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A banjo player and a Black Maga influencer, among others, now attend Trump administration press briefingsA disgraced ultra-conservative banjo player ousted from his Grammy-winning band; a far-right conspiracy theorist with alleged ties to Russia; a TikTok creator known as Maga Malfoy" for his resemblance to the Harry Potter character; and an extremist social media influencer" once banned from Twitter for posting a video depicting sexual abuse of a child.These are just some of the new media" personalities courted by the White House to take part in a series of alternative briefings championed by Donald Trump's press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. Continue reading...

Comments from legal team and Trump administration officials could prevent Luigi Mangione from getting a fair trialDuring a 25 April proceeding in Luigi Mangione's Manhattan federal court case for allegedly murdering UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson last year, the judge implored prosecutors to watch what they say - including top honchos of Donald Trump's justice department.Judge Margaret M Garnett pointed prosecutors to a district court policy barring lawyers on both sides from making public commentary that could impede Mr Mangione's right to a fair trial". Continue reading...

Screen Producers Australia says 100% tariff on production outside US would send shock waves worldwide'

Merz takes charge this week, as German industry buckles and social fractures deepen. He will struggle to bring a wary public with himA few weeks before Germany's federal election in late February, Friedrich Merz was forced to backpedal after a daring gambit went awry. His attempt to win votes by forcing through a hardline crackdown on migration had caused a rebellion in his own Christian Democratic party (CDU). Instead of positioning himself as a strong leader, he undermined the entire German political establishment.Merz's strategy involved breaking a taboo by relying on far-right nationalists to pass legislation for the first time in Germany's postwar history. The move fractured the country's normally consensus-driven centrist parties in the Bundestag, sparked mass protests and led to a rare public rebuke from the former chancellor and CDU leader Angela Merkel.Chris Reiter and Will Wilkes are the authors of Broken Republik: The Inside Story of Germany's Descent into Crisis. The German edition is Totally kaputt? Wie Deutschland sich selbst zerlegt

Patsy Widakuswara, lead plaintiff in lawsuit fighting order to dismantle Voice of America, says US government is becoming more aggressiveThe lead plaintiff in a lawsuit fighting Donald Trump's order to dismantle Voice of America has said the media has to resist as the administration becomes increasingly aggressive against the press.I never in a million years thought I would have to fight for freedom of the press in the United States of America. And yet here we are," says Patsy Widakuswara, the White House bureau chief for the broadcasting network. As journalism is under attack, it feels empowering to fight back. We need more people to resist and fight back." Continue reading...

Trump says he doesn't know' if he has to uphold constitutional due process and won't rule out using military force to take Greenland - key US politics stories from 4 May at a glanceDonald Trump has said he sees himself as leaving office at the end of his current term and not seeking a third one - something he has not previously always been consistent on even though a third term is widely seen as unconstitutional.I'll be an eight-year president, I'll be a two-term president. I always thought that was very important," Trump said, acknowledging the constitutional constraints preventing him from seeking a third term. But he added that some people want him to serve a third term, which is prohibited by a constitutional amendment passed in 1947. Continue reading...

President calls films national security threat' and claims he called on commerce department to immediately enact tariffDonald Trump on Sunday announced on his Truth Social platform a 100% tariff on all movies produced in Foreign Lands", saying the US film industry was dying a very fast death" due to the incentives that other countries were offering to draw American film-makers.In his post, he claimed to have authorised the commerce department and the US trade representative to immediately begin instituting such a tariff. Continue reading...

Antihero reject movie starring Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan a great reset' as Alec Baldwin's Rust falls flatMarvel Studios' Thunderbolts* opened with $76m in domestic ticket sales, according to studio estimates on Sunday, kicking off the summer box office with a solid No 1 debut that fell shy of Marvel's more spectacular launches.All eyes had been on whether Thunderbolts* - a team-up of antihero rejects similar to Avengers - could restore the Walt Disney Company superhero factory to the kind of box office performance the studio once enjoyed so regularly. The results - similar to the debuts of Eternals ($71m) and Ant-Man and the Wasp ($75m) - suggested Marvel's malaise won't be so easy to snap out of. Continue reading...

The Australian extended his lead in the drivers' standings as he beat teammate Lando Morris to the top of the podium in FloridaOK, first, a bunch of Bon Jovi references upon seeing the great singer hovering around the track. Slippery When Wet" is the winner, of course.Formation lap done. Here we go ... Continue reading...

Officials warn people to stay clear of area in Simi Valley after two homes sustained structural damage from collisionA small plane crashed into a neighborhood in Simi Valley on Saturday afternoon, killing two people and a dog aboard the aircraft and damaging two homes, authorities said.Fire crews responded, and police cordoned off the streets, warning people to stay clear of the area. Smoke could be seen billowing from the roof of one home in the Wood Ranch section of the community, which lies nearly 50 miles (80km) north-west of Los Angeles. Continue reading...

PBS's Paula Kerger and NPR's Katherine Maher say they're looking at legal options to defend against White HouseThe heads of embattled US public broadcasters, National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), defended themselves against efforts by the Trump administration to cut off taxpayer funding, with both telling a Sunday political talk show they were looking at legal options.PBS's chief executive, Paula Kerger, told CBS News's Face the Nation that Republican-led threats to withdraw federal funding from public broadcasters had been around for decades but are different this time". Continue reading...

Audrey Backeberg who disappeared at age 20 in 1962 was found living out of the state, county sheriff's office saysA Wisconsin woman missing for more than 60 years has been found alive and well", according to authorities.In a press statement, Wisconsin's Sauk county sheriff's office said that 82-year old Audrey Backeberg, who initially disappeared in July 1962 at the age of 20, had been found living out of the state. The sheriff's office did not disclose which state Backeberg was found in. Continue reading...

Conditions are increasingly desperate. The resumption of humanitarian relief is essential to save civilian livesShameful. That was the word that Gideon Sa'ar, Israel's foreign minister, used to describe proceedings at the international court of justice (ICJ) last Monday. The United Nations asked the court to determine whether Israel must allow aid to enter Gaza, two months after it cut it off again just before the ceasefire deal collapsed. Supplies are running out. Unicef says that thousands of children have already experienced acute malnutrition.Mr Sa'ar's complaint is that Israel is unfairly targeted. The separate international criminal court case against Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, and Yoav Gallant, the former defence minister, also focuses on the alleged starvation of civilians. It is truethat withholding food is a common weapon in war, yet has rarely been the focus of international legal cases, in part because intent is hard to prove. It is the rhetoric of Israeli officials, suggests Dr Boyd van Dijk, anexpert on the Geneva conventions, which has changed that. Continue reading...

President has repeatedly expressed idea of expansion into autonomous territory within fellow Nato member DenmarkDonald Trump would not rule out using military force to gain control of Greenland, the world's largest island and an autonomous territory within Denmark, a fellow Nato member with the US.Since taking office, the US president has repeatedly expressed the idea of US expansion into Greenland, triggering widespread condemnation and unease both on the island itself and in the global diplomatic community. Greenland is seen as strategically important both for defense and as a future source of mineral wealth. Continue reading...

One of US's biggest airports, in New York area, experiences 210 delays and 88 cancellations amid aviation safety fearsFlight delays continued on Sunday as a major crisis gripped one of the US's biggest airports amid aviation safety fears.As of Sunday morning, there were 210 delays and 88 cancellations at Newark Liberty international airport (EWR) in New Jersey, according to FlightAware. The large airport is one of the major hubs for New York city and its surrounding area. Continue reading...

JP Morgan boss says Buffett represents everything good about American capitalism and America itself'Leading figures in the business world have lined up to pay tribute to Warren Buffett after the 94-year-old announced he would retire as chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway and hand over the reins to his vice-chair, Greg Abel.Buffett shocked an arena full of shareholders over the weekend when he announced he would step down as the CEO and chair of the trillion-dollar conglomerate at the end of this year. Continue reading...

Longstanding Trump ally's LindellTV aims to expose election fraud - and sell branded dream sheets'Millions of votes were stolen in the presidential election - only in the 2020 one, the 2024 one was fine. Freedom is under attack! DEI judges are going after Americans! President Trump is keeping his promises. Freedom is making a comeback! Bed sheets, any size, any color, are available for $25 a set if you use the promo code L77, offer is for a limited time only.Welcome to LindellTV, a strange mashup of a rightwing conspiracy theory news channel and bedroom-focused shopping platform. Continue reading...

President also says he sees himself as leaving office at the end of his current term and not seeking a third oneDonald Trump said I don't know" when asked if he needed to uphold the US constitution when it comes to giving immigrants the right of due process as he gave a wide-ranging TV interview broadcast on Sunday.At the same time the US president also said he saw himself as leaving office at the end of his current term and not seeking a third one - something he has not previously always been consistent on even though a third term is widely seen as unconstitutional. Continue reading...

Trump and Musk's Doge agency have spread confusion and uncertainty among government employeesIn the 100 days since Donald Trump returned to power, the new administration has driven tens of thousands of federal workers from a civil service it has denigrated as bloated" and corrupt". Among its first targets: probationary workers like Cindi Hron.Hron, a landscape architect with the US Forest Service, was one of thousands abruptly fired across the agency on 14 February, in an action some now refer to as the Valentine's Day massacre, executed by Elon Musk's newly empowered department of government efficiency", or Doge. Continue reading...

National Endowment for the Arts notifies organizations that offers of government grants were terminatedDozens of US arts organizations have been notified that offers of government grants have been terminated, hours after Donald Trump proposed eliminating federal agencies that support arts, humanities and learning.The cancellation of grant offers were reported from organizations across the US, including a $25,000 offer to a playhouse in Portland, Oregon, hours before the opening of a new production, August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Continue reading...

Despite rumors of quiet quitting' and coffee badging', people know work is work and the perfect job doesn't existIf you read the media, you'll walk away with this impression: American employees are fed up. They're doing the bare minimum" on Mondays, cushioning" their careers with side gigs, rage applying" to vent their frustrations and coffee badging" to protest return-to-office policies.US workers are ghost quitting" (checking out without actually leaving their jobs) and pretending to work when actually practicing productivity theater". They're taking paid time off without authorization in the form of hush trips" and quiet vacations". They're suffering from Zoom doom" and paying an emotional labor tax". According to the latest polls, things are so bad that they're quietly cracking". Continue reading...

Man who became distraught after viewing footage of the fatal shooting of his son crashed into officer the next day, authorities sayThe distraught father of an 18-year-old shot and killed by police in Cincinnati allegedly killed a police officer with his car less than 24 hours after the death of his son.The double killing has shocked the Ohio city amid ongoing concerns about American law enforcement's involvement in lethal encounters with citizens. Continue reading...

Debate around Joe Biden's mental acuity and his age was a critical issue during the run up to the 2024 electionJoe Biden's top staff debated the possibility of the embattled Democratic president taking a cognitive test last year as he geared up for re-election but eventually decided against the idea, a new book is set to reveal.Debate around Biden's mental acuity and his age was an acute issue during the run up to the 2024 election, which eventually saw Biden step down from his re-election campaign in favor of his vice-president, Kamala Harris. Continue reading...

The generations are more segregated than ever. Yet we have so much in commonI've always felt a bit pathetic for not having a proper peer group. In dark moments, it feels like a moral failing and an indictment of my social skills. In kinder moments I recognise it's also partly a product of being sick and sad at university, then successively too pregnant, too preoccupied with babies and too peripatetic to make or maintain ties. In calmer times, I've forged slightly more of a social life, but mostly it's not made up of my gen X peers, but rather people who are occasionally younger, usually significantly older. Now I'm wondering - am I lucky?This thought was prompted by an Atlantic podcast discussing the demographic moment we're living in - the usual pyramidal population structure is becoming squarer, with similar numbers of older and younger people - and asking whether we're making the most of it. The conclusion was we probably aren't. Continue reading...

At the heart of all Trump administration policies is soft eugenics' thinking - the idea that if you take away life-saving services, then only the strong will surviveEnglish polymath Francis Galton formulated the concept of eugenics in 1883. Inspired by animal breeding, Galton encouraged people with desirable" traits to procreate while discouraging or preventing those with undesirable" traits from doing the same. As social and intellectual qualities were hereditarily fixed", he thought some groups were naturally superior. Galton constructed a racial hierarchy, with white Europeans at the top.Eugenics has since played out in varying, always tragic ways. Attempted genocides and forced sterilization are first to mind, though the 20th century brought about the concept of soft eugenics: non-coercive methods of reducing certain conditions through individual choice and medical advice. Popularized in Nancy Stepan's 1991 book, The Hour of Eugenics, soft" eugenics is accomplished by indirect, environmental, and educational interventions while hard" eugenics is marked by direct biological interventions (such as sterilization). The term has since been expanded in discussions of genetic technologies, prenatal screenings, and physical fitness. Continue reading...

Chainsaws, lawsuits and thundering silence - but no mention of the words my bad'Note: Your answers to this quiz may be subject to subpoena by the Department of Justice.Lawrence Douglas is a professor of law at Amherst College in Massachusetts Continue reading...

The president's allies ensured a Senate resolution to undo tariffs went nowhere - despite economic warning signsWarning signs flashed this week that Donald Trump's tariffs were beginning to destabilize what had, at the start of his term, appeared to be a solid economy. But in Congress, Republican leaders pulled out all the stops to protect his signature trade policy.The threat appeared in the form of a Senate resolution sponsored by the Republican Rand Paul and Democrat Ron Wyden that targeted the levies and looked like it had a shot at passing a chamber in which the Republican majority had previously shown little inclination of resisting the president. But even before the first votes were cast, Trump and his allies moved to ensure it would go nowhere. Continue reading...

Uncertainty generated by tariff policy underlines US president seemingly unable to choose a path and stick to itTen days reporting from the US - in Pittsburgh, Washington DC, and just across the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia - gave me a fascinating snapshot of what feels like the slow-motion unravelling of the world's largest economy.So many conversations featured uncertainty and wariness; and weariness, too, as businesses and consumers weigh up every decision, against the backdrop of the chaos emanating from the White House. Continue reading...

The US's greatest strategic advantage is its friendly neighbors. But its ties to Canada and Mexico are being underminedThe secret to American power and pre-eminence was best summed up more than a century ago.America, observed Jean Jules Jusserand, France's ambassador to the United States during the first world war, is blessed among the nations". To the north and south were friendly and militarily weak neighbors; on the east, fish, and the west, fish". The United States was and is both a continental power and, in strategic terms, an island - with all the security those gifts of geography provide. No world power has ever been as fortunate. This unique physical security is the real American exceptionalism.Gil Barndollar is a non-resident fellow at the Defense Priorities Foundation. Rajan Menon is Spitzer professor emeritus of international relations at the Powell School, City College of New York, and a senior research scholar at the Saltzman Institute at Columbia University. Continue reading...

A collective is breathing new life into inchunwa for south-eastern Indigenous people across the USReceiving her inchunwa was not something Faithlyn Taloa Seawright did lightly, but when the moment just felt right", she knew it was time. Seawright, who was the 2024 Miss Indian Oklahoma and a previous Chickasaw Princess, had long studied the tradition that she inherited from her ancestors.In Choctaw and Chickasaw languages, inchunwa means to be marked, branded or tattooed". So receiving inchunwa, or traditional Indigenous tattoos, is something that must be done with reverence, Seawright said. The practice was once common among the south-eastern Indigenous nations (Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee and others), but after colonization the tradition faded away for many. Continue reading...

The president started his second term fast and furious with a flurry of activity - much of it legally dubious - but analysts say the honeymoon is overNot just courageous" but actually fearless" said Doug Burgum. The first 100 days has far exceeded that of any other presidency in this country ever," said Pam Bondi. Most" of the presidents whose portraits adorn the Oval Office - which include George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan - were mere placeholders" who were not men of action", mused JD Vance.Before the TV cameras on Wednesday, top cabinet officials took turns drenching Donald Trump with praise that some critics found evocative of politics in North Korea. Yet beyond the walls of the White House, the mood was shifting. New data showed the economy is shrinking. The national security adviser was about to be ousted. Opinion polls told of a president whose unpopularity is historic. Continue reading...

The Miami GP powers a billion-dollar engine of entertainment. But in the majority-Black neighborhood of Miami Gardens, residents are still weighing whether the trade-offs were worth itOn a humid Sunday afternoon in 2022, a who's who of Hollywood's rolling credits, Silicon Valley tech tycoons and the internet's favorite micro-celebrities sat comfortably in shaded trackside VIP suites as 20 cars jolted past. Formula One, America's latest sporting obsession, had finally carved out a home in South Florida and it fit Miami's over-the-top image.Four years into F1's 20-year stay in the 305, the event has solidified itself as a place to see and be seen: Elon Musk has stopped by the Red Bull garage while Jeff Bezos sat on McLaren's pit wall. Everyone from Kardashians to A-list actors to sports stars has lined up for a joy ride around the turquoise circuit's 19 corners. Continue reading...

We need a society that supports parents and makes good food choices achievable - not more lecturing of exhausted mumsLike many modern mothers, I have on occasion piped cold bolognese directly from a pouch into my small child's open mouth and, radical though it may seem, I refuse to feel guilty about it. There is a lot of panic about ultra-processed foods (UPFs), and baby food pouches, with their high sugar content and dubious nutritional value, are the latest targets. Researchers at the University of Leeds School of Food Science and Nutrition found that 41% of main meals marketed for children had sugar levels that were too high and that 21% of ready-to-eat fruit products, cereals and meals were too watery and not providing adequate nutrition.It's not great. But is it news? No parent picks up something called Heinz fruity banana custard" believing it a fantastic alternative to actual mashed banana, yet this is being treated as the Watergate of the under-4s sandpit crowd. I'm starting to wonder if people have lost their collective minds over processed food. I even saw one comment calling for the death penalty for baby food producers. Baby pouch hysteria is the perfect new addition to the maternal guilt industrial complex.Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist. The Republic of Parenthood book will be published this summer Continue reading...

Around the globe, conflict is spreading - but it's too often going ignored. Are we simply overwhelmed by the scale of it?Victims of Nazi atrocities will be remembered at ceremonies next week marking the end of the second world war in Europe. Survivors and relatives gathered at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp near Hanover last Sunday to commemorate the estimated 72,000 people who were murdered there. Among those killed was a young German-born Jewish girl, Anne Frank, whose celebrated diary recalls those terrible times.The dead of 1939-45 should never be forgotten. But we should also be mindful to count the dead of 2025. To know that in years to come, we will remember, record and honour victims of today's recurring atrocities. Each day brings news of more appalling acts by governments and armed groups in wars and conflict zones around the world. One difference now is, unlike the Nazi atrocities, many of these crimes are very public knowledge even as they occur.Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator Continue reading...

We can no longer rely on the rest of the world to provide the lead - the future is ours to make

Berlin dismisses secretary of state's criticism over AfD designation; nine pro-Palestinian activists arrested at Swarthmore College - key US politics stories from Saturday 3 May at a glanceGermany's foreign ministry has pushed back after Marco Rubio criticised the country's decision to designate the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) party a confirmed rightwing extremist" force incompatible with its constitution.This is democracy," the ministry said in a post on X, adding that the courts would have the final say and that we have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped". The US secretary of state had called the move tyranny in disguise". Continue reading...

Some students were also temporarily suspended as other colleges respond with disciplinary action to protestsOn the morning of 3 May, the Swarthmore borough police department disbanded a four-day pro-Palestinian encampment on Swarthmore College's campus and arrested nine activists.The demonstration calling on the college to divest from the tech company Cisco due to its ties to the Israeli government was a rare uprising in an academic year where higher-education institutions have been quick to quash them. One current and one former Swarthmore College student were among those arrested, while the rest were from outside the college community, the college's president, Valerie Smith, said in a statement. Continue reading...

After an earlier ruling raised hopes of getting VoA back on air, an appeals court sided with the Trump administrationA federal appeals court has foiled a plan to return more than 1,000 Voice of America (VoA) workers to their desks after an earlier court ruling granted a temporary stay on Donald Trump's executive order dismantling the US taxpayer-funded news service for overseas listeners. Now it seems unlikely that broadcasters will return to work until the case has been resolved by the courts.A Saturday ruling by a divided DC circuit court panel essentially decided that the courts must defer to the executive branch on employment matters. Judges Neomi Rao and Gregory Katsas - both Trump appointees - found that the lower court likely did not have jurisdiction to order the employees back to work. Their ruling paused the part of the lower court order requiring the administration take all necessary steps to return USAGM employees and contractors to their status prior" to the executive order. Continue reading...

Max Verstappen produced a stunning flying lap to secure his second consecutive pole at the Miami GPThere was rain a bit earlier, which doesn't sound very Miami, but there it is. This being a street circuit there is of course a fair chance of red flags during qualifying if anyone comes a cropper on a hot lap.Those helpful explanatory words courtesy of the official F1 website, just if anyone wanted to know how qualifying actually works. Which, I am not going to lie to you here, I did. Continue reading...

State becomes 16th to allow public funds to be used for private schools, which opponents say will benefit mostly wealthier childrenThe Texas governor Greg Abbott on Saturday signed a law making more than 5 million students eligible to use state funds for private schools, a watershed moment in the conservative campaign to remake public education in the US.Texas is allocating $1bn for the first two years of the program to offer parents vouchers to pay for school. It is the 16th state to make all students eligible to receive public funds for private education. Continue reading...