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At 19, Malinin is the only person in history to land a quadruple axel - a four-and-a-half-revolution jump - in competition, and he thinks he can go further. Will his incredible athleticism revive a tarnished sport?I always try to be a gamechanger or innovator," says Ilia Malinin, the American prodigy who has cut a swathe through the world of figure skating. In March in Montreal, the 19-year-old roared to his first world championship with a star-making long programme set to music from the TV show Succession. It was immediately hailed as the greatest athletic display in the sport's history.Malinin became the second person ever to land six quadruple jumps in a single programme, and the first to do it with a quadruple axel, the heart-stopping four-and-a-half-revolution jump that had never been landed in competition until he came along. Skating with verve and pace to the lumbering strings, dissonant piano chords and swaggering 808s of Nicholas Britell's crowd-pleasing score, he won the sport's biggest competition outside the Olympics with a record-shattering free-skate score more than 24 points clear of his closest rival. Continue reading...

Los Angeles mayor calls late-night attack by counter-demonstrators abhorrent' as footage shows people wielding sticks

On a day off from his criminal trial, the ex-president hit the campaign trail - and ran through his familiar litany of falsehoods and complaintsAt a remote rural airport in Michigan, an outsized plane touched down as music from Tom Cruise's film Top Gun boomed from loudspeakers. Late afternoon sunshine gleamed off five giant golden letters on the plane's side - TRUMP" - and its Rolls Royce engines. A crowd bedecked in red roared as the plane rolled to a standstill behind a blue TRUMP" lectern.A door opened and men in dark glasses and dark suits from what Donald Trump would call central casting" made their way down the stairs. Trump! Trump!" the audience chanted, raising hundreds of camera phones in eager anticipation. Great Balls of Fire, Macho Man and YMCA blared. Finally, the former and would-be future president emerged, clapping and fist pumping to the sound of whoops and cheers and Lee Greenwood's God Bless the USA. Continue reading...

Authorities described the student as a juvenile male but did not provide further identification or specifics pending an investigationWisconsin police shot and killed a student whom officials say came to a local middle school with a gun. The student never got into the school, but as a precaution the entire district was put on a lockdown late Wednesday morning.Students have since been reunited with their parents, some of whom waited up to five hours for their children to be dropped at a bus storage center in Mount Horeb, a village about 20 miles south-west of Madison, the state capital, according to WMTV 15 news. Continue reading...

So far, 2024 has been a busy year for animal escapes. From a sauntering circus elephant in Montana to huskies breaking out of a pet cafe in Shenzhen, here are five times animals went on the run

We're now closing this blog - but you can follow all the latest news and reaction from campus protests across the US in our new live blog:

Focus of rally went beyond immigration, to fear of authoritarianism, as Trump held campaign event nearbyLed by a mariachi band, hundreds of demonstrators on Wednesday morning marched across Milwaukee to the Fiserv Forum - the home of the Milwaukee Bucks and, in July, the venue of the Republican national convention.The rally, organized by the immigrant and workers' rights group Voces de la Frontera, is an annual event, but in 2024 it holds particular weight. The focus of the rally extended beyond immigration, to fear of authoritarianism under Republican candidate Donald Trump and critique of Joe Biden's handling of the US role in Israel and Gaza. Continue reading...

Democrats pick up support of two Republicans to repeal law reinstated three weeks ago, with governor expected to ratify repealArizona lawmakers have repealed the state's 160-year-old statute banning nearly all abortions.The 1864 law, which was reinstated by the state supreme court three weeks ago, has made abortion a central focus in the battleground state and galvanized Democrats seeking to enshrine abortion rights. Continue reading...

Bill to use language by International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance to define antisemitism, which critics say would chill speechThe US House of Representatives has voted to pass an antisemitism awareness bill, a controversial measure sponsored by a New York Republican amid controversy over pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses in Manhattan and across the US, as Israel's war with Hamas drags on.The bill passed 320-91 with some bipartisan support. Continue reading...

Manhattan's district attorney, Alvin Bragg, said that approximately 280 people were arrested between protests at Columbia University and Cuny. 'There were approximately 280 total arrest from these two events,' Bragg confirmed during Wednesday's press conference.New York police stormed Columbia University and City College of New York on Tuesday, evicting students from both campuses. Large-scale student protests have broken out across US universities, opposing Israel's war on Gaza and calling on their institutions to sever ties with Israeli institutions. Bragg added: 'We will look carefully at each individual case on our docket and make decisions based on the facts and the law'

State supreme court last month cleared the way for the awful' ban, but also allowed November ballot measure for abortionA six-week abortion ban went into effect on Wednesday in Florida, cutting off access to the procedure before many people know they are pregnant and leveling the south-eastern United States' last stronghold for abortion rights.The ban went into force weeks after Florida's state supreme court issued a decision clearing the way for it to take effect. Strict bans now blanket all of the American deep south, increasing the strain on the country's remaining clinics. The closest clinic for most Floridians past six weeks of pregnancy is now several states away in North Carolina, which outlaws abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy. Continue reading...

The US secretary of state has said the US continues to oppose an Israeli offensive on Rafah without a plan to protect civilians. More than a million Palestinians have taken refuge from Israel's assault in the city in southern Gaza. Speaking at the end of a lengthy trip to the Middle East, Antony Blinken also urged Hamas to accept the current offer for a ceasefire

Tensions continue after night of unrest at UCLA and Columbia, as New York mayor blames outside agitators' for escalation

Fed announces it will keep interest rates at 5.25% to 5.5% as rate of inflation remains above target of 2%The Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that it is holding interest rates steady at 5.25% to 5.5%, their highest level in two decades, as inflation continues to dog the US economy.Though some had hoped the Fed would soon cut interest rates, which are at their highest level since 2007, the annual rate of inflation has stubbornly remained above 3%. The Fed's target rate is 2%. Continue reading...

The pandemic accelerated the shift away from notes and coins. But China and others are realising that transition has a priceOne of the idiosyncrasies of China's huge appetite for luxury goods has been the high sales of man bags - a niche item in the west. Their popularity initially reflected not just the fondness of the newly rich for conspicuous consumption, but also the practical need to carry large wodges of banknotes in a country that hadn't truly embraced credit cards. Early last decade, it was unremarkable to pay a quarter's rent or buy a car in cash.Yet even vegetable sellers in small markets, or people begging on the streets, now use QR codes. By 2020, 98% of people in a survey said they most commonly paid using smartphone apps. The advantage, for the consumer, is convenience. For the authorities it offers not only efficiency but oversight, in a country which is battling corruption and which closely surveils its citizens. Beijing has also been promoting a digital yuan" developed by its central bank. Continue reading...

Away from the back-and-forth of the campaign trail, thousands of students are taking part in pro-Palestinian encampment-style protests at more than 50 university campuses across the US

A day with some blind and partially sighted walkers has shown me how much I barely notice - and how hard it is to find the right wordsHow many shades of green are there? Whatever the answer may be, I soon ran out of words to describe them. I was walking north along the Grand Union canal, trying and failing to adequately describe what I could see, to a friend who couldn't. This was Dave Heeley, ultra-runner, who in 2008 became the first blind person to run seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. Today we were walking rather than running - which, with me guiding him, was just as well.I had guided a blind adventurer once before when I took part in the television series Pilgrimage. One of my fellow pilgrims was the remarkable Amar Latif. We were high up on the side of a deep, lush valley in eastern Serbia. I was focused on the trickiness of the path itself, but Amar kept asking me to describe the vista. I looked down that valley at the mountains in the distance and simply didn't know how or where to start. I had a bash, as there was plainly plenty of material to work with, but didn't feel I had done justice to the richness of that scene.Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Extremist's bid to remove House speaker appears certain to fail as Democratic leaders indicate they will table or kill motion

Rejection by three-judge panel fuels new uncertainty about district boundaries as state prepares for congressional electionsA new congressional map giving Louisiana a second majority-Black House district was rejected on Tuesday by a panel of three federal judges, fueling new uncertainty about district boundaries as the state prepares for fall congressional elections.The 2-1 ruling forbids the use of a map drawn up in January by the legislature after a different federal judge blocked a map from 2022. The earlier map maintained a single Black-majority district and five mostly white districts, in a state with a population that is about one-third Black. Continue reading...

The European hospital is crammed with severely injured and dying children - a military offensive here will be catastrophic

We would like to hear from students on US campuses that have seen protests

Republican senator says Noem's story of killing her 14-month-old hunting dog makes her unlikely to be Trump's running mate

The viral Glasgow event made children cry and adults seethe. Could a California tribute provide some measure of absolution?She was the sad Oompa Loompa seen around the world. Inside a bleak warehouse in Glasgow, a supposed celebration of Wonka's delectable world of chocolate left children crying and parents calling the police. Attendees paid 35 to visit a bleak warehouse with a handful of props and posters; inside, they were treated to two jellybeans each and a few poorly costumed actors. Images of the event went extremely viral, making international news and inspiring a horror film and an hour-long documentary.Two months later, I found myself walking toward another grim-looking warehouse, this time in downtown Los Angeles. I was here for Willy's Chocolate Experience LA, a tribute to the Glasgow disaster promising live entertainment, a red carpet-style photo op and a rare chance to meet the celebrity Oompa Loompa herself. Continue reading...

Dozens of anti-war protesters also arrested in New York after Columbia also calls in police. Plus, Trump fined by trial judge over gag order breaches

Violent clashes between pro-Palestinian protesters and counter-demonstrators broke out at the University of California in Los Angeles. Aerial footage shows people trying to break through barriers protecting the pro-Palestinian protest group. Administrators called in law enforcement, who surrounded the area. The 7 October attack on southern Israel by Hamas militants from Gaza, and the ensuing Israeli offensive on the Palestinian territory, have unleashed the biggest outpouring of US student activism since the antiracism protests of 2020 after the death of George Floyd. Police have arrested hundreds of students across the US, including dozens at Columbia University, where protesters barricaded a university building

We chose Yale and it chose us, but one party was betrayedOliver was arrested this morning. 13 students arrested," Ella texted me at 8.27am, No, 45."Are you awake? Should we go? I'm feeling paralyzed right now."Grey Battle studies political science at Yale University. She grew up in Birmingham, Alabama Continue reading...

The South Dakota governor's proud dog murder tells a lot about how posturing Trumpists like she and Greg Gianforte thinkAfter South Dakota's Republican governor, Kristi Noem, proudly admitted in a forthcoming memoir to marching her young puppy Cricket to a gravel pit to kill her with a shotgun, she rationalized the despicable act by arguing that Cricket had been aggressive.She also said that she used the same gravel pit to shoot a disgusting, musky, rancid" unnamed goat - but botched the job, leaving the goat to suffer unnecessarily while she rushed to her truck to get a second shell. (It's unclear why Noem, supposedly a shrewd outdoorswoman, didn't think to carry more shells on her.) Continue reading...

Eighth-grader Acie Holland from Wisconsin hailed as hero for quick thinking after he noticed driver had become unresponsiveAn eighth-grade student recently averted a tragedy when he brought a careening school bus carrying him and his fellow students to a stop after its driver fell ill from a medical emergency, according to officials who are praising the boy's actions.Acie Holland III was taking a bus ride home when he realized the woman driving had become unresponsive, his principal, Anna Young, wrote in a letter to the campus community. The bus veered into the oncoming traffic lane, prompting Acie to rush up to the driver, move her foot off the gas pedal and apply the brake. Continue reading...

Lawyers for Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, election workers suing website for defamation, made disclosure in April court filingEmployees of the far-right website Gateway Pundit, which has played a key role in spreading lies about the 2020 election, were worried contributors were not credible and expressed concerns about plagiarism, a court filing last month revealed.Lawyers for Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, two Georgia election workers suing the site for defamation, made the disclosure in a 16 April court filing seeking a court order forcing the website to turn over more internal documents. They said they had obtained text messages from Gateway Pundit's director of operations and associate editor expressing concerns that a contributor engaged in plagiarism and made claims without any sources". Continue reading...

Paul Auster, the author of 34 books including the acclaimed New York Trilogy, has died aged 77. Auster became known for his highly stylised, quirkily riddlesome postmodernist fiction in which narrators are rarely other than unreliable and the bedrock of plot is continually shifting', the novelist Joyce Carol Oates wrote in 2010 Continue reading...

League commissioner Jessica Berman talks ballooning franchise values, the merits of expansion and reducing injuriesNo soccer league in the world is experiencing a boom comparative to the NWSL in 2024. Last month, the world's first purpose-built stadium for a women's sports franchise opened in Kansas City, marking the new home of the Current. San Diego Wave broke its NWSL home opener attendance record with over 32,000 fans, while the NWSL was listed at No 5 on the World's 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2024.At the NWSL we are working to drive innovation, growth and increased investment in women's soccer," Jessica Berman, the NWSL's commissioner, tells the Guardian. I'm excited about the 2024 season and to see what else we can accomplish in the women's soccer space." Continue reading...

New York police moved on to the campus to clear out Hamilton Hall, an academic building that had been taken over as part of pro-Palestine protests. Police arrested nearly 100 people as they cleared Columbia University of demonstrators who were issued a notice to disband their encampment after negotiations failed to come to a resolution Continue reading...

The president is trailing the hard right - and forthcoming European elections could leave him a political lame duckIn the latest of his visionary speeches on the future of Europe, Emmanuel Macron called for the EU to transform itself into a military power or face death". Yet his own presidency of France may be about to enter a long twilight zone unless he can reverse his party's deepening slump in June's European parliament election.Macron's unpopularity is the main reason why his centrist pro-European Renaissance party is trailing a distant second in opinion polls behind Marine Le Pen's hard-right National Rally (RN). Le Pen's list is led by Jordan Bardella, 29, the rising star in the populist anti-immigration party. Renaissance, whose list is headed by little-known MEP Valerie Hayer, is down to 17.5% in the latest survey while the RN is on 31%. The two parties were neck-and-neck in the last European election, five years ago .Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre Continue reading...

NYPD officers move on to campus on Tuesday evening to clear out Hamilton Hall building taken over by protesters, with reports of more arrests at City College of New York

For the first time Ukraine had the right conditions to make reparations to those subjected to crimes such as rape and sexual slavery. What would it take to replicate this globally?Across the world, women and girls continue to be plagued by gross human rights violations. One that is specifically targeted at them is conflict-related sexual violence. Living in conflict, for so many people, means the possibility of being subjected to life-altering crimes such as sexual torture, rape and slavery.Now, survivors of wartime sexual violations in Ukraine are to receive reparation payments. It is a landmark case - the fastest that a country at war has created a system to fulfil the right to reparation. Why has this right not been enacted in a timely manner globally? Continue reading...

New York City police have entered Columbia University in an apparent effort to disperse pro-Palestinian protesters who seized and occupied a classroom building and have been demonstrating on the campus for two weeks. Some students were escorted off campus with their hands zip tied behind their backs. Some protesters were loaded on to law enforcement buses parked outside the university.

Images on TV show police on campus in New York after students take over Hamilton Hall building amid continuing protests

Time magazine called the ex-president's plans an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world'Donald Trump has warned that Joe Biden and his family could face multiple criminal prosecutions once he leaves office unless the US supreme court awards Trump immunity in his own legal battles with the criminal justice system.In a sweeping interview with Time magazine, Trump painted a startling picture of his second term, from how he would wield the justice department to hinting he may let states monitor pregnant women to enforce abortion laws. Continue reading...

Police say four officers who died serving warrant over firearms possession were heroes' as investigation into shooting continuesEight law-enforcement officers were shot, four fatally, during a shootout on Monday outside a home in North Carolina while serving a warrant to someone wanted for possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. It was the deadliest attack on US law enforcement since 2016.Three of the four law-enforcement officers killed were working on a fugitive taskforce as agents with the US Marshals Service, and the fourth was a police officer who had recently been named officer of the month by his department. Continue reading...

Keith Davidson takes stand as judge fines ex-president maximum financial penalty for violating gag order - and threatens jail timeDonald Trump was confronted with the details of how the former lawyer for Stormy Daniels, the adult film actor, secured the $130,000 in hush money at the heart of his criminal trial in New York, after being found to be in criminal contempt of a gag order prohibiting attacks on witnesses.The direct examination of the lawyer, Keith Davidson, is expected to continue on Thursday when the trial resumes. Here are the key takeaways from day nine of People of the State of New York vs Donald J Trump: Continue reading...

Trump's trial got moving again with testimony from the attorney representing Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal in hush-money negotiations

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Hush-money trial hears about ex-National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard asking Keith Davidson: Did he cheat on Melania?'Donald Trump's New York criminal trial heated up on Tuesday afternoon as Keith Davidson, former attorney for both Stormy Daniels, the adult film actor, and Karen McDougal, the former Playboy model, was questioned by prosecutors about texts in which he was asked whether Trump had cheated on his wife.In those texts, former National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard asked Davidson: Did he cheat on Melania?" and Do you know if the affair was during his marriage to Melania?" Continue reading...

A pro-Palestine demonstrator used a jug to defend against officers. Now the image has become a meme of the movementAs college students across the US demand administrators divest from Israel and support Palestinian freedom, scenes of brutal arrests have spread across social media. But in recent days, a more playful meme has emerged: the water-cooler jug as an icon of resistance.Last week, students at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, barricaded themselves inside of a campus building after police showed up to their protest in riot gear. The situation turned tense: while the students held the line against the police, who struck them with batons, one anonymous protester decided to fight back, bonking a cop on the helmet with a water jug that had originally been used as a drum. Continue reading...

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Pro-Palestinian protesters have taken over Hamilton Hall, a key campus building, after talks to end the encampment failedPro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University have occupied a building on campus in an escalation of their months-long demonstration against Israel's war in Gaza.The takeover of Hamilton Hall - named after one of America's founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton - followed the failure of talks with university authorities aimed at winning the protesters' agreement to dismantle an encampment of about 120 tents. Continue reading...

The regime wants to crush resistance. But those it rules continue to push back against its brutalityThe protests that exploded across Iran following Mahsa Amini's death in custody in September 2022 were a turning point. The young Iranian-Kurdish woman had been detained by the morality police" for improper hijab". Not only did young women take to the streets and cast off their scarves in fury, but parents and grandparents came too. The protests were strikingly socially diverse. Critically, men joined the cries of woman, life, freedom". The regime reacted with predictable fury, killing hundreds and arresting thousands. It succeeded in suppressing the demonstrations. But many women refused to return to obeying the strict dress code.It was inevitable that the Iranian leadership would strike back. Its quarrel is not only with women's liberties, but with the precedent set for defiance. It is determined to crush opposition as it crushed the street protests, with a court sentencing a popular rapper to death - not for violence but simply dissent. Toomaj Salehi, courageous in supporting the nationwide protests in 2022, was found guilty of corruption on Earth". He had previously been sentenced to six years over his role, before being freed by a court citing a technicality. Continue reading...

The right has painted nonviolent protests against the war on Gaza as hotbeds of woke' terrorism. It's a pretext for repressionAcross the world people have been shocked by social media footage of heavily armed law enforcement officers arresting peacefully protesting students and professors at university campuses around the United States. The so-called land of the free and home of the brave" looks neither free nor brave - except for the brave protesters who continue to stand up to state and university repression.Although government repression of student protests is not unique to either the US or this particular period, the current orgy of state repression is very much an illustration of the current crisis of liberal democracy as it is squeezed by both illiberalism and neoliberalism. Continue reading...