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Summer Lee, Pennsylvania's first Black congresswoman, has expanded her base on the left. Her primary is a test case in a year progressive candidates face a challenge from pro-Israel fundsThe US representative Summer Lee greeted a cheering crowd of a couple of hundred supporters at the Pittsburgh teachers' union headquarters on Sunday, with two days left until her Democratic primary.Lee, who made history in 2022 when she became the first Black woman elected to Congress from Pennsylvania, predicted that voters would send a resounding message on Tuesday about the resilience of the progressive movement. To underscore that point, Lee was joined at the rally by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, another member of the progressive Squad" in the House. Continue reading...

Former chief Middle East correspondent was longest-held western hostage of Shia Muslim groups during crisisTerry Anderson, a US journalist who was held captive by Islamist militants for almost seven years in Lebanon and came to symbolise the plight of western hostages during the country's 1975-90 civil war, has died aged 76, his daughter said.The former chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press, who was the longest-held hostage of the scores of westerners abducted in Lebanon, died on Sunday at his home in Greenwood Lake, New York, said Sulome Anderson, who was born three months after her father was seized. No cause of death was given. Continue reading...

The never-ending commitment took its toll on my creativity and my mental health. Having a baby was the last strawI was one of the first people in the UK to make YouTube videos about sex and relationships. I started in 2011 when I was 19 years old. But at the end of last year, I made one of the hardest decisions of my life. After 12 years as a creator, I quit.This decision was something that had been building up for years but it wasn't until I had my baby in 2022 that things really changed for me, and I knew I could no longer just sit and wait for either burnout or social media irrelevance" to take me. I wanted to be in the driver's seat for any major changes to my life and career rather than just feeling like things were happening to me. Deciding to quit the thing I was known for was a gruelling and soul-searching process, but it was absolutely the right thing to do.Hannah Witton is an author and broadcaster Continue reading...

My family's kibbutz was devastated. After 200 dark days, we need to expand our compassion, to recognise each other's painPassover has an intensity I have always cherished. I love the sense of community, family, tradition, inclusivity and togetherness. We mark it with a ceremonial meal - the Seder - with rituals, special foods and a communal reading of the story of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt. In London, we invite a joyous array of guests, Jewish and not Jewish, and find creative ways to interpret the story of the path to freedom.Each year we are encouraged to reflect: In each and every generation a person is obliged to regard himself as if he had come out of Egypt." This line from the Haggadah asks us to empathise with the freed Hebrew slaves, to put ourselves in their shoes. It is the thread that binds our generation to all those who came before us. Continue reading...

In Kyiv, I saw life under Russian aerial attack. If Europe doesn't share its air defence systems now, Putin's threat will only spreadThe value of an effective air defence system and of unwavering international support was crystal clear the night of Iran's massive attack on Israel: most Iranian missiles and drones were destroyed before they reached Israeli soil. The US, the UK and France, as well as Jordan, participated in Israel's defence.I arrived in Kyiv the following day. The contrast between the two emergencies could not be starker. Unlike Israel, Ukraine lacks sufficient air defences, and the west provides far less than it could or should to defend Ukraine against Russia. Ukraine is not dealing with one-off retaliation for striking a Russian consulate - as Israel is with Iran. Russia has been waging a war of aggression against Ukraine since 2014, aimed at eradicating its nationhood.Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian Europe 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...

Our shabby domestic reality is a far cry from the imperial grandeur of the Foreign Office. Politicians must recognise thisDeciding on what the UK's place in the world should be has been like watching politicians spin a wheel. Then spinning it again when the option they landed on doesn't work out. First, it was the imperial power projections of Brexit, the reassertion of Britain's place in the world unshackled by the limitations of equal partnership with Europe. You don't hear so much about this any more (funny that). Instead, we now find ourselves in an era chastened by the embarrassing bombast of the past few years, but still trying to work out where we fit", what our role is, in a world where the country's status has taken a beating.Earlier this month, former diplomats proposed that the Foreign Office be abolished altogether and be replaced by a new Department for International Affairs. As it stands, the Foreign Office works like a giant private office for the foreign secretary" and should be replaced by a new independent institution, one less rooted in the past". The new body they propose would be a more modern place. The colonial art would go, and with it, other outdated ways of working and thinking about foreign policy. Continue reading...

Proposed fast-track' law could see conservation concerns ignored and projects once rejected for environmental reasons given the green lightNew Zealand's parliament is considering a law that would allow major development projects to bypass environmental approvals - and that should be a cause for extreme alarm.The proposed Fast-track Approvals Bill emerged from the coalition agreements that enabled a centre-right government to form after last year's election.Nicola Wheen and Andrew Geddis are professors of law at the University of Otago. Continue reading...

Far-right representative says Mike Johnson's speakership is over' but has not followed through on threat to try to remove himRepublican infighting over the US House finally approving $61bn in military aid for Ukraine continued to roil the party on Sunday as the far-right representative Marjorie Taylor Greene renewed attacks on the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson.Johnson had betrayed his party and was working for the Democrats, and his speakership was over", the Georgia representative said, although it was not clear if and when Greene would file a motion to try to remove him, which she has threatened to do in recent weeks. Continue reading...

From the Bryan Mbeumo Show to penalty shouts at Goodison, we hand out honors (and dishonors) from the top-flight weekendIf a player scores three goals, they walk away with the match ball. What do they get if they give away three penalties? The referee's whistle? Continue reading...

The radical right is set to dominate forthcoming European elections. Progressives need a fresh start and a new approachThe political signals coming from France are ominous. According to one poll last week, Marine Le Pen's National Rally party (RN) has increased its lead to a runaway 15 points ahead of June's European elections. For Emmanuel Macron, who pledged to use the French presidency to halt the rise of the far right, all indicators point to a humiliating defeat that would overshadow the remainder of his second term. But ahead of what will surely be the most important presidential election for a generation, in 2027, the numbers also send a powerful message to France's perennially divided left.Add up support for the four main progressive parties, which are running separate European campaigns, and their combined share of the vote comes within touching distance of the RN. The recent default setting in French politics has been a choice between Mr Macron's technocratic centrism and the nationalist, xenophobic right - which has benefited from the disappearance of industrial life that had sustained workers' participation in the political left. But manifestly, the space for a viable alternative is there. The difficulty lies in finding a way to occupyitsuccessfully. Continue reading...

Ukrainian president urges Senate to ratify aid package so that country can strengthen frontline with RussiaUkraine's president has said the vote by the US House of Representatives to pass a long-delayed $61bn (49bn) military aid package demonstrated that his country would not be abandoned by the west in its effort to fight the Russian invasion.Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview with US television that Saturday's vote showed Ukraine would not be a second Afghanistan", whose pro-western government collapsed during an US-led pullout in the summer of 2021. Continue reading...

The CDC also announced it is looking into nationwide reports of harmful reactions after injections from unlicensed individualsHealth officials in New York City are the latest in the US to warn against Botox injections from non-medical providers.In a statement released on Friday, the New York City health department pointed to emerging reports of botulism-like illness as a result of botulinum toxin injections, commonly referred to as Botox. Botulism is a rare but serious disease caused by the same toxin found in the injections that attacks the body's nerve cells, in turn causing muscle paralysis, difficulty breathing and, at times, death. Continue reading...

I want a spiritual role model who would have understood how to avert a meltdown at school pickup. So who are the women spiritual leaders?Sometimes I think the entire point of religion is to help men behave more like women.Members of a religious community are supposed to get along with each other, even if they don't like each other. But women don't need religious rules to teach them social graces. From birth, we are socialised to prioritise the needs of the collective above our own. Continue reading...

Brother and sister, ages five and eight, killed as woman drives 25ft into a building, sheriff saysA young brother and sister died and several people were injured, some of them seriously, when a vehicle driven by a suspected drunken driver crashed into a young child's birthday party on Saturday at a boat club, according to a Michigan sheriff.An eight-year-old girl and her five-year-old brother died at the scene, when a 66-year-old woman crashed 25ft into the building at about 3pm at the Swan Creek Boat Club in Berlin Township, about 30 miles (48km) south of Detroit, the Monroe county sheriff, Troy Goodnough, said. Continue reading...

If I'm not stressed out by these modern dilemmas, then trust me, you needn't be eitherI don't like to blow my own trumpet but I'm really good at worrying. If a family member fails to answer my message within 30 seconds, they're definitely dead. Every name I forget means I've got Alzheimer's disease; every brown envelope is a court summons for a crime I've forgotten doing (because of Alzheimer's disease); every Do you have time for a quick chat?" is a cataclysm about to detonate, destroying my life. I've long wondered if this superpower has any practical application, and I've finally worked out what it is: it's telling people what not to worry about. From mass coral bleaching to the march of the robots, 2024 offers plenty of real worries, but even more absolute non-issues. I know, because, whatever the putative problem, I overthink all angles in nanoseconds and, if I'm not worried, trust me, you needn't be either.Take straw wrinkles. Straw wrinkles, I discovered the other day, are the wrinkles you might conceivably get from pursing your lips to drink through a straw. I don't suppose you'll be surprised to hear that capitalism has a solution: an anti-wrinkle straw", much admired by TikTok influencers (who arguably bear some responsibility for lip wrinkles, given their earlier enthusing about giant toddler cups with built-in straws). Continue reading...

The 41-year-old epidemiologist and first-time candidate won last month's primary with a nearly 8% lead over her next rivalIn an election year where California's races have the potential to be among the most consequential in the US, one of the most fascinating contests is shaping up somewhere unexpected: Sacramento.The leading candidate to replace the city's mayor is a progressive public health expert running for elected office for the first time. Flojaune Cofer has pledged to reject corporate donations, cut police budgets in favor of workers trained to deal with issues such as mental health and tackle the city's spiraling homelessness crisis. Continue reading...

A film debuting at Cannes charts the young developer's relationship with the legendarily machiavellian lawyerIt has long been considered that making a movie about Donald Trump was virtually impossible, if not for the divisive subject material itself, but because the former US president was already playing that character to the hilt - and sometimes beyond.But last week, the Cannes film festival announced that it was adding the Iranian-Danish film-maker Ali Abbasi's The Apprentice to its 2024 official film selection for the event's main competition. Continue reading...

Possible counteroffer by Blackstone could derail agreement with US fund Concord ChorusThe troubled owner of music back catalogues ranging from Beyonce to Neil Young has said it would accept a takeover offer from Blackstone, after the private equity investor revealed it was considering outbidding a rival rights owner's deal.Hipgnosis Songs Fund (HSF) launched a strategic review after a turbulent period on the London Stock Exchange, and now faces the prospect of a takeover contest after saying on Sunday it would back Blackstone's approach over last week's agreement with Concord Chorus. Continue reading...

Tenants of the high-rise in New Rochelle, New York, want to abandon the name which has at times affected real estate valueWhile Donald Trump endures the ignominy of being the first former US president to face criminal trial, there is further humiliation brewing, with a movement to strip the Trump name from a building in his home state.Residents at Trump Plaza, a 40-story high-rise in the suburban New York city of New Rochelle, are pushing for the building to be renamed and to escape a near-two decade association with the legally-troubled ex-president and real estate mogul. Continue reading...

Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor of Dearborn, stands at the head of a community that registered unprecedented numbers of uncommitted' votes in the primarySince the war in Gaza erupted six months ago, Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, has contended with death threats, toxic media coverage of his city and family members overseas driven from their homes by Israeli airstrikes.Today, he stands at the head of a community that could hold the key to the 2024 presidential election. Two months after the state primary, which saw unprecedented numbers of Michiganders casting a protest vote as a warning to Joe Biden, Hammoud doesn't seem to think Biden got the message. Continue reading...

After months of stalling, the US House of Representatives finally approved more than $61bn worth of military assistance to help Ukraine in its desperate defence against Russia, as well as billions for other allies including Israel and Taiwan. In a bipartisan vote, 210 Democrats and 101 Republicans joined to support Ukraine, with 112 Republicans - a majority of the GOP members - voting against. It came after the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, forced a series of bills onto the floor in the face of fierce resistance within his own Republican party, many of whom oppose spending more on Ukraine's defence.

Rishi Sunak's attack on overmedicalisation' is ignoring the value we should be placing on our wellbeingThere's more to life than money, but societies can struggle to express it. When we talk about the state of nations and their citizens, we tend ultimately to boil it down to a few economic indicators. These can tell us a great deal, but they don't quite tell us everything. The untouched stretch of ancient woodland, the arts in education, the close-knit community, the healthy childhood: there are plenty of valuable things that cannot always be weighed on this scale.And this is a problem, particularly for people who want to hang on to those valuable things. Here's a rule of thumb: if you can't measure how much something is worth, it becomes tricky to protect it. Those who do not want to see a bluebell wood destroyed or another humanities subject ditched can find it hard to argue their case against the cold logic of pounds and pence. What yardstick can they use that will be taken seriously? Continue reading...

As the uniforms for the Olympics and Paralympics are revealed to the world, we cast an eye over the threads that different countries will be wearing at Paris 2024 Continue reading...

In Brussels and Berlin, flimsy excuses were trotted out to stifle political debateTwo conferences in two European cities. Two attempted bans (though only one successful). Two different responses from politicians and the media. All of which tells us something about the state of free speech today.Last Tuesday, Emir Kir, a mayor in Brussels, created international headlines when he tried to ban a National Conservative conference in the city. The attempt failed, denounced as unacceptable" by the Belgian prime minister, Alexander de Croo, and ruled unlawful by the top administrative court. Continue reading...

Former president told thousands of supporters gathered at Wilmington airport the event would be rescheduled bigger and better'Donald Trump called for debates with Joe Biden before cancelling his own appearance at a planned rally in Wilmington, North Carolina as a rain storm approached the airport where it was staged on Saturday.Trump called as he was approaching the international airport to tell rally goers that the event would be rescheduled bigger and better". This would have been the first time he addressed supporters in public after a week of relative silence in a New York courtroom. Continue reading...

Ukrainian president thanks America after Speaker Mike Johnson secures bipartisan support for funding Ukraine, Israel and TaiwanAfter months of stalling, the US House of Representatives finally approved more than $61bn worth of military assistance to help Ukraine in its desperate defense against Russia, as well as billions for other allies including Israel and Taiwan.In a bipartisan vote, 210 Democrats and 101 Republicans joined to support Ukraine, with 112 Republicans - a majority of the GOP members - voting against. It came after the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, forced a series of bills onto the floor in the face of fierce resistance within his own Republican party, many of whom oppose spending more on Ukraine's defense. Continue reading...

Producer Carol Baum forgot that older females don't automatically hateyounger onesHollywood producer Carol Baum has publicly derided Euphoria's Sydney Sweeney. Interviewed onstage following a screening of her 1988 film, Dead Ringers, in Pleasantville, New York, Baum described viewing Sweeney's romcom, Anyone But You, on a plane (unwatchable"), and said she'd asked students on her producing course at the USC School of Cinematic Arts: Explain this girl to me. She's not pretty, she can't act. Why is she so hot?"She and her students came to the conclusion they would hire Sweeney if it got their film made. I'm sure the globally celebrated, twice-Emmy-nominated, actor-producer Sweeney will be very relieved about that.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

The thriller writer on the responsibility, challenges and joy of writing an authorised new adventureSmog-filled Victorian alleyways where villains lurk with glittering knives. Bleak heaths where giant devil dogs await the weary traveller. Blackmailers laughing at wide-eyed victims. All these have been my companions for half a year as I have felt my way through the landscapes of the world's most famous detective: Sherlock Holmes. Because a few weeks ago, authorised to do so by the Conan Doyle estate, and in a haze of 4am self-doubt, I finished writing a new official Holmes novel, Holmes and Moriarty.In recent years, only one other author, Anthony Horowitz, has been allowed to write a new authorised novel; so it's been a riveting project - but a daunting one too. Continue reading...

It was billed as a futuristic, glass-walled city, but was only ever realised in the digital sphere - where it should remainThe second least surprising piece of recent news - the first being that yet more Tory MPs are reportedly embroiled in bizarre sexual and financial scandals - is that the Line, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's 105-mile-long (170km) vanity project in Saudi Arabia, is being scaled back. In an act of what is known in the construction industry as value engineering, it will now be only one and a half miles long, a reduction of 98.6%.This makes Prince Mohammed, or MBS as he is known, the Nigel Tufnel of petro-despots - the guitarist in This is Spinal Tap who accidentally ordered an 18-inch Stonehenge as a stage prop, when he meant to get one 18-feet high. Continue reading...

Ukraine aid component threatens to throw the Republican party into disarray - and endangers the speakership of Mike JohnsonThe US House of Representatives will finally vote on Saturday on a series of foreign aid bills, bringing an end to a months-long standoff in Congress led mostly by Republicans who refuse to support funding Ukraine's ongoing military defense against Russia's invasion.House members will hold separate votes on four bills that represent $95bn in funding altogether - including roughly $26bn in aid for Israel, $61bn for Ukraine, $8bn for US allies in the Indo-Pacific region and $9bn in humanitarian assistance for civilians in war zones, such as Gaza. Continue reading...

As the speaker of the House finally allows a vote to go forward on aid, GOP infighting is tearing apart the partyRepublican divisions over military support for Ukraine were long simmering. Now, before Saturday's extraordinary vote in Congress on a foreign aid package, they have erupted into open warfare - a conflict that the vote itself is unlikely to contain.Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House of Representatives, triggered an all-out split in his own party's ranks last week by finally agreeing, after months of stalling, to a floor vote on the $95bn foreign aid programme. Passed by the Senate in February, it contained about $60bn for Ukraine, $14bn for Israel, and a smaller amount for Taiwan and other Pacific allies. Continue reading...

The anti-abortion crowd who believe embryos are extrauterine children' have been weirdly silent about the strikeIf you, or someone you love, has ever had fertility issues, you will know just how heavy an emotional toll they can take. IVF, in particular, is not easy. You have to inject yourself with hormones. Then you undergo anaesthesia and have an operation to retrieve the eggs. Then the embryos are made. Finally, you implant the embryos. It's a long, expensive and involved process that can take a physical and emotional toll. At the end, you hope it'll all be worth it. At the end, you hope there will be a baby.In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK, the youth suicide charity Papyrus can be contacted on 0800 068 4141 or email pat@papyrus-uk.org, and in the UK and Ireland Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

On 20 April 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold drove to Columbine High School in Colorado and murdered 12 students and one teacher, injuring 21 others. I was one of the first reporters on the scene, and spent 10 years writing Columbine, an examination of the massacre. This preface for a new edition marks the 25th anniversary of the shootingHow could I have known I was writing an origin story? Mass shootings didn't start at Columbine High School, but the Mass Shooter Era did. The killers' audacious plan and misread motives multiplied the stakes and inspired wave after wave of emulation. I've tried to leave this story so many times, but a diagram I have created of Columbine-inspired attacks torments me, ruthlessly expanding like an unstoppable spider web, devouring all the lives and futures in its path. It demands we address the cause. More than fifty ensuing shooters have taken nearly three hundred lives and wounded over five hundred more, and every shooter on that page left evidence they were inspired or influenced by the attack at the centre. And a 2015 investigation of Columbine copycats by Mother Jones found more than two thwarted attacks for each one that succeeded. It identified fourteen plotters targeting Columbine's anniversary, and thirteen striving to top its body count. Surviving mass shooters have admitted they are now competing with each other. Twenty-five years later, Columbine haunts our present and our future, with no end in sight.The connections keep multiplying, and all roads lead back to Columbine. The Arapahoe High gunman studied the Columbine and Sandy Hook attacks; the Sandy Hook shooter researched the Northern Illinois University (NIU) shooting and was obsessed with Columbine; the NIU killer studied Columbine and Virginia Tech, where the shooter described wanting to repeat Columbine" and idolised its martyrs". Five generations of fallout, and they're all re-enacting the legend that set it in motion. Continue reading...

With 377 school shootings since Columbine, Americans are still reckoning with the real toll of these attacksThis story was originally published on 12 April 2023. The Guardian is sharing it again as the US marks the 25th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting. Since this piece was first published, there have been more than a dozen additional school shootings across the US. The estimated number of US students exposed to violence at their schools has grown to 370,000, with more than 400 school shootings since Columbine.On 18 May 2019, a 37-year-old man died of a heroin overdose in Colorado. Many of the overdose deaths that year - nearly 200 each day - did not receive much attention, but his was marked by a few news stories. Continue reading...

The robbery from a GardaWorld warehouse on Easter Sunday was like something from a movie - and police appear to be puzzled by how it went downIt was a Tinseltown heist that belonged in a movie.A gang of audacious thieves struck at night, dodged security measures like ghosts in the night and disappeared with a staggering $30m in cash in a record-breaking robbery that played out for real on Los Angeles's streets, not the fevered script of a thriller writer. Continue reading...

As tensions with China rise, scientists at America's leading universities complain of stalled research after crackdown at airportsStopped at the border, interrogated on national security grounds, laptops and mobile phones checked, held for several hours, plans for future research shattered.Many western scholars are nervous about travelling to China in the current political climate. But lately it is Chinese researchers working at US universities who are increasingly reporting interrogations - and in several cases deportations - at US airports, despite holding valid work or study visas for scientific research. Continue reading...

Skirmishes between the pair have until now been muted, but the tit-for-tat attack on Isfahan shows how the Gaza conflict is fuelling global tensionsIsrael's retaliation, when it came, was surprisingly limited. Iran minimised the significance of Friday's air attacks on a military base near Isfahan and other targets, denying they were externally directed. Usually voluble Israeli spokesmen fell strangely silent. It was as if a tacit bilateral agreement had been made to play down the affair - to quietly de-escalate.Like surreptitious 19th-century duellists illicitly pointing pistols at each other across a misty English meadow at dawn, both countries required that honour be satisfied - but wanted to avoid another noisy public row. Each has fired directly at the other, causing symbolic damage. Now they and their seconds are signalling it's over - at least for the time being. Continue reading...

Threats lean toward sexual or domestic violence, attacks on their families and criticisms that they can't do their jobsCarly Koppes kept her pregnancy hidden from the public as long as she possibly could, fearing the potential harassment that could come from those who frequently attack the Republican elections clerk.When Koppes, who runs elections in Weld county, Colorado, did media interviews, she asked the people behind the camera to position her so her growing belly wasn't visible, fearing her harassers would see the images or videos and make comments about her future child. She never in a million years" anticipated that she'd have to hide her pregnancy, she said. Continue reading...

The enigmatic former first lady to appear at fundraiser on Saturday, marking a return to her husband's side as he seeks re-electionHer biggest fashion statement as first lady was a green jacket emblazoned with the words I really don't care, do u?" More recently, Melania Trump has given the impression that she doesn't care whether her husband, Donald, returns to the White House. That is about to change.On Saturday Melania, 53, will appear at a fundraiser at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, for the Log Cabin Republicans, the biggest Republican organisation dedicated to representing LGBT conservatives. It will be her first appearance at a political event since Trump, 77, launched his bid to regain the presidency. Continue reading...

Man identified by police as Max Azzarello, from Florida, declared dead after incident outside lower Manhattan courthouseA man has died after setting himself on fire outside the New York courthouse where Donald Trump's hush-money trial is taking place.The New York City police department said on Saturday the man had been declared dead by staff at an area hospital. Continue reading...

Other fields are plagued with famous people's offspring too, yet musical genius seems particularly difficult to pass down the generationsTalent, sang Russell Mael of the band Sparks, is an asset. And that asset can be handed down from generation to generation. However, there is almost invariably an almighty inheritance tax at play, depleting the genius of the parent so that by the time it reaches the offspring it is, at best, mere competence.In music, it is vanishingly rare for the heir to outshine the ancestor. To use a football analogy, for every Erling Haaland or Frank Lampard Jr there are a dozen Paul Dalglishes and Jordi Cruyffs. Which brings me to Primrose Hill, which James McCartney released in collaboration with Sean Ono Lennon last week. An instantly forgettable pastoral number about a pleasant day spent at a London beauty spot, it only received its moderate flurry of interest because it revives the songwriting credit Lennon-McCartney. (It's marginally better than the Beatles' own AI-enhanced dirge Now and Then, but that's a low bar.) It isn't outright awful, but it's three minutes of your life you're never getting back. Continue reading...

Majority leader Chuck Schumer says approving bill was right thing' for Democrats and Republicans to doThe US Senate voted late on Friday night to approve the reauthorization of the controversial Fisa surveillance program, narrowly preventing its midnight expiration.The reauthorization secures what supporters call a key element of the United States' foreign intelligence-gathering operation. Continue reading...

From films about Play-Doh and Barbie to the Shrek experience', consumer capitalism has run out of ideasWhen it was announced last week that Margot Robbie will follow up the success of Barbie with a film based on Monopoly, my heart sank, did not pass go, and did not collect 200. Robbie's production company will partner with Hasbro, just as the Barbie film was an initiative from rival toy company Mattel. Barbie was criticised for being little more than a 114-minute toy ad, but it did so well at the box office - buoyed, significantly, by a $150m marketing budget, which was larger than that spent on making the film - that a glut of similar titles are planned: a Barney film produced by Daniel Kaluuya, a Polly Pocket film written and directed by Lena Dunham, and a film based on the card game Uno. Robbie is also making a film version of The Sims video game, while Hasbro has licensed a Play-Doh feature film, a cinematic adaptation of an inert substance.Where does it end? Why not make Alpro vegan yoghurt into a series of detective novels? Why not write an opera about the Adidas Predator football boot? Or, for that matter, why not imagineer" your way to full 360, helicopter-vision integrated brand synergy and make a football boot inspired by Wagner's Ring cycle, or a Raymond Chandler-themed yoghurt? It is almost as if the gatekeepers of popular culture have completely run out of ideas. All that remains is a kind of infinite consumer ceilidh, where brands line up and take it in turns to partner with one other for 15 minutes of coverage and social media consternation. We're told that capitalism is all about innovation, disruption and the unbridled individual genius of the human mind. So why do I now turn a corner in London's West End and half expect to see a billboard for Marmite: The Musical, next to a pop-up shop selling Nespresso x Nike limited edition streetwear?Dan Hancox is a freelance writer, focusing on music, politics, cities and culture Continue reading...

Vote makes Chattanooga factory first auto plant in US south to unionize via election since the 1940sVolkswagen workers at the carmaker's Chattanooga plant in Tennessee have voted to unionize with the United Auto Workers, a historic victory for the union and the labor movement's efforts to expand to the southern United States.The vote was the first union election to be held as part of the UAW's ambitious organizing drive aimed at unionizing 150,000 workers at non-union auto plants around the US. Continue reading...

University says it is redesigning' commencement plans days after it decided to prevent Asna Tabassum from speaking on 10 MayThe University of Southern California is redesigning" its entire commencement plans - just days after making the controversial decision to cancel the valedictorian speech of a Muslim student - and will also cancel the keynote speech by film-maker Jon M Chu.The Los Angeles university's provost, Andrew Guzman, said on Monday that it took the unprecedented step of canceling valedictorian Asna Tabassum's speech at the 10 May ceremony because because the alarming tenor" of reactions to her selection as valedictorian - along with the intensity of feelings" surrounding Israel's military strikes in Gaza - had created substantial risks relating to security". They did not cite any specific threats. Continue reading...

Three police officers charged with involuntary manslaughter in death of Mario Gonzalez, whom they held down on the groundThree California police officers have been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the 2021 killing of a man they restrained in a prone position for five minutes until he lost consciousness.Pamela Price, Alameda county district attorney, announced the charges on Thursday, three years after the asphyxia death of Mario Gonzalez, 26. The officers, Eric McKinley, James Fisher and Cameron Leahy, face up to four years in prison. Continue reading...