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Alex Jones, who spread vile conspiracy theories about the school massacre, has been forced to sell off his assets. But it comes too late for Jeremy RichmanFrom time to time, in this job, you have the privilege of meeting an individual whose vivid spirit stays with you. For me, one of those individuals was Jeremy Richman, who was among the bereaved parents of the Sandy Hook school massacre in December 2012. I spent a humbling day with Richman seven years ago, when he talked in detail not only about his daughter Avielle - he made a point of smiling every time he said her name - but also about the work he and his wife, Jennifer Hensel, were doing in her treasured memory.Both medical research scientists, they had established a campaigning foundation to study the psychosocial factors that created mass killers, so that other people might not suffer as we were suffering". In the months afterwards, we corresponded from time to time about the progress of the foundation's research, in chatty emails. Continue reading...

The former president is likely to turn Merchan into public enemy number one in front of his supporters, sources sayDonald Trump is determined to avoid jail, but if he does get handed a prison sentence after his conviction on 34 felony counts in New York last week, the former president's inner circle is certain he will lay the blame squarely at the judge's feet, sources familiar with the matter said.The precise way Trump might blame the judge, Juan Merchan, remains unclear because Trump has been avoidant of the issue and the matter was not resolved when he huddled with his top advisers at a Trump Tower meeting immediately after the verdict on Thursday, the sources said. Continue reading...

Penny Swan defected from the rightwing group that captured the local Republican party - and she won't be voting for TrumpWhile dozens of her neighbors piled into buses bound from Michigan for the US Capitol on 6 January, 2021, Penny Swan, a local Republican party activist and an outspoken Trump supporter, stayed home. But not for lack of enthusiasm: Swan wanted to join the throngs fighting to stop the certification of the 2020 election, but has a heart condition and worried about her ability to keep up.Instead, she watched social media in awe, as her friends and neighbors surged toward the Capitol. Continue reading...

The city has one bathroom for every 8,000 residents - and they're ancient and disgusting. Can anything be done?Why is it so hard to find a public bathroom in New York? The city of over 8 million people operates a paltry 1,000 bathrooms - that's one for every 8,000 New Yorkers. Anyone running errands in one of the five boroughs who doesn't want to pay for an overpriced bottle of water in exchange for a cafe's bathroom code must brave a decades-old public toilet that might be poorly lit, out of toilet paper, or covered in ... something.Now Mayor Eric Adams has a plan ... well, sort of. In a press conference this week, Adams launched Ur In Luck (get it?), an initiative to expand access to public restrooms across all five boroughs. Continue reading...

Success of the T20 World Cup's leg in the Big Apple depends on the blockbuster between India and PakistanThere has not been a match between India and Pakistan yet that did not have plenty riding on it one way or another. The rivalry, which stretches over 59 Tests, 135 one-day internationals and 12 T20s in 75 years, is as intense as any in international sport. But this latest game between the teams is being played for strange and unfamiliarstakes.Over this past week, it has become clear the success of the entire New York leg of the T20 World Cup is going to hinge on it and that the whole multimillion dollar project, which involved the construction of an entire 34,000-seat stadium, has been organised around this fixture. Continue reading...

California-Mexico border region filled with uncertainty as migrants and aid groups grapple with abrupt changesEvery year, waves of people from around the world make their way to southern California to start a new life and find safe harbour.Along remote, isolated sections of the border between California and Mexico, many asylum seekers cross illegally, often fleeing violence or persecution in their home countries, and then surrender to border agents; migrant apprehensions in the San Diego region recently reached their highest level in decades. Continue reading...

After the deal was struck down in court in January, investors will be asked to endorse it again this weekTesla's shares are down 28% this year. It has warned of notably" slower growth as sales in its second-largest market, China, fall. A defect forced a recall of its highly anticipated latest product. The chief executive spends a lot of time at other companies or generating controversy. How do you reward him? With a record-breaking $56bn pay deal, if Tesla gets its way at its annual meeting on Thursday.Elon Musk's pay package - the largest ever granted to an executive at a US-listed company - is not based on Tesla's current, or future, performance. It was granted in 2018, and built around targets for Tesla's stock value, revenue and profitability. Continue reading...

The attack on Palestinian education, educators and cultural knowledge isn't new, but it has reached horrifying new levelsAs Palestinians were commemorating the 76thanniversary of their ongoing forced dispossession and expulsion from their native lands, known in Arabic as the Nakba, Israeli forces bombed six United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) schools in Jabalia in northern Gaza, burned one in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, and destroyed three schools and burned another in the Zaytoun neighbourhood of Gaza City.That was just the week of 15 May. According to the UN, 80% of schools have been destroyed or damaged in Gaza since 7 October 2023. This amounts to scholasticide, with the systematic destruction of Palestinian education ongoing since the Nakba. In the latest war, outlined by the international court of justice (ICJ) as plausibly genocidal, scholasticide has shifted from systematic destruction to total annihilation of education.Chandni Desai is an assistant professor at the University of Toronto who teaches in the critical studies in equity and solidarity program Continue reading...

Legislation will limit children's exposure to computer algorithmic social media feeds and protect their privacyNew York state took novel legislative steps on Friday to limit children's exposure to computer algorithmic social media feeds, passing two laws to protect children from addictive social media content and to protect their privacy.The Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (Safe) for Kids Act requires social media companies to restrict addictive feeds on their platforms for users under 18 unless parental consent is granted, and prohibits companies from sending notifications regarding addictive feeds to minors from 12.00am to 6.00am. Continue reading...

Democrats call Trump unfit to serve' on the advertisement in Las Vegas, where he's due to speak on SundayDemocrats will target Donald Trump's first full-scale campaign rally since his criminal trial with a billboard that brands him a convicted white-collar crook".The ad, paid for by the Democratic National Committee (DNC), is the latest indication that the party is ready to become more aggressive in capitalising on last month's guilty verdict in New York. Continue reading...

Israeli leftists, who argue opposition to the war is also support for Israel, are rejected by pro-Palestinians and supporters of the warAs New York's annual parade in support of Israel worked its way down Fifth Avenue on Sunday, a group of Israeli citizens shouted from the sidelines.They waved signs demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of the Israelis held by Hamas. They chanted shame" as two rightwing Israeli cabinet ministers, who have defended the killing of thousands of Palestinians civilians, passed by. Continue reading...

New research shows that severe withdrawal symptoms are far less common than thought. Depression needs treatingI have been prescribing antidepressants since 1991. Like most medications, they are imperfect tools: they have side-effects and don't work for everybody. Some patients report negative effects, or that their depression does not improve, and they may require changing to a different antidepressant. For those they do help, antidepressants undoubtedly improve depression and reduce the risk of suicide.Very rarely, in my clinical practice, do patients complain that they cannot stop their medication because of the symptoms when they try. Unpleasant physical or emotional experiences for a few days or a couple of weeks after stopping antidepressants, yes: dizziness, headache, nausea, insomnia, irritability, vivid dreams, electricity-like sensations or rapid mood swings. But patients who could not stop the antidepressant because of these symptoms? In my 33 years of clinical practice, I can recall them on the fingers of one hand.Carmine M Pariante is professor of biological psychiatry at King's College London. His research funding is provided mainly by UK and EU governments and charities. Any additional research funding from industry is publicly declared in the relevant scientific papersDo 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...

England play Australia in Barbados while the pitch in New York will give India and Pakistan something else to think aboutThe USA's stunning victory over Pakistan on Thursday has given this World Cup an upset for the ages - now it's time for the game's established giants to really bring it to life. This weekend sees two of the sport's great rivalries renewed with England playing Australia on Saturday and Pakistan, now fighting tostay in the tournament, facing India on Sunday.If the matches we have seen so far are any indication, they will be completely contrasting games, with England's in Barbados, a familiar and often high-scoring ground, and India's in the new pop-up stadium near New York, where batting has so far proved very difficult indeed. That is recognised now as the biggest game in global cricket and I expect it to be another very exciting occasion - I just hope weget a surface conducive to a good contest. Continue reading...

At a workshop in southern California, students learn a practice long associated with grizzled hunters: We feel we're giving animals a second chance'Four dead rats. Two white guinea pig carcasses. One lifeless brown rabbit. A group of women hovered tentatively over the bodies, holding scalpels.Are we slicing all the way through?" asked KC Carmela, one of the attendees, a scalpel in one hand and a rodent in the other. Like butter? Or a banana?" Continue reading...

State department of public safety shares more than 3,000 pages Friday in response to Freedom of Access Act requestsThousands of pages of Maine department of public safety documents released Friday include detailed descriptions of the chaos and carnage surrounding the state's deadliest mass shooting.Officers arrived at the two shooting scenes in Lewiston last October not knowing whether the gunman was still there, and with living and dead victims on the floors. One officer described desperate survivors screaming for help as he searched for the shooter. Continue reading...

El Paso, Texas, saw temperatures of 106F, with border patrol identifying heatstroke and dehydration' as cause of deathAt least four people have died crossing the US-Mexico border near El Paso, Texas, amid the searing heatwave gripping the south-west.Temperatures in El Paso peaked at 106F (41C) on Thursday, and some 34 million people - from the southern tip of Texas across Arizona and up into California and Nevada - were under heat alerts. Continue reading...

William Innes, 19, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in 2023 death of Annette Pershal in San DiegoA 19-year-old who fatally shot an unhoused woman with a pellet gun in southern California was sentenced to five years and eight months in state prison on Thursday.William Innes pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the killing last May of Annette Pershal, 68, who was living on the streets of San Diego and nicknamed Granny Annie". The case sparked national outrage after prosecutors reported that Innes had texted a group chat saying he was going hobo hunting". Continue reading...

Video shows Arizona Senate candidate repeating election-fraud claims at event with Confederate flag behind herThe Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake addressed supporters with a Confederate flag displayed behind her during a campaign event at a Trump merchandise store in Arizona last week, where she repeated false claims about election fraud.In footage obtained by the Guardian, Lake is seen speaking into a microphone, surrounded by a group of supporters, at the Trumped Store in Show Low, Arizona. Behind her, a Confederate battle flag and a yellow Don't Tread On Me" flag are affixed to the wall. Both flags are available for purchase on the website of Trumped Store, which sells an array of merchandise with the former president's name and likeness. Continue reading...

Dave Williams faces swift backlash from own party after email sent Monday and tweet calling for flags to be burnedThe chair of Colorado's Republican party is facing calls to resign from members of his own group after the state organization sent out an email criticizing Pride month - and later calling for rainbow-colored Pride flags to be burned.Dave Williams, who is also a representative in Colorado's legislature, has faced swift backlash from his fellow Republicans in the wake of the controversial email sent Monday. Continue reading...

Jury also acquits two others for roles in scheme to steal over $40m that was supposed to feed children during pandemicA jury convicted five Minnesota residents but acquitted two others on Friday for their roles in a scheme to steal more than $40m that was supposed to feed children during the coronavirus pandemic. The case recently received widespread attention after someone tried to bribe a juror with a bag of $120,000 in cash.That juror was dismissed before deliberations began, and a second juror who was told about the bribe attempt was also dismissed. An FBI investigation of the attempted bribe continues, with no arrests announced. Continue reading...

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Alex Choi, 24, charged with causing the placement of an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft over US stuntA YouTuber who specializes in car shenanigans" is facing federal charges after authorities said he directed a video in which two people in a helicopter blasted fireworks at a speeding Lamborghini from above.Alex Choi, 24, is charged with causing the placement of an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft, the US justice department announced on Thursday. Continue reading...

Thousands of boxes discovered in Long Beach home of Richard Siegel, 71, and Blanca Gudino, 39, in police raidAn alleged Lego thief's master plan has fallen to pieces after Los Angeles police confiscated more than 2,800 stolen sets of the popular building bricks and figures from his home.Richard Siegel, 71, and his alleged partner in crime, Blanca Gudino, 39, were paid a visit by the Los Angeles police department's (LAPD) harbor division at Siegel's home in Long Beach. The home was raided and thousands of boxes of Lego merchandise were discovered, the police said on Wednesday. Continue reading...

US president says he is prepared to accept any outcome as Naomi Biden testifies in father's defenseJoe Biden has indicated that he will not pardon his son Hunter if he is convicted at his federal gun trial, where the prosecution rested its case on Friday in Delaware and Naomi Biden took the stand in defense of her father.When the US president was asked in an interview with ABC News on Thursday if he is prepared to accept whatever outcome arises from Hunter Biden's trial, he replied: Yes." Continue reading...

Mounting deaths and regional escalation have failed to bring closer a ceasefire and the release of hostagesJoe Biden insisted it was time for this war to end and the day after to begin" as he promoted a three-phase peace deal. Hours later, Benjamin Netanyahu shot it down as a non-starter". One week on, an agreement looks as remote as ever.More than 36,700 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, says its health ministry. More Israeli hostages seized in the murderous raid by Hamas on 7 October have died. On Thursday Israel bombed a UN school in central Gaza, killing at least 33 of the thousands of displaced people sheltering there, including 12 women and children, according to witnesses and hospital records. The Israel Defense Forces said it was a precise" strike on Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters using it as a base. What is clear is that the IDF is fighting in places where it was supposed to have eliminated Hamas, while civilians are forced to return to those areas by the assault on Rafah. Continue reading...

These embattled but valiant institutions are testimony to a basic human urge to collect and share enthusiasmsHave you heard the one about the museum of cuckoo clocks that may have to be wound up unless the two brothers who founded it 34 years ago can find someone to keep it ticking when they retire? Or the Musical Museum, set up in 1963 by an electrical engineer with a passion for the history of recorded sound, where you can listen to self-playing violins, and dip into one of the world's largest collections of piano rolls? Or the UK's newest natural history museum, at whose 2022 opening the ribbon was cut with the claw of a baryonyx - a large carnivorous dinosaur? They are located respectively in Cheshire, Brentford and Sheffield.Of the 2,500 museums estimated to exist around the UK, the great national institutions take all the air, with their blockbuster shows and their rows over funding, restitution of plundered treasures and - in the case of the British Museum - alleged thefts. Scepticism about their scale and their colonising impulses goes back to their earliest days, with the writer GK Chesterton opining: The Museum is not meant either for the wanderer to see by accident or for the pilgrim to see with awe. It is meant for the mere slave of a routine of self-education to stuff himself with every sort of incongruous intellectual food in one indigestiblemeal." Continue reading...

The US president called for defence of democracy in an apparent reference to Vladimir Putin and Donald TrumpJoe Biden has said that the heroes of D-day would have wanted today's Americans to stand up to aggression abroad and at home", in what appeared to be a reference to both Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.Biden pointed to the looming threats to democracy in remarks he made at the Pointe du Hoc in France, where US Rangers scaled the cliffs in a pivotal moment in the D-day landings 80 years ago. Continue reading...

He had only to look back a few years to see his error. But today's politicians keep ignoring history, even when they've lived through itBut is it art? Could that explain Rishi Sunak's campaign - that it is, in fact, a piece of daring, innovative performance art in which the prime minister deliberately conducts himself so haplessly and with such a tin ear that it prompts us to reflect on the state of the nation? Is his future not, as most predict, wearing a zip-up fleece and making squillions in Silicon Valley, but rather as a groundbreaking conceptual artist, one who invites his audience to see 4 July less as an election day and more as the unveiling of his boldest ever installation?It's as good an explanation as any. Otherwise it's near-impossible to comprehend his decision to make an early exit from the memorial ceremonies marking the 80 anniversary of D-day, subbing in his foreign secretary to stand alongside the leaders of France, the US and Germany as they remembered those who died to free Europe from fascism. We shall fight them on the beaches, said Churchill. We shall leave them on the beaches, said Sunak. Continue reading...

The US president, Joe Biden, has apologised publicly to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, for the months of delay in American military assistance that allowed Russia to make gains on the battlefield, and announced a further $225m (177m) in aid to Ukraine. Meeting Zelenskiy in Paris on Friday, Biden told him: 'You haven't bowed down, you haven't yielded at all, you continue to fight in a way that is ... just remarkable. We are not going to walk away from you.' Biden said: 'I apologise for those weeks of not knowing' what was going to happen in terms of funding. He was referring to the uncertainty while Congress waited six months before sending a $61bn military aid package for Ukraine in April

Have you been following the big stories in tennis, football, rugby union, golf and more sports around the world? Continue reading...

Ex-president determined to destroy independence of justice department if he regains control of White HouseDonald Trump is planning an assault on the American justice system should he win re-election to the White House, in which he would seek to destroy the independence of the justice department and turn it into an attack machine for his Make American great again (Maga) movement.At the heart of his plans is the desire to impose his will on the individual prosecutorial decisions taken by the Department of Justice. The move, if successful, would end half a century of accepted practice that prevents presidents from politically interfering with specific cases. Continue reading...

Really, what can these chatbots developed by researchers at MIT teach us that Tolstoy or Lucian Freud can't?Would our youthful selves benefit from an encounter with a decrepit and raddled 60-year-old future you" to give us the push we need to live a better life? Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) think so. They are building an AI-powered chatbot using a digitally aged face and plausible synthetic memories". Future You" will tell you to eat your greens, drink less and visit your parents: The goal is to promote long-term thinking and behaviour change."On the surface, I get it. There's a swath of socio-scientific research - from the Stanford marshmallow test to Kahneman and Tversky's sunk cost fallacy" - that proves how poor we can be at planning for the future and that we constantly make illogical decisions that disadvantage us. Most of us have bird in the hand" thinking. We prefer one tangible marshmallow right now over two promised marshmallows in the future. We constantly throw good money after bad because we would rather keep hoping that one day we'll be right instead of accepting that - d'oh! - we made a mistake. We are monumental idiots. But is that really our worst trait and one that needs to be corrected by meeting smug Future You? Or is being unoptimised, plodding, self-defeating - and, er, human - perhaps the very best part of us?Viv Groskop is a comedian and author of Happy High Status: How to Be Effortlessly Confident Continue reading...

Plus: Posh Spice's parenting and the white British male love-in at the Washington PostSo much bad news around these days, but at the beginning of this week, like a shaft of pure sunlight, we heard of a nonagenarian finding love and marrying his sweetheart in a small ceremony attended only by his closest business associates and, judging by reports, none of his children. Continue reading...

It's time to resist the right's narrative of immigration as aberration. Nations thrive on it - and they always have doneThe state is an invention. It's a bureaucratic tool of governance for an arbitrarily defined landmass; an artifice made convincing through emotive storytelling. Although many countries have their long, long ago" symbolic foundation story, in truth the vast majority of them have only existed as independent constitutions for a matter of decades. We, the nationals, are the result of millennia of migrations of ancestral hunter-gatherers, herders, farmers, merchants, students, industrialists; of colonists and colonisers; of people invading, fleeing, crusading, exploring, roaming, slave-trading; uprooted for war, work, fortune and love. The dense interconnectedness of the human family, our genetic similarity, means that in terms of our biology, there are no different races. We can all claim ancestry from across the world.Nevertheless, our politics is obsessed with distinctions based on national identity. Many of the arguments against immigration rest on the idea that there is a true and pure national identity, which means some people belong" while others do not. Ethno-nationalism is particularly overt among far-right parties, even if the message has been softened from racial identity" to cultural identity", to make it more palatable. But the cord that tethers us to a particular land - our national identity - is not innate; it is based on recent or ancient migrations, or the happenstance of your mother's location at the moment of your birth.Gaia Vince is an author, journalist and broadcaster. Her latest book is Nomad CenturyDo 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...

Agricultural equipment company plans to move production out of the country in move condemned by workersUS workers at John Deere plants have accused the company of acting on greed" as America's most famous agricultural equipment company plans to shift more production to Mexico.The company - famous for its green tractors and leaping deer logo - has announced layoffs of several hundred workers over the last several months with more layoffs planned for later this year. Continue reading...

Anti-choice statutes are designed to keep health providers fearful of running afoul of the law. Women suffer for itAnyone who has lived under the control of an abusive partner or parent knows that the problem is not just what's prohibited. It's what you're unsure is prohibited. The prospect of punishment instills fear. Vagueness about what will be punished promotes caution. Just in case, the teenager doesn't hang out with certain friends. The teacher deletes the controversial book from the curriculum.The doctor decides not to perform an abortion when the patient's health or life is at risk, but, maybe, not imminently so.Judith Levine is a Brooklyn journalist and essayist, a contributing writer to the Intercept and the author of five books Continue reading...

Republicans said verdict would hurt president's standing, but data looks mostly the same with slight uptick for BidenAfter a Manhattan jury found Donald Trump guilty on 34 felony counts last week, Republicans rallied around the former president, insisting the verdict would only damage Joe Biden's standing in the presidential election.But some new polling data casts doubt upon that argument, as a small but crucial number of Americans in key voting blocs appear to be moving toward Biden in the aftermath of the verdict. Continue reading...

Unrwa's Sam Rose responds to bombing that killed at least 33 people. Plus, Griffin Dunne on his memoir

In an adapted extract from his book, the former executive director of the USWNTPA details how the 2015 World Cup winning squad used their leverage to drive changeWe're not playing, Rich. Fuck them, we're not playing. Just tell them that we're not playing. That's what I heard on 10 July 2015, on a call from Christie Rampone, the captain of the USWNT. I was the executive director of the Women's National Team Players Association, the official collective bargaining unit for the USWNT. Rampone called me five days after the USWNT's World Cup victory. While Rampone talked with me, the team were on their way from the midtown Manhattan set of Good Morning America to the beginning of the ticker tape parade in lower Manhattan's Canyon of Heroes" to celebrate their title.Just a few days earlier, on the morning after the team's World Cup victory, Sunil Gulati, the longtime president of US Soccer, called captains Abby Wambach and Rampone to tell them that the team's request for the weekend off was denied, and they were all going to be forced to play their National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) games. Continue reading...

Hockey is a crucial part of Canadian society, yet American teams reel off title after title. That doesn't mean US dominance will continueThere is a question that looms over the Edmonton Oilers as they begin the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday night against the Florida Panthers. It's been more than 30 years since a Canadian team, the Montreal Canadiens, lifted the Cup. The question is: if the Oilers don't bring the Cup home to Canada, does it matter? If American teams forever claim the Cup, can Canada at least still claim hockey's soul? The answer is complicated.Let's back up - to a different Oilers era. In August 1988, Wayne Gretzky left the Oilers, a team with which he had won four Stanley Cups in five seasons. It was a gut-wrenching exit. Gretzky famously cried during the press conference to announce his departure. And indeed, it felt to many like something more profound had changed than Gretzky's move from postcode to zip code. The deal - he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings - wasn't just huge in terms of dollar value and player numbers. It was huge for the sport. Gretzky was a superstar, and his arrival in the US - in Los Angeles, no less - launched him into the sports stratosphere, alongside Michael Jordan and Bo Jackson. The Kings owner, Bruce McNall, toured the team around the US during Greztky's first pre-season with the team, hitting what were then unconventional spots: Phoenix, Dallas, Las Vegas. At every one they were greeted by sold-out crowds. All of a sudden, hockey was big. Bigger than it had ever been. Hockey had made it in America. Continue reading...

The Celtics' itinerant 7ft 2in colossus scored 18 points in the first 13 minutes of his NBA finals debut, sparking Boston to a Game 1 win worthy of these playoffs' operatic scopeYou want Boston?" asked the mock-incredulous hype video voiced by the part-owner of Birmingham City FC, who had a decent career dabbling in the other kind of football. Take it from me," warned Tom Brady. That's a bad idea."Hard to disagree after the first game of the best-of-seven NBA finals. The Boston Celtics crushed the Dallas Mavericks, 107-89, though at its core the occasion was a tale of the unwanted. Continue reading...

I think of the fear and empty fridges in Ceausecu's Romania - and I'll be thinking of Ukraine and Georgia on 9 JuneIt's December 1989 and a young woman is sitting in a Bucharest theatre, watching a sold-out performance of Hamlet. The air is laden with danger. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark," Marcellus is about to say. Nearly 35 years later that woman, my mum, still remembers how electric the atmosphere inside the theatre was.Everyone knew exactly what the line meant, but no one uttered a peep. It was common knowledge that secret police agents were watching. Any hint of support for Marcellus's words guaranteed arrest. On that day in early December, my mum couldn't have imagined that within weeks, the Ceauescu dictatorship would be over. That we'd always have enough food in the fridge, freedom of speech, freedom of choice over our bodies, agency. That support for a line of Shakespeare wouldn't mean arrest. That we'd be free. That I'd be sitting here, writing this, to you. Continue reading...

Ex-president in Arizona warns appeal courts to step up and straighten things out' and insists he committed no crimesIn his first campaign rally after being convicted of 34 felonies, former president Donald Trump recalled how he just went through a rigged" trial with a highly conflicted" judge despite there being no crime".The court cases Trump faces have become a mainstay of his campaigning throughout the last year, where he frequently tells his followers that the charges are a form of election interference and designed to tamp down the Maga movement. Continue reading...