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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...

With all 18 jurors now chosen, the trial is expected to move toward opening statements next week; man apparently set self on fire outside courthouse

Ken Griffin's Citadel Securities claimed Devin Nunes would be fired on The Apprentice' amid stock trading rowThe CEO of Donald Trump's social media empire was branded a proverbial loser" whom the former president would have fired on The Apprentice" by a trading firm owned by the billionaire Republican donor Ken Griffin on Friday.In an extraordinary statement, Citadel Securities accused Devin Nunes, chief executive of Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), of trying to deflect blame for the company's recent stock market woes. TMTG hit back claiming Citadel was world famous for screwing over" small investors. Continue reading...

Florida resident in critical condition in hospital after images of incident carried live on televisionA man was in critical condition in a New York hospital on Friday after setting himself on fire outside the lower Manhattan courthouse where Donald Trump is on trial in a hush-money case.Pictures of the incident were carried live on television and spread on X, formerly Twitter. Continue reading...

Cases listed in federal documents raise alarms around emergency pregnancy care, especially in states with strict abortion lawsOne woman miscarried in the restroom lobby of a Texas emergency room as front desk staff refused to admit her to the hospital.Another woman learned that her fetus had no heartbeat at a Florida hospital, the day after a security guard turned her away from the facility. And in North Carolina, a woman gave birth in a car after an emergency room couldn't offer an ultrasound, and the baby later died. Continue reading...

California city sues neighbor after Oakland votes to rename airport to include San Francisco Bay', arguing consumers will be confusedSan Francisco and neighboring Oakland have long maintained a friendly rivalry, whether over sports or tacos. But a spat over an airport name is taking the feud to new heights.San Francisco on Thursday sued Oakland over that city's decision to change the name of its airport to the San Francisco Bay Oakland international airport. Continue reading...

Both Iran and Israel are calibrating their responses. That does not mean the region should breathe easyThe danger facing the Middle East is not from wild or impulsive action, but from the considered decisions ofmen who believe they know what they are doing andhow their opponents will respond. Their confidence is not reassuring when their judgment haspreviously fallen short.On Friday, Iran was quick to play down the overnight strike by Israel, suggesting that it was unclear who was responsible and indicating that there would not be immediate retaliation. Israel had chosen to launch a limited attack on Isfahan, the home of a major nuclear site, without targeting the facility itself. The aim was apparently to send a message about what it could do, not to cause significant damage now. If this is the extent of its response to Iran's weekend attack, it is far from the worst that many had predicted. The optimistic view is that both sides feel, or at least feel they can claim, that they have restored deterrence to some degree. A moment of respite is welcome. But relief would be premature. Continue reading...

Coalition of lawmakers helped legislation clear procedural hurdle to reach final votes, following opposition from rightwing RepublicansThe US House pushed ahead on Friday with a $95bn foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and humanitarian support after Democrats came to the rescue of Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker.A coalition of lawmakers helped the legislation clear a procedural hurdle to reach final votes this weekend, as Friday morning's vote followed a rare move late on Thursday for a House committee that normally votes along party lines. Continue reading...

The president of Columbia University testified about her administration's handling of campus unrest. Here's what I would have saidSurely I'm not the only person who has wondered what I would say if I were one of the college presidents who has been summoned to testify before the House committee on education and the workforce. How would I answer their unmistakably hostile questions about how the war in Gaza has been affecting campus life - and about how the university administration is dealing with the divisive and threatening atmosphere that the conflict has created among students and faculty?After two presidents - Harvard's Claudine Gay and the University of Pennsylvania's M Elizabeth Magill - lost their jobs this winter, at least partly because of their responses to the committee's interrogation, I imagined that I might have tried to sound more thoughtful, more human, less lawyered up, more cognizant of the difficulties and complexities inherent in these issues. But both women seemed to be repeating what they'd been instructed to say. They claimed that their response to an openly antisemitic statement would depend on context, a word that - they must have known - was wide open to the misinterpretation, dissatisfaction and mockery it almost instantly engendered. I even imagined appealing to the lawmakers' decency and intelligence, to their sense that we were all working to find a way to end this brutal war. But, as time has shown, that would have been an absurd idea.Francine Prose is a novelist. Her memoir, 1974: A Personal History, will be published in June Continue reading...

Both seem keen to limit hostilities, and key Arab states are ready to resist Tehran. But real change will require new Israeli leadershipWhen it comes to the Middle East, it's the pessimists who look smartest. Predict the worst and you'll rarely be proved wrong. If you are, it's usually because your forecast was insufficiently bleak.So put on your gloom-tinted spectacles and assess the events of the last week. You'll see the dawn of a grim new era, in which the region's two strongest powers, Israel and Iran, trade blows directly. Last weekend, Iran crossed what had previously been a red line, aiming a barrage of missiles and drones directly at Israeli territory for the first time. In the early hours of Friday morning, Israel responded with a series of drone strikes on targets inside Iran, including Isfahan, site of an airbase and the country's burgeoning nuclear programme. You don't have to be Clausewitz to know that two regional powers, one an aspirant nuclear state, the other already there, engaged in a tit-for-tat exchange of fire aimed at each other's sovereign terrain spells danger.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian 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...

New York are a talented but messy team. Instead it could be the Dallas Stars who come out on top in the Stanley Cup finalIn clinching the Presidents' Trophy - awarded to the team with the best regular season record - the New York Rangers now hope to break the curse that purportedly jinxes its holders to playoff failure. It's been a decade since a Presidents' Trophy-winning team, the 2013 Chicago Blackhawks, went on to win that year's Stanley Cup. Are the Rangers that kind of team? Continue reading...

Senior Iranian official says there is no plan for immediate retaliation. Plus, all 12 jurors seated in Trump criminal trial

Students had pitched tents on New York City campus, demanding ceasefire and for the school to financially divest from IsraelIsra Hirsi, the daughter of the Minnesota Democratic representative Ilhan Omar was among more than 100 protesters arrested on Thursday on Columbia University's campus in New York City, as police were called in to break up those who pitched tents to stage a pro-Palestinian protest.Further demonstrations protesting the arrests and the university's decision to call in outside law enforcement continued into the night at the private Ivy League school. Continue reading...

A compelling matchup between two of America's brightest young boxing talents has been overshadowed by questions about the the social-media superstar's state of mindOne of the most unusual build-ups to a major prizefight in recent memory came no closer to normalcy on Thursday afternoon when Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia came together for the final press conference ahead of their intriguing but unsettling world super lightweight title fight in Brooklyn.On paper it's the caliber of event that's all too rare in boxing today: a delicious matchup between two of America's brightest young stars, both 25 years old and at the front of their athletic primes with ample top-flight experience. But it's been almost entirely overshadowed by Garcia's erratic behavior both in person and on social media, calling into question the responsibility of the New York State Athletic Commission in assessing a fighter's mental fitness and whether Saturday's fight at Barclays Center should even take place. Continue reading...

Her cookery and lifestyle show looks like a sensible retreat from the abuse she's suffered simply for being a modern black womanMeghan Markle has bottled it. Or more precisely, she has been making jam. Branded jars of her strawberry preserves, adorned with one of those frilly caps you see at village fete produce stalls, were distributed this week to assorted celebrity friends to post on social media (though possibly not for actually eating, given the restrictions of a Hollywood diet). This housewifely offering marks the debut of American Riviera Orchard, which sounds like one of Jamie Oliver's children but is in fact the name of the Duchess of Sussex's new commercial venture, under which she plans to flog everything from tableware to yoga kit to her reinvented self.In a retro, sepia-tinted launch video, the woman we once hoped would put a rocket up the royal family is seen blissfully stirring a saucepan and arranging flowers. It's only three years since she wrote an open letter to US congressional leaders lobbying for paid family leave for working parents, sparking wild speculation about a run for political office, but suddenly that feels like a very long time ago. For now at least, it's goodbye to the much-mocked empowering feminist podcasts and hello to the safety of her Californian kitchen. Meghan is, it seems, entering her tradwife era. Continue reading...

Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is challenging incumbent Rick Scott and highlighting his unapologetic and proud' support for the state's six-week banA round table on abortion rights, hosted by Florida's Democratic Senate candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, has only just begun, and already she finds herself comforting a woman in tears with a very personal story to tell.The woman is from Colombia, and speaks softly in Spanish as she tells the intimate gathering of the Miami-Dade Hispanic Democratic Caucus about the distressing decision her daughter had to make to terminate a pregnancy after learning the fetus was not developing. Continue reading...

Richard Nixon infected the modern Republican party with a sickness that would kill it - Donald Trump has finished the jobLast Sunday, on ABC's This Week, host George Stephanopoulos asked Chris Sununu, New Hampshire's Republican governor, about his recent switch from supporting Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, for the Republican presidential nomination to supporting former president Donald Trump.Your words were very, very clear on January 11, 2021," Stephanopoulos reminded Sununu. You said that President Trump's rhetoric and actions contributed to the insurrection. No other president in history has contributed to an insurrection. So, please explain." Continue reading...

In her willingness to unleash state violence against student protestors, Minouche Shafik proved herself to be a willing ally to extremistsThe students sat on the ground and sang as police in riot gear approached them. Eventually, more than 100 of them would be arrested; their tents, protest signs and Palestinian flags were gathered into trash bags by the police and thrown away. One video showed officers and university maintenance workers destroying food that had been donated to the encampment, making sure it would be inedible. According to student journalists reporting from WKCR, Columbia University's student radio station, one arrested student protestor asked the police to be allowed to go to their dorm to collect medication and was denied; as a result, they went into shock. The arrested students were charged with trespassing" on the campus that they are charged more than $60,000 a year to attend.The day before her administration asked the New York police department to storm their campus and arrest their students, Minouche Shafik, the Columbia University president, testified before Congress, saying that she wanted her university to be a safe and welcoming environment for everyone. But Shafik, who was called to testify after missing a hearing last year where the presidents of Penn and Harvard were each grilled on their insufficient hostility to pro-Palestinian students, appeared eager to please the Republican-controlled committee. The Penn and Harvard presidents who had testified each lost their jobs soon thereafter; Shafik clearly entered the hearing room determined to keep her own.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

San Jose have goalkeeping problems, the Whitecaps are defending in a unique way and Miami are given a helping handWelcome back to the Guardian's MLS Power Rankings, where I have a beef with your specific team and your specific team alone.MLS roster rules might be changing in the middle of the season, but as for this column? It's following the same format as it has all season. We're still ranking teams from worst to first. But along with the rankings, we're diving deep into a handful of teams from around the league who are doing particularly interesting things. Continue reading...

Bad actors know that factchecking sites are a vital democratic tool - that's why they've launched their own dishonest versionsAsked by sociologists about his views on the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a Russian in his early 70s shifted the conversation to the massacre in Bucha - one of the worst atrocities committed by the Russian military in Ukraine. Evidence of Russian war crimes was fake, he said: Take Busha or Bucha or wherever it may be. The way they filmed it, the way the bodies were arranged: it was clearly a fake!"Two things stand out from this. He parroted, word for word, statements of Russian propaganda about bodies being actors arranged on the ground", echoing the claims of War on Fakes, the Kremlin's imitation of a factchecking organisation. Yet despite his certainty, he did not know anything about the town, to the extent that he could not pronounce its name correctly. Relying on an anti-fake" outlet modelled on western factchecking, he was not interested in facts but rather in shielding Russia from accusations.Maxim Alyukov is a political sociologist Continue reading...

Our writers pick the winner, key players and dark horses as the NBA postseason gets into full swingGolden State Warriors. It feels flat-out wrong to have a postseason without Stephen Curry, but regardless of how good he still is, that's the way the cookie crumbles when you don't give him an adequate supporting cast. Hopefully the Warriors will take the summer to retool a clearly insufficient roster. CDL Continue reading...

I fear we are forgetting lessons from that terrible historyI don't usually talk about my great-uncle Walter. Gen Walter Warlimont, as my grandfather's brother was formally known, was head of the national defence department in the high command of the Wehrmacht, the armed forces of Nazi Germany. Only two people were between him and the Fuhrer in the chain of command. Walter worked so closely with Hitler that the failed assassination attempt in July 1944 injured his arm. The orders he signed during wartime - about who to shoot to kill, about how to treat prisoners - meant he had hundreds of thousands of lives on his conscience.Not that Uncle Walter was the only one in the family who facilitated the Third Reich and the Holocaust. My paternal grandparents were very proud to have been among the very earliest members of Hitler's party. My maternal grandfather - Walter's brother - was the head of a factory in Vienna that made the guidance systems for the V2 rocket, a factory that was staffed by Russian and Ukrainian slave labourers. Continue reading...