Police clashed with protesters at Ohio State University, hours after they gathered on Thursday evening. Those who refused to leave after warnings were arrested and charged with criminal trespass, said a university spokesperson, Benjamin Johnson, citing rules barring overnight events.As the death toll mounts in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis worsens, protesters at universities across the US are demanding schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies they say are enabling the conflict. Some Jewish students say the demonstrations have veered into antisemitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus, partly prompting the calls for police intervention
As he entered the courthouse for the fourth day of testimony in his New York hush money trial, the former US president Donald Trump stopped to speak to reporters about his wife Melania's birthday and the temperature of the courtroom.
by Sam Levine in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on (#6MCCN)
Luzerne county, in the battleground state Pennsylvania, has faced high-profile mistakes like discarded ballots, and turnover. Did it pass its primary season test?
by Victoria Borlando and Hannah J Davies on (#6MC9D)
As pro-Palestinian demonstrations roil campus, the station's undergraduate reporters - working 18 hour days - have become an essential news sourceThe turning point was certainly immediate, very sudden ... We received a tip at 4am that there would be a demonstration on Columbia's campus, and pretty soon after that, we went live on air."The presenter, Georgia Dillane, is describing the moment on 17 April that student radio station WKCR was thrust into the spotlight with its quick news updates from inside the university grounds. Continue reading...
The California university cancelled Asna Tabassum's speech because of security concerns'. The real reason is cowardiceWhen Asna Tabassum, a hijab-wearing Muslim, was announced as the valedictorian for the University of Southern California class of 2024, my initial reaction was the thought of my south Asian mother saying, What are you doing? Why aren't you valedictorian?" But what followed was pride.
This is not a repeat of the Covid pandemic. Yet global governments should follow the US and prepare a responseAvian flu, or H5N1, is making headlines in the United States. The past few years have seen concerning signs of it spreading across the world - whether in chickens in Britain, sea lions in Peru, or Caspian seals in Russia. This time, it is has been confirmed in American cows, and the World Health Organization has warned that the risk of it spreading to humans is of enormous concern".While it is early days, the hypothesis is that in late 2023, a single cow was infected by coming into contact with infected birds' faeces, or having infected dead birds in its feed. This began cow-to-cow transmission, and potentially even cow-to-bird transmission. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also confirmed one human case of H5N1 in a farm worker, which could either represent cow-to-human (not seen before) or bird-to-human transmission.Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh Continue reading...
The professor on his famous 13 keys' to the White House, a method for predicting election results that's been right nine times out of 10He has been called the Nostradamus of US presidential elections. Allan Lichtman has correctly predicted the result of nine of the past 10 (and even the one that got away, in 2000, he insists was stolen from Al Gore). But now he is gearing up for perhaps his greatest challenge: Joe Biden v Donald Trump II.Lichtman is a man of parts. The history professor has been teaching at American University in Washington for half a century. He is a former North American 3,000m steeplechase champion and, at 77 - the same age as Trump - aiming to compete in the next Senior Olympics. In 1981 he appeared on the TV quizshow Tic-Tac-Dough and won $110,000 in cash and prizes. Continue reading...
Both were pilloried, but that was then. Today, one has beaten a rape conviction, the other may return as presidentAccording to his representatives, former Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein is still digesting the overturning of his rape conviction by a New York court, but they did come out to say he was cautiously excited". Cautiously excited? I'm not sure these are the words I'd alight on to paint a word-picture of a rapist. You might as well say tentatively aroused". Then again, as we're about to discuss, quite a lot of guys don't particularly have to worry about what they say or do, or how they say or do it. It's only natural that Harvey should very much want to be one of them again.Speaking of word-pictures, though, how's this for a vignette of our times? When they heard the news that Weinstein's conviction had been overturned on Thursday, a whole host of reporters happened to be looking at the exact spot in the exact New York courtroom that he'd sat in when that original judgment had been handed down. This was because they were waiting for Donald Trump to sit in it for Thursday's proceedings in his hush money trial. Mr Trump, you might recall, is in such a lot of trouble that he is the presumptive Republican nominee and current bookies' favourite to win the US presidency again, though admittedly he lags behind Weinstein on the sexual assault and misconduct front, given that only 26 women have accused him of it. Ultimately, though, I guess the question is: if #MeToo went too far", what would going just far enough" have looked like? Continue reading...
Germany's complicity with Turkey's repressive regime worries me more than its doner diplomacyNazis eat doner kebabs in secret," must be one of the dumbest slogans I have seen at German protests against the far right. Yes, the popularity of the kebab in Germany has become something of a symbol of labour migration from Turkey after the second world war. And yes, Nazis get hungry, too. So what? If the consumption of ethnic-minority food was really an obstacle to the ideology of white supremacy, Germans would either be starved out by now or they wouldn't vote for Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD). Neither of these is the case: the kebab is the second most popular fast food among Germans, and according to polls, the AfD their second most popular political party.Still, for the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, it seems to be a sign of cosmopolitanism to promote kebab eating, so his team thought it a good idea to send him to Turkey with a whole skewer full of meat as part of an official visit this week, the first by a German president in 10 years. Continue reading...
New York appeals court has thrown out 2020 conviction, but disgraced movie mogul is staying jailed from separate rape conviction. Plus, scheme launched for reparations to Ukrainian sexual violence survivors
Coastal elites' feel the pinch of fast-food price hikes too. Plus: Liz Truss bars Guardian journalists from book launch. LolDonald Trump's appearance in criminal court on Monday has raised many questions, constitutional and otherwise, but on the evidence of the first day I find myself most curious about the former president's McDonald's order. During jury selection last week, the Daily Mail reported on a $700 (560) McDonald's order put in by Trump staffers that included 27 orders of fries, 27 quarter pounders, a bunch of nuggets and no drinks. A McDonald's employee complained anonymously that they didn't leave a tip - in line with everyone who eats at McDonald's - but still. Continue reading...
His viral TikToks of his generic 9-5 life in a Texas suburb have become a Rorschach test of sortsConnor Hubbard might be the most boring man on the internet. The 29-year-old dresses like a generic white guy, lives in a nice but unremarkable house in the Dallas, Texas, suburbs and works a 9-5 in insurance. He lives for" his morning coffee and loves going to the gym after work and watching TV in the evening. He is perfectly happy with his mundane existence - which includes a wife, a dog and a baby on the way - and does not aspire to anything more. The internet is obsessed with him.Every few months one of Hubbard's slice-of-an-ordinary-life videos goes viral eliciting extreme reactions. A Rorschach test of sorts, half of the viewers seem to think his world is morbidly depressing (what is the point of even living?" one person asked), while the other half thinks it is hugely aspirational. Under the comment section of the latest video to go viral, people are having heated debates about whether the man is a role model or a cautionary tale. Continue reading...
The indictment details the steps to push the concept of alternate electors in an alleged effort to overturn Biden's victoryThe indictment against the slate of fake electors in Arizona and the Trump allies who advanced the scheme there includes a host of public statements and private exchanges that show how the group intended to overturn the state's electoral votes for Joe Biden in 2020.Arizona's Democratic attorney general Kris Mayes announced Wednesday that a state grand jury charged the 11 false electors and seven others with nine felony counts of fraud, forgery and conspiracy. The indictment from Mayes' office is sure to be a talking point in this year's elections , nearly four years after the acts themselves occurred. Continue reading...
As support for abortion even in states as red as Kentucky and Kansas grows, the GOP appears to be breaking ranks with the hardlinersIn the two years since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, the 50-year-long partnership between Republicans and anti-abortion activists has steadily fractured as political backlash to abortion bans has mounted. But perhaps the biggest crack emerged on Wednesday, when Arizona's Republican-controlled state legislature moved to repeal the state's 1864 near-total abortion ban.After days of national outcry over an Arizona supreme court ruling that upheld the 1864 ban, passed before Arizona became a state, three Republicans in the state house broke ranks to vote with Democrats to support a repeal. Last week, two Republicans in the state senate also voted with Democrats to advance a similar repeal. As long as those Republican votes hold firm, Democrats will likely send the repeal to Arizona's Democratic governor in May. Continue reading...
by Timothy Pratt in Atlanta, Maya Yang in New York an on (#6MBPP)
Multiple arrests at crackdown on Emory University campus encampment focused on Palestine and Cop CityPolice have carried out multiple violent arrests at Emory University in Decatur, Georgia, in what appears to be the first campus crackdown in recent days to involve rubber bullets and teargas after students set up an encampment in solidarity with Palestine and against Cop City.On Thursday, Emory students set up multiple tents on the campus's lawns in protest against the university's ties to Israel, as well Atlanta's Cop City, a police and fire department training center that is being constructed on a 171-acre plot in a forest south-east of Atlanta. Continue reading...
Victims and their families are at their wits' end. We owe it to them to throw everything at this national crisisIt's happening again.Another run of alleged domestic violence homicides has horrified the nation, and the media is again searching for answers. Continue reading...
Jose Andres, founder of organisation, told mourners gathered at Washington National Cathedral how the loss of his staff should inspire us to do better'The seven World Central Kitchen aid workers killed by Israeli airstrikes represented the best of humanity" and risked everything to feed people they did not know and will never meet," Jose Andres, the celebrity chef who founded the organisation, told mourners on Thursday.Speaking at Washington National Cathedral to those gathered to honour the aid workers, Andres said there was no excuse for the killings and renewed calls for an investigation into the deaths. Continue reading...
Move made after more than 90 demonstrators arrested on campus and university cancels pro-Palestinian valedictorian's speechThe University of Southern California (USC) has canceled its main stage graduation ceremony, citing new safety measures as student protests over the Israel-Gaza war have surged on the campus.USC is one of many campuses across the country that have become hubs for student demonstrations against the war, with hundreds of arrests nationwide as tensions escalate. Police arrested dozens of students and activists at USC this week on trespassing charges. Continue reading...
Oral arguments over former president's claim of immunity seem to have left Trump happier than the justice departmentWell," said one reporter to another as they left the supreme court chamber, sometime after noon on Thursday. Looks like we're getting a king."Notwithstanding a certain mordant hyperbole on a momentous day in American history, the sentiment seemed within bounds. Continue reading...
Dazhon Darien impersonated high school principal in Maryland in clip that quickly spread on social media, police sayA high school athletic director in Maryland has been charged with using artificial intelligence to impersonate a principal on an audio recording that included racist and antisemitic comments, authorities said on Thursday.Dazhon Darien faked the voice of Pikesville high school's principal in January following conversations that Darien's contract would not be renewed, according to charging documents filed by Baltimore county police. Continue reading...
Court ruled last month that Crystal Mason, initially sentenced to five years in prison, did not know she was ineligible to vote in 2016A Texas prosecutor will appeal against a court ruling tossing out a five-year prison sentence for a woman who unintentionally tried to vote while ineligible in the 2016 election, an unexpected move that continues one of the most closely watched voting prosecutions in the US.Last month, the second court of appeals, which is based in Fort Worth, threw out the 2018 conviction of Crystal Mason, a Black woman who submitted a provisional ballot in 2016 that ultimately went uncounted. Mason was on supervised release for a federal felony at the time she voted and has said she had no idea she was ineligible. The panel said prosecutors had failed to prove Mason actually knew she was ineligible. Continue reading...
Republican Mike Johnson accused of wilfully spreading misinformation' and inciting violence' after CNN interviewProgressive activists have condemned Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House of Representatives, for willfully spreading misinformation" and inciting violence" in a TV interview about student protests against Israel's war in Gaza.Johnson, who was booed and heckled during a press conference at Columbia University on Wednesday, when he said Hamas backed" the protests in a CNN interview. There is no evidence Hamas has had any role in the student protests, though the organization has praised the demonstration. The Republican went on to make sweeping, incendiary claims: Some of these students apparently are unaware of the atrocities of October 7 or they're denying it. Continue reading...
by Ramon Antonio Vargas in New Orleans on (#6MBG7)
A judge approved the warrant in investigation to determine if church hierarchy illegally covered up systemic child molestationLouisiana state police went into the office of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans on Thursday to begin the process of collecting records from the organization spanning the history of its decades-old clerical abuse scandal, as troopers investigate whether the local church hierarchy illegally covered up systemic child molestation.Troopers arrived at the archdiocese's headquarters at about 9.45am local time three days after a state court judge signed a search warrant authorizing them to take the entirety of the documents in question.In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit its website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International Continue reading...
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators are calling on universities to sell investments in companies they say are complicit in war in GazaAs protests against Israel's offensive in Gaza are spreading throughout American campuses, one demand made by students across schools keeps coming up: divestment from Israel.Universities rely on endowments to fund things like research and scholarships, and those endowments are typically invested in companies and alternative asset classes, such as private equity and hedge funds. Continue reading...
Just before oral arguments at the supreme court finished, liberal justice Ketanji Brown Jackson asked lawyer for special counsel about implications of court dramatically expanding presidential immunityIn an exchange with attorney John Sauer, conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett signaled she thought Donald Trump could still face trial on some election interference charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith, even if the supreme court agrees with his claims of immunity.So, you concede that private acts don't get immunity?" Barrett asked.He urges us even if we ... assume that there was some sort of immunity for official acts, that there were sufficient private acts in the indictment ... for the case to go back and the trial to begin immediately. And I want to know if you agree or disagree about the characterization of these acts. Continue reading...
The overcrowded city is leading the way with a tax on day trippers. Surely other great European destinations should follow suitVenice has had enough. It is sinking beneath the twin assaults of tourism and the sea and believes the answer lies in fending off visitors by charging them to enter. It is not alone. Tourism is under attack. Seville is charging for entry to the central Plaza de Espana. In Paris, the Mona Lisa is so besieged by flashing phones she is about to be banished to a basement. Barcelona graffiti shout, Tourists go home, refugees welcome." Amsterdam wants no more coach parties, nor does Rome.The Venice payment will be complicated. It will apply at specific entry points only to day trippers to the city centre, not hotel guests. It will be a mere five euros and confined to peak times of day over the summer. This will hardly cover the cost of running it. It is a political gesture that is unlikely to stem the tourist flow round the Rialto and St Mark's Square, let alone leave more room for Venetians to enjoy their city undisturbed by mobs.Simon Jenkins 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...
Students react to school's invitation to president to speak while authorities crack down on campus protests across USMorehouse College, a nearly 160-year-old historically Black college in Atlanta, announced on Tuesday that Joe Biden will be the keynote speaker for its commencement ceremony in May. Though Morehouse initially extended the invitation in September, Biden's acceptance comes after a tumultuous week for the president, in which college students across the nation have engaged in sustained anti-war protests in solidarity with Palestine.The Guardian spoke to Morehouse students who criticized the school's decision to host Biden, and others who had mixed feelings about the upcoming address. Continue reading...
While other comedians spend more time complaining than cracking jokes, the former Late Show host remains gloriously unhinged and hilariousWith every advance in human technology comes an advance in weird new emotional situations. For example, the Germans should invent a word for the specific drop in the stomach that occurs when you open X to see a celebrity you like trending globally. No one 20 years ago could ever have imagined this specific feeling. Depending on the person, my brain leaps to conclusions. If it's an older person, I worry they've carked it. If it's Sydney Sweeney, I assume her breasts are up to something again (existing). And if it's a comedian I've loved since childhood, I assume they've been cancelled for doing something shitty (due to patterns).A few weeks ago, I got a Tower of Terror-size gut drop when I saw Conan O'Brien, one of my biggest comedy heroes, trending. Luckily I didn't need to worry. He had gone viral for his appearance on the YouTube show Hot Ones, where a celebrity is interviewed while eating progressively hotter wings. Conan had given a completely unhinged and hilarious performance, including rubbing hot sauce on his nipples. In a sentence I'd never thought I'd say, thank God it was just more breasts discourse. Continue reading...
by Richard Luscombe, Maya Yang, Dani Anguiano, Gabrie on (#6MANF)
At least 93 students detained at USC and 34 arrested in Austin while House speaker faced jeers at Columbia UniversityMore than 100 people were arrested at Emerson College in Boston early on Thursday in the latest crackdown against the rising wave of campus pro-Palestinian protests across the US that has seen the House speaker, Mike Johnson, suggest calling in the national guard.Johnson waded into an already tense situation on Wednesday with a visit to Columbia University, where the decision last week of the university president, Minouche Shafik, to invite the NYPD to dismantle a student encampment catalysed what is rapidly becoming a national movement. Johnson nevertheless called for the resignation of Shafik, facing jeers on campus from the pro-Palestinian protesters. Continue reading...
Before dying earlier this month, Larry Webb confessed to killing Susan Carter and her child and burying their bodies in his yardA man confessed to killing a 10-year-old girl and her mother on his deathbed, closing a 24-year-old cold case in Beckley, West Virginia.After the confession, officials found remains believed to be those of Susan and Natasha Alex" Carter, her daughter, in Beckley on Monday. Continue reading...
Today, we remember the 1974 Carnation Revolution. But as memories of dictatorship fade, anti-democratic forces are on the riseFifty years ago, on 25 April 1974, a military-led movement in Portugal took down the rightwing authoritarian regime that had governed the country for 41 years. The Carnation Revolution, named after the flowers people offered soldiers on the streets, led the country to democracy and an era of immense social progress - reducing infant mortality and illiteracy rates, for example, which were comparatively very high in 1974. By 1986, Portugal had made enough strides to be able to join the European Communities, now the EU.I was born in the early 1990s, but even in my generation 25 April is a hallowed anniversary for many. Growing up as a teenager interested in politics generated a strong emotional attachment to a national holiday centred on the celebration of political freedom. Continue reading...
The Republican House speaker visited Columbia University as another 80 people arrested at colleges in Austin and LA. Plus, Arizona indicts Trump allies over fake elector' scheme
The safety and security of Palestinians and Jews are interdependent, so we should use language carefullyIn reporting on the encampments springing up on college campuses across the US, the media seem to have convened a terminology confab and agreed on two descriptions: pro-Palestinian" and anti-Israel". These labels oversimplify Americans' opinions on Israel's onslaught against Gaza, which marked its 200th day on Tuesday with no end in sight. But the error is worse than semantic.Universities Struggle as Pro-Palestinian Demonstrations Grow," says the New York Times. Colleges Struggle to Contain Intensifying Pro-Palestinian Protests," reports the Wall Street Journal. In Minneapolis, the Star Tribune has the local news that the University of Minnesota police arrest nine after pro-Palestinian encampment set up on campus". Some publications less shy about displaying their political biases take the opposite tack. A headline in the right-leaning New York Post, for instance, exaggerated the literally incendiary nature of the demonstrators' tactics: Anti-Israel protesters carry flares to march on NYPD HQ after over 130 arrested at NYU." The accompanying video is cast in red. Ever evenhanded, CBS does both: Pro-Palestinian, pro-Israel protesters gather outside Columbia University."Judith Levine is a Brooklyn journalist and essayist, a contributing writer to the Intercept and the author of five books Continue reading...
Idaho's law requires doctors to treat pregnant women's health as disposable - and the loss of their lives as an acceptable riskThe risk of stating plainly what Idaho argued at the US supreme court on Wednesday morning is that it is so sadistic and extreme that people might not believe you. Idaho has one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country. Prohibiting all abortions at any stage of gestation, with no exceptions for rape or incest, the Idaho law allows doctors to perform abortions in cases where the life - but not merely" the health - of the pregnant woman is at risk.In practice, this has wound up being a ban on abortions needed to save women's lives: according to Idaho hospitals, six pregnant women experiencing medical emergencies have had to be airlifted across state lines to hospitals in states with life and health exemptions in the months since Idaho began enforcing its abortion ban. One way to describe this state of affairs is to say that Idaho's abortion law has come into conflict with medical best practice. Another way to describe it is to say that the law has forced pregnant women to flee the state for their lives.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
With her husband on trial over hush money payments - and desperate for cash - the ex-first lady isn't worried about opticsIf your husband was a legally adjudicated sexual predator who cheated on you with an adult film star shortly after you gave birth to his son, and then allegedly paid her hush money to cover it up in an attempt to illegally influence the 2016 election, and then went on trial for those hush money payments, while also facing a litany of other criminal charges, what do you think you would do?In Melania Trump's case, the answer seems to be: ignore all that hoo-ha and sell a $245 necklace to celebrate Mother's Day. On Sunday, the notably un-effusive first lady announced that she had designed the Her Love & Gratitude' necklace to express immense gratitude and honor all mothers". The necklace features a flower pendant made of gold vermeil (sterling silver with a solid gold plate) and can include a custom engraving. Best of all, every purchase comes with a limited-edition digital NFT collectible that is minted on the Solana blockchain. Just what every mother wants! Continue reading...
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