but Amar kept asking me to describe the vista. I looked down that valley at the mountains in the distance and simply didn't know how or where to start. I had a bash, as there was plainly plenty of material to work with, but didn't feel I had done justice to the richness of that scene.Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Extremist's bid to remove House speaker appears certain to fail as Democratic leaders indicate they will table or kill motion

Rejection by three-judge panel fuels new uncertainty about district boundaries as state prepares for congressional electionsA new congressional map giving Louisiana a second majority-Black House district was rejected on Tuesday by a panel of three federal judges, fueling new uncertainty about district boundaries as the state prepares for fall congressional elections.The 2-1 ruling forbids the use of a map drawn up in January by the legislature after a different federal judge blocked a map from 2022. The earlier map maintained a single Black-majority district and five mostly white districts, in a state with a population that is about one-third Black. Continue reading...

The European hospital is crammed with severely injured and dying children - a military offensive here will be catastrophic