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Sex on mushrooms has heightened my sensitivity and helped me be more present and relaxed

Republicans double down on conspiracy theories after conviction of president's son. Plus: the new forms of toxic masculinity dominating social media Don't already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.Hunter Biden was found guilty Tuesday on three felony counts relating to buying a handgun while being a user of crack cocaine. He now faces up to 25 years in prison, though such a sentence would be highly unusual given that he is a first-time offender.How has Joe Biden responded? The president has previously said he would not pardon his son if he was convicted. On Tuesday, he said: I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal." He went on to deliver a gun-safety speech just hours after the verdict.Did Hunter Biden have his family's support during the trial? Even as Joe Biden's presidential campaign and the White House attempted to distance themselves from the case, Hunter's family and close friends attended the trial en masse to show their support. The first lady, Jill Biden, was seated in the Delaware courtroom behind her stepson for the first three days of the trial until leaving to attend a D-day commemoration ceremony in France. Continue reading...

Ex-president notched minor win in classified-documents case - but is already seeing ramifications of felony conviction

Brad Willis' MurderETC helped uncover the identity of Oscar James Nedd, who was killed in South CarolinaAs the producer of a true crime podcast mainly focused on a decades-old double murder, Brad Willis has had plenty of experience with dramatic and compelling storytelling.But Willis got the chance to be the story himself this week, when a sheriff in South Carolina whose office has been reinvestigating a 1975 killing publicly credited Willis' show with helping deputies finally identify the victim. Continue reading...

New study reveals number of people potentially affected by Republican efforts to prevent non-citizen voting'Nearly one in 10 eligible voters lack easy access to documents to prove their citizenship, according to a new survey, underscoring how Republican efforts to purportedly prevent non-citizens from voting could disenfranchise millions.If asked to quickly locate a passport, birth certificate, or naturalization papers to produce proof of citizenship tomorrow, more than 21m Americans - about 9% of eligible voters - would not be able to, according to the survey, conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice, VoteRiders, Public Wise, and the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement (CDCE) at the University of Maryland. Nearly 4 million American citizens - 2% in total - lack access to any form of proof in citizenship. Continue reading...

A bar in Idaho has gone viral for launching a Heterosexual Awesomeness Month. Unfortunately, it's a familiar wheezeSpare a thought for the poor heterosexual: a wretched creature, shunned and marginalised despite living in a world built around their lifestyle choices. This oppressed majority has, finally, found an ally in the form of a bar in Idaho called Old State Saloon, which recently went viral for celebrating Heterosexual Awesomeness Month". On Mondays in June, any heterosexual male dressed like a heterosexual male will receive a free draft beer" and on Wednesdays heterosexual couples get 15% off their bill".If this exhausting joke sounds a little familiar, it's because these sorts of shenanigans happen every single Pride month. Some wag with a chip on their shoulder will decide that it's unfair that the gays get a whole month to themselves and will launch something to increase awareness of heterosexual people. In 2011, for example, a Brazilian politician tried to get the city of Sao Paulo to establish a Heterosexual Pride Day. That didn't end up passing but, in 2019, Boston held a Straight Pride Parade. A few hundred Trump supporters marched with signs bearing slogans such as Straight lives matter".Do 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...

El Paso mayor says order will save lives' but advocates express concern over heat and exploitation by criminalsThe sun blazed relentlessly on the border terrain of New Mexico, with Texas directly to the east and Mexico directly to the south, revealing inhospitable desert covered with poignant reminders of the human journey.Discarded water bottles, worn-out shoes and torn clothes scattered on Mexican soil along the towering US fence serve as silent witnesses to the passage of those who traverse this harsh land, heading north in search of a better life. Continue reading...

The world No 1 arrives at Pinehurst on a run of form rarely seen in golf. It has left his rivals shaking their heads with a mix of admiration and resignationHow do you solve a problem like Scottie Scheffler, the world's top-ranked golfer who enters the 124th playing of the US Open on a head of steam not seen on the men's tour for many years? To ask Rory McIlroy, the Louisville Metro Police Department were on the right track.The only thing that took him from winning a golf tournament was going into a jail cell for an hour," the Northern Irishman said with a smile on Tuesday at the Pinehurst Resort in the sand hills of North Carolina, where the year's third major gets under way in two days. It seems like every time he shows up, he is the guy to beat, and deservedly so." Continue reading...

Far-right gains have left liberals and Greens reeling - but despite differences, their interest lies in banding togetherFor Europe's centre-left, it was the night from hell. Liberals and Greens took a beating in many countries and lost dozens of seats as nationalist and Eurosceptic parties grabbed nearly a quarter of the seats in the European parliament. The centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D) slipped just below their existing total thanks to unexpectedly strong scores in Italy and Spain.Worse still, France, the EU's pivotal power, saw the biggest far-right gains. That prompted President Emmanuel Macron to call a high-risk snap election that could clear the way for Marine Le Pen's anti-immigration National Rally to sweep into government within a month.Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre Continue reading...

Congresswoman leads by 29 points, surviving McCarthy's grudge after she voted to oust ex-House speaker last yearThe South Carolina congresswoman Nancy Mace easily survived a primary challenge on Tuesday, against Kevin McCarthy-backed Catherine Templeton, while a much closer than expected special election in Ohio offered warning signs for Republicans ahead of November.In Ohio's sixth district, candidate Michael Rulli prevailed in the special election to replace fellow Republican Bill Johnson, who resigned from Congress in January. Rulli's victory will help expand his party's razor-thin majority in the House, but his nine-point win over Democratic contender Michael Kripchak may unnerve Republicans, given that Donald Trump carried the district by 29 points in 2020. Continue reading...

Lawyers say improper procedures call for new trials for Holmes, who has an 11-year sentence, and Sunny BalwaniLawyers for Elizabeth Holmes, founder of failed blood testing company Theranos, urged judges in a federal appeals court on Tuesday to overturn the fraud conviction that earned her an 11-year prison sentence.In an appeal hearing for both Holmes and company president Ramesh Sunny" Balwani, lawyers argued improper procedures and evidence in both cases warrant new trials. Continue reading...

New York representative and fellow Democrat Jamie Raskin sought to connect the dots' between dark money and courtThe US supreme court has been captured and corrupted by money and extremism", provoking a crisis of legitimacy" that threatens the stability of American democracy, warned the representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.Speaking during a round table on Capitol Hill, the New York Democrat accused the court of delegitimizing itself through its conduct". Continue reading...

David Hosier, who maintained innocence in 2009 murders of Angela and Rodney Gilpin, pronounced dead at 6.11pmMissouri executed a man on death row on Tuesday night, the state's second lethal injection carried out this year.David Hosier, 69, was pronounced dead at 6.11pm following a single-dose injection of the sedative pentobarbital at the state prison in Bonne Terre, said Missouri corrections department spokeswoman Karen Pojmann via text message. Continue reading...

President sought to rally support around issue but speech was briefly interrupted by pro-Palestinian protestersJoe Biden, facing a backlash from young voters over the war in Gaza, sought to rally support around the issue of gun safety just hours after his son Hunter was convicted of lying about his drug use to illegally buy a firearm.Contrasting his record with election rival Donald Trump, the US president brought an audience that included many students to its feet at the Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund's annual Gun Sense University conference in Washington on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Thousands of academic workers returned to the job after weeks-long strike and vowed more actions to comeThousands of University of California academic workers who went on strike across six campuses protesting administrators' response to pro-Palestinian protests returned to the job on Monday under court order, but their union vowed more protests to come.An Orange county superior court judge late on Friday granted a temporary restraining order sought by the university, which asserted that the walkout stemmed from non-labor issues and that it violated the no-strike clause in the union's contract. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. You can read our full report on Hunter Biden's conviction here:

Group, known as Florida Freedom Fund, launched in May and will also be involved in school board racesThe Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, has launched a political action committee that is targeting popular ballot amendments on abortion access and marijuana legalization that will be voted on in November.The group, known as the Florida Freedom Fund, launched in May, Politico first reported. The committee is chaired by James Uthmeier, DeSantis's chief of staff who was previously the Republican's campaign manager during his unsuccessful presidential primary run. Continue reading...

Police say all four victims conscious and alert after attack at Peachtree Center, and suspect believed to be one of the fourFour people were shot at a food court in downtown Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon, including the initial shooter, the city's mayor said.Mayor Andre Dickens said on X that the shooting happened at the Peachtree Center food court. Continue reading...

Rightwing politicians repeat unfounded theories that gun trial verdict is a distraction' from worse Biden crimesRepublicans responded to Hunter Biden's conviction on Tuesday of lying about his drug use to buy a gun by doubling down on conspiracy theories that many senior party figures have been using to try and damage his president father.Despite the fact that Joe Biden's son could now face a hefty jail sentence, Donald Trump's election campaign and its surrogates repeated unfounded attack lines that the conviction was part of a conspiracy to deflect attention from more serious crimes and represented the use of the Department of Justice (DoJ) as a political weapon. Continue reading...

Rescue helicopter hoists man to top of cliff after a private helicopter spots sign in remote area and alerts authoritiesA kite surfer was rescued after using rocks to spell out the word help" when he became stranded on a northern California beach last weekend, authorities said.The kite surfer got stuck Sunday on a narrow beach at the base of towering bluffs with the tide coming in, according to the California department of forestry and fire protection's Santa Cruz unit. Continue reading...

President sees greatest popularity in the Philippines, Kenya and Poland, and least popularity in Tunisia and TurkeyA new Pew Research survey has found that Joe Biden's global perception is generally favorable - but most abroad disapprove of how the president has handled Israel's war in Gaza.According to survey results released on Tuesday, a median of 43% across 34 countries have confidence in Biden to do the right thing" regarding world affairs. However, a median of 57% across 34 countries disapprove of Biden's approach to the war in the Middle East, where, according to estimates, Israeli forces have killed more than 37,000 Palestinians in Gaza in response to the 7 October attack by Hamas that killed 1,200 Israelis and took hostages. Continue reading...

The Harvard and Columbia journals trampled free expression in a rush to suppress a human-rights lawyer's writing on IsraelOn a normal day, the Columbia Law Review's website is not a feast for the eyes. What it lacks in visual appeal, it makes up for with a panoply of articles and student notes addressing a range of legal issues. But for much of last week, the website displayed just a single line: Website is under maintenance."One would be forgiven for envisioning a shiny new website on the horizon. But these four words were a lie. There was no maintenance.Erika Lopez is a recent graduate of Columbia Law School, where she was an editor and DEI chair of the Columbia Law ReviewTascha Shahriari-Parsa is a recent graduate of Harvard Law School, where he was an editor and online chair of the Harvard Law Review Continue reading...

The conviction of peaceful pro-democracy activists is another shameful moment in the ongoing crackdownSeven years ago, Lord Neuberger, a judge of the HongKong court of final appeal - and formerly president of the UK's supreme court - described the Chinese region's foreign judges as canaries in the mine". Their willingness to serve was a sign that judicial independence remained healthy, but if they start to leave in droves, that would represent aseriousalarm call".That was before the extraordinary uprising in 2019 to defend Hong Kong's autonomy, and the crackdown that followed. The draconian national security law of 2020 prompted the resignation of an Australian judge, and two British judges quit in 2022. Last week, two more birds flew: Lord Sumption and Lord Collins of Mapesbury. Lord Sumption (with other judges) had said that continued participation was in the interests of the people of Hong Kong. Now he says that those hopes of sustaining the rule of law are no longer realistic" and that a [once] vibrant and politically diverse community is slowly becoming a totalitarian state". He cited illiberal legislation, Beijing's ability to reverse decisions by Hong Kong courts and an oppressive political environment where judges are urged to demonstrate patriotism". Continue reading...

The pickleball floodgates opened fast and they opened wide - I found a community, a sense of purpose and belongingTwo months in and I'm addicted, riding the pickleball wave and hooked on the feeling.At 54, I'm generally a self-proclaimed hot mess" thanks to menopause - AKA my surly sidekick who snuck up out of nowhere, hit me like a runaway train, and left me creaky and cranky but too tired to shoot up a flare. Truth be told, I hit a wall and I wasn't embracing the change" with open arms (more like tightly coiled fists). Mood swings, hot flashes and weight gain (why the hell is it all in my midsection?) - all the usual suspects. Not to mention that it's nearly impossible to meet new people these days (especially single and in my 50s) when we work remotely, shop online and drink at home. And don't get me started with online dating.Shanti L Nelson is a writer and photographer Continue reading...

US supreme court justice and wife, Martha-Ann Alito, made unguarded comments to film-maker posing as conservativeSamuel Alito, the US supreme justice at the center of a flag controversy that has called his impartiality into question, has said one side of the US's bitter left v right ideological conflicts has to prevail, in secretly recorded remarks that are likely to exacerbate concerns about judicial neutrality.In unguarded comments made to a film-maker posing as a conservative, Alito - one of the court's most conservative justices - also agreed with the assertion that the US had to be returned to a place of godliness". Continue reading...

Independent federal monitor launches inquiry into United Auto Workers chief Shawn FainShawn Fain, the president of United Auto Workers, is under investigation by an independent federal monitor over allegations of retaliation against other union leaders, according to a court filing on Monday.Neil Barofsky, the union's monitor, opened an investigation in February to review allegations, including one from the UAW secretary-treasurer, Margaret Mock, saying she had faced retaliation for her refusal or reluctance to authorize certain expenditures for Fain's office, according to the filing. Barofsky also opened a probe into Mock's actions. Continue reading...

What nobody tells you about sport, when you're exercise-agnostic, is that it contains pleasures that have nothing to do with being active

Former Trump attorney denies having regrets about his role trying to overturn the 2020 election resultAfter emerging on Monday from having his mug shot taken in connection with the fake 2020 electors case pending against him in Arizona, Rudy Giuliani boasted about having no regrets over his actions that led to the criminal charges against him.I'm very, very proud of it," the former Donald Trump attorney and ex-mayor of New York City said as he left the state courthouse where he was processed on Monday. Continue reading...

Case is related to the purchase of a firearm that prosecutors say was made while president's son was addicted to drugsJurors will resume deliberations on Tuesday in the criminal case against Hunter Biden over a gun he bought in 2018 when prosecutors say he was in the throes of a crack cocaine addiction.Jurors deliberated for less than an hour on Monday afternoon before leaving the federal courthouse in Delaware. They're weighing whether Joe Biden's son is guilty of three felonies in the case pitting him against his father's justice department in the middle of the Democratic president's re-election campaign. Continue reading...

Decrease in violent crime accompanied by a major drop in murders and reported rapes, but many in US still believe crime rate is higherViolent crime in the US dropped by 15% in the first three months of the year, new figures have shown, the latest evidence in a broader decline of crime across the country that has occurred over the past year.The decrease in violent crime, from January to March compared to the same period in 2023, has been accompanied by a major drop in murders and reported rapes, which both fell by more than a quarter in the first three months of 2024, according to the new quarterly data released by the FBI. Continue reading...

Trust is essential for a healthy, functional society. What happens when it's lost? Continue reading...

From Putin to China, the continent faces dramatic challenges - a rightward lurch leaves the union less able to protect its peopleThe European election results both confirmed and invalidated a widely expected rightwing surge. But what does this mean for Europe's place in the world at a time when Putin has the upper hand in Ukraine, war in the Middle East shows no sign of ending, Trump is a threat on the US electoral horizon and China is throwing its weight around?The far-right surge was felt most acutely in Europe's two largest countries. If you glance at the electoral maps of France and Germany, they are stunning. Marine Le Pen's National Rally's victory on the map of France is ubiquitous; in the latter, the east-west cleavage is as deep as ever, with the far-right AfD tightening its grip on eastern Germany. In other European countries, such as Italy and Austria, the far right also topped the polls.Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian Europe columnist Continue reading...

My true crime obsession led me to spend countless hours and thousands of dollars investigating a missing persons case. I didn't crack it. But I nearly cracked under the pressureAdmit it: you have listened to so many true crime podcasts that you think you could solve a murder.That was how I felt, anyway. Several years ago, when true crime was at its peak, I developed a severe case of an affliction blighting millennial women around the world: amateur detective syndrome. I had immersed myself in so many murder mysteries that I figured it couldn't be that hard to investigate one. I have written about the ethics of true crime, but I didn't think much about the ethics of my decision to embark on a true crime crusade. I just wanted to find a juicy story. Continue reading...

Statement backing hostages-for-ceasefire deal described as hopeful sign' by US. Plus: Mexico's anti-avocado militias

Fake populists like Elise Stefanik (Harvard '06) and Josh Hawley (Yale '06) attack higher ed to protect corporations and the richMore than a third of Harvard's graduating seniors are heading into finance or management consulting - two professions notable for how quickly their practitioners make a bag", or make money, reports the New York Times.Similar percentages show up in other prestigious universities.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His newest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

From crisps, to screens, to nits, there's nothing that can't be weaponised by a sufficiently motivated mother or fatherWhen our kids are small, parents flex at each other over things such as food (crisps or not?), toys (wooden or plastic?), screens (none or loads?) - we'll compete over anything. The toddlers don't notice; they're too busy squabbling over every resource that isn't infinite. That's why everyone in this bracket always looks so tired. Then they all pretend it's because they didn't get enough sleep.There's a really long mid-childhood period where the hierarchy of parental excellence can be measured using only one metric: does your kid have nits? No way, does your kid still have nits? Continue reading...

Jared Huffman sounds alarm over extremist manifesto for second Trump term produced by Heritage FoundationThe blueprint for a potential second Donald Trump presidency known as Project 25 would take a wrecking ball" to America's democratic norms and institutions, a leading Democrat has warned.Representative Jared Huffman spoke to the Guardian ahead of the launch of a congressional working group designed to sound the alarm about the rightwing roadmap and ensure that Trump never has the chance to implement its extreme agenda. Continue reading...

Ex-prosecutors and historians warn that Republicans' parroting of ex-president's wild allegations of political bias could erode trust and lead to violenceDonald Trump is posing new threats to prosecutors, judges and the rule of law in the US by ratcheting up vitriolic attacks on the American legal system, which many Republican allies and far-right media are loudly echoing, ex-prosecutors and historians said.Fears are growing that Trump's conspiratorial screeds on his Truth Social site and interviews on rightwing media falsely charging that his conviction in the New York hush-money case was rigged" and a scam", are eroding trust in the US justice system and could precipitate violence, pre- or post-election. Continue reading...

Although we can't be complacent about digital interference in our democracy, this new wave of hysteria is not the answerSixteen days before the Brexit referendum, and only two days before the deadline to apply to cast a ballot, the IT system for voter registrations collapsed. The remain and leave campaigns were forced to agree a 48-hour registration extension. Around the same time, evidence was beginning to emerge of a major Russian hack-and-leak" operation targeting the US presidential election. Inevitably, questions arose as to whether the Russians had successfully disrupted the Brexit vote.The truth was more embarrassingly simple. A comprehensive technical investigation, supported by the National Cyber Security Centre - which I headed at the time - set out in detail what had happened. A TV debate on Brexit had generated unexpected interest. Applications spiked to double those projected. The website couldn't cope and crashed. There was no sign of any hostile activity.Ciaran Martin is a professor at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, and a former chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre Continue reading...

The American has seen the best players brought down during his career among chess's elite. And he does not necessarily see losing as a bad thingAs college and high school commencement speakers counsel the next generation, how about this advice? Embrace defeat.This doesn't mean playing to lose, but rather, if and when you lose, seek to learn from the experience in hopes of improving in the future. This approach has been adopted by NBA greats past and present, from Kobe Bryant to Giannis Antetokounmpo - as well as by American chess grandmaster Maurice Ashley, who writes about it in his new book, Move by Move: Life Lessons On and Off the Chessboard. Continue reading...

The ugly rhetoric of the Tories and Reform obscures a simple truth: most voters understand the need for foreign workersThere's turmoil in the EU as the far right advances. Macron risks all, trusting that people vote in protest for the remote EU parliament, but vote for real governments at home. After all, we sent Nigel Farage to fart rude taunts and abuse at MEPs for 20 years until Brexit, and he got nowhere much in the UK.But Britain, with a resurgent Labour party set to sweep in, is on a reverse path. Our own hard-right wing, in the form of Farage's Reform party, may relegate the Conservatives to third place in votes, and the sideshow battles between the rump right will be a fascinating farrago. But the future is all with Labour and how it governs.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

FBI chief condemns Peltier, 79, who denies killing agents on Pine Ridge reservation in 1975, as remorseless killer'Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist who has served nearly 50 years in prison for the killing of two FBI agents, was due to have his first parole hearing since 2009 on Monday, his lawyer said.Peltier, 79, has maintained that he did not kill the FBI special agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams in 1975 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Advocates, including figures such as the late Nelson Mandela and a former prosecutor and judge involved in his case, have long said he should be freed because of what they call legal irregularities in his trial. Continue reading...

Ex-president talks to officials via video call from Florida, with lawyer, in arrangement some called special treatmentDonald Trump was interviewed by New York probation officials on Monday, a required step before his July sentencing in his criminal hush-money case, the Associated Press reported.Trump, who declined to testify at the trial, appeared for the probation interview by video conference from his residence at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, with his lawyer Todd Blanche by his side. The arrangement garnered complaints of special treatment, but city officials contend that is not the case. Continue reading...