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Markwayne Mullin says he ‘misspoke’ when questioning witness about childcare and teaching of raceQuestioning a witness about childcare and the teaching of race, the Oklahoma Republican senator Markwayne Mullin said: “I don’t want reality.”The remark prompted laughter in the hearing room. Continue reading...

Al Pacino will become a father again at 83. Robert De Niro, 79, just had his seventh child. What’s the endgame for this fantastic actors’ smackdown?Al Pacino and Robert De Niro are forever destined to be intertwined. The two greatest actors of their generation – the two greatest actors of most generations – Pacino and De Niro will spend the rest of eternity being compared. People will tie themselves up in knots over who did the best work, who was the best in The Godfather Part II, who won their first scene together in Heat, who was the least bad in Righteous Kill.And now the comparisons have started to spill out from their professional efforts. A couple of weeks ago Twitter blew a gasket trying to work out whether Al Pacino was sexier than Robert De Niro. The competition between them is fierce, and never lets up. Just days after De Niro announced that he’d become a father again at the age of 79, Pacino has announced that he’s about to become a father again at the age of 83. Continue reading...

Conservative activists in America are doing everything they can to treat LGBTQ people as less than humanPride Month is here, and this year it’s happening in a tough environment.American corporations – although eager to declare their support for LGBTQ+ people in order to better market their products – are often quick to retreat when protests follow.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

The House passed a deal brokered by Joe Biden and Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy with a final vote of 314 to 117

The goal is to deflect and distract – to use scapegoating, racism and outright lies to disguise what’s really going onRepublican leaders have mastered the art of manufacturing crises to divert the public’s attention from the real crisis of our era – the siphoning of income, wealth and power from most Americans by a small group at the top.Consider the fake fears they’ve been whipping up:Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

Exclusive: Two Trump lawyers considered a ‘murder-suicide pact’ where one would resign if the other was firedDonald Trump’s legal team for months has weathered deep distrust and interpersonal conflict that could undermine its defense of the former president as the criminal investigation into his handling of classified documents and obstruction of justice at Mar-a-Lago nears its conclusion.The turmoil inside the legal team only exploded into public view when one of the top lawyers, Tim Parlatore, abruptly resigned two weeks’ ago from the representation citing irreconcilable differences with Trump’s senior adviser and in-house counsel Boris Epshteyn. Continue reading...

The governing body for the game in Canada has been questioned by MPs looking into abuse and poor governance. But some believe little progress has been madeTestimony by newly elected Canada Soccer president Charmaine Crooks has been called “revisionist” by a former board member after her appearance in front of members of parliament investigating sexual misconduct within sport.Crooks joined Concacaf president Victor Montagliani and other former Canada Soccer presidents and executives as they faced criticism from the Canadian parliament’s Heritage Committee for poor governance and failing to take allegations of abuse seriously. Continue reading...

William ‘Bill’ Cooley, the first general to face a military trial, will end his career on Thursday as a colonelA two-star US air force general convicted last year of abusive sexual contact for forcing his sister-in-law to kiss him will lose his rank on retiring, officials said.William “Bill” Cooley was a major general but will end his career on Thursday as a colonel, officials said. The statement said the air force “expects its leaders to embody our core values and holds them accountable if they fall short of expectations”. Continue reading...

The controversial film championed by the BJP is an Islamophobic fantasyTwo weeks after I was born in the curfewed town of Aligarh, in Uttar Pradesh, the Aligarh riots of 1990 broke out. What began as skirmishes exploded into widespread bloodletting after three leading Hindi daily newspapers published front-page headlines reporting the targeted killing of Hindus inside a hospital run by Muslims. Those killings turned out to be the fevered imaginings of two Hindu “eyewitnesses”. But the actual massacres ignited by this fake news eventually left about a hundred people dead, the vast majority of them Muslims.A fortnight ago, I watched the new Bollywood hit The Kerala Story, in a rundown cinema in Delhi. The sluggish air conditioning seemed to have given up against the sultry May heat. A group of (largely) young Hindu men packed out the theatre. Occasionally, they broke out into passionate chants of “Jai Shri Ram”, the cry that often accompanies videos of “vigilante violence” committed against Muslims. Yet when they streamed out of the theatre, they looked more horrified than enraged, like sports fans numbed after their side has taken one beating after another. The rolling spectacle of an all-round “Hindu humiliation” – including graphic scenes depicting Hindu women being violently raped by Muslims – had lasted for more than two hours.Asim Ali is an independent political researcher and columnist based in Delhi Continue reading...

Denver or Miami? Our contributors pick the winner, key players and dark horses before the NBA’s grand finale tips offA lot has been made of the importance of a balanced roster with continuity, but, somehow, still not enough. The Nuggets are the prime example of this: their core has been together for years, they’ve had the same coach the entire time, their role players know their roles and execute them brilliantly, and they have arguably the best player in the league in Nikola Jokić to tie it all together. CDL Continue reading...

Seeing the former founder of Theranos turn herself in should have offered the thrill of schadenfreude. Instead I felt sympathyIt is an image that, for any number of vilified public figures, is supposed to offer the audience a measure of closure: a version of the perp walk to the front door of the jail. On Tuesday, Elizabeth Holmes, erstwhile founder of the blood testing startup, Theranos, self-presented to a federal prison in Texas to begin her 11-year sentence for fraud. So much about Holmes has turned out to be phoney that, on looking at the photos and feeling the first peckings of sympathy, I instantly checked myself to see where I was being manipulated.Still, a measure of sympathy remained. Holmes was dressed in jeans and a sweater, her black turtle-neck long retired along with the contrived pitch of her voice. It is always curious in these circumstances to consider what the fraudster tells herself has actually happened, how far into denial the internal narrative goes. On the evidence of her own testimony and the interview Holmes gave to the New York Times last month, she is deeply invested in the story of her own victimisation, both by her former business partner and boyfriend, Sunny Balwani, currently serving his own almost 13-year sentence, and by Silicon Valley itself. Even the wording of her apology – “I am devastated by my failings” – seemed designed to position her not as the instigator of her own bad behaviour but as just another of its passive victims.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

As adults, we are taught to keep a lid on our emotions. It has left me longing for the days of relentless, unbridled mirthA cute video of a baby laughing its head off has been doing the rounds on Twitter this week. He is sitting in a cardboard box as it’s dragged along by the family dog. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Rospa) may frown at such a caper, but their concerns wouldn’t bother this bairn, for the lad’s quite helpless with mirth. Naturally, his joy is infectious.When I was not much older than a baby, I was obsessed with Led Zeppelin. In the live recording of Stairway to Heaven at Madison Square Garden in 1973, Robert Plant follows up the lyric about forests echoing with laughter with a question for the crowd: “Does anyone remember laughter?” he enquires plaintively. Even as a devotee of his work, I remember thinking this plea a bit on the dismal side. But now, looking at the delight of the baby in the box, I find myself asking a similar question: does anyone remember laughing like that? You know, laughing and fearing you may never stop laughing, laughing so hard it hurts, laughing so uncontrollably that you’re crying, actually crying. It does still happen, of course, but less often. Or perhaps that’s just me.Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The House debated legislation to increase the US debt limit until January 2025, before passing the bill by a vote of 314 to 117. Republican representatives passed the bill overwhelmingly. Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic leader, praised Democrats for pushing back against 'extreme Maga Republicans' before Kevin McCarthy took to the floor claiming the bill would deliver the 'largest savings in American history'. The White House tactically avoided pushing back against the line to avoid inflaming the hard right. 'Tonight, we’re gonna give America hope,' McCarthy said

Divisions were revealed, between and among party members, but both sides are counting the passage as a winThe US House of Representatives passed the much-debated debt ceiling bill on Wednesday evening, moving the country closer to avoiding a potentially catastrophic default. Next up in line is the Senate, the Democrat majority chamber, which would push the bill to Joe Biden’s desk.But the vote on Wednesday revealed the divided lines, not only between Republicans and Democrats, but within the parties. Here are some key takeaways from this vote on the Fiscal Responsibility Act: Continue reading...

The bill has reached the crucial 218 threshold to pass – though some Republicans may attempt to derail the processMike Pence is expected to launch his 2024 presidential bid within the next two weeks, The Messenger reports.In a screenshot of an email sent by former Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake to delegates of the Georgia Republican Party, Lake wrote: Continue reading...

Federal prosecutors have obtained audio in which the former president acknowledged he retained a classified paper on IranFederal prosecutors obtained audio recording of a summer 2021 meeting where Donald Trump suggested he should have declassified a military document about Iran he admitted retaining, according to people familiar with the criminal investigation into his retention of national security papers.The document at issue is understood to be classified as “secret” – significant as the justice department typically prefers to charge espionage cases involving retention of materials at that level, rather than “top secret” papers that might be too sensitive or “confidential” papers that are too low. Continue reading...

Given how good the US adaptation of the British comedy was, I am hopeful about the new series, starring Felicity Ward as the incompetent boss

With 149 Republicans and 165 Democrats supporting the measure, Biden has called on the Senate to quickly take up the legislationThe House passed a bill to raise the debt ceiling on Wednesday, clearing a major legislative hurdle with just days left before the US is expected to default.The final House vote was 314 to 117, with 149 Republicans and 165 Democrats supporting the measure. In a potentially worrisome sign for the House Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, 71 members of his conference opposed the deal that he brokered with President Joe Biden. Continue reading...

Rick Chow appears in court over death of Cyrus Carmack-Belton, 14, who police say was running away from convenience martA gas station owner from South Carolina accused of chasing a 14-year-old boy from his store and fatally shooting him in the back made his first court appearance on Tuesday, on a murder charge.Rick Chow said he thought the boy had shoplifted four bottles of water on Sunday night from his Xpress Mart Shell station in Columbia, authorities said. But Cyrus Carmack-Belton put the bottles back in the cooler and was off the property and running away when he was killed, the Richland county sheriff, Leon Lott, said. Continue reading...

Rapper and producer says company undermined joint venture by marketing key products Ciroc and DeLeon as ‘Black brands’The US rapper, producer and entrepreneur Sean Combs has sued the spirits giant Diageo, accusing the British multinational of racism, and of deliberately undermining a joint-venture spirits brand.In a court filing on Wednesday, lawyers for Combs say Diageo and its executives have “put their feet on the neck of Mr Combs’ brands”, choking off production, distribution and sales of Combs Wines and Spirits brands, including Ciroc vodka and the high-end tequila brand DeLeon. Continue reading...

Staley says that he communicated with Jamie Dimon about the convicted sex offender, in a lawsuit against the US banking giantThe former JPMorgan Chase executive and ex-Barclays CEO Jes Staley has alleged that he communicated with JP Morgan’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, about the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a contradiction of Dimon’s testimony, in a lawsuit brought by the US Virgin Islands against JP Morgan.In a report on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal said it had obtained legal papers in the case in which Staley claimed that he communicated with Dimon about the bank’s business with Epstein after the disgraced financier was arrested in Florida in 2006 for sexually abusing girls and pleaded guilty to soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution two years later. Continue reading...

Joe Lombardo had said on campaign trail that he would respect will of voters who codified abortion rights in 1990 referendumThe governor of Nevada, Joe Lombardo, on Tuesday became one of the first Republican governors to enshrine protections for out-of-state abortion patients and in-state providers, adding the western state to the list of those passing laws to solidify their status as safe havens for abortion patients.The legislation codifies an executive order from Steve Sisolak – the Democrat Lombardo beat for the governor’s mansion last year – that bars state agencies from assisting out-of-state investigations that could lead to the prosecution of abortion patients who travel to Nevada. It also ensures medical boards and commissions that oversee medical licenses do not discipline or disqualify doctors who provide abortions. Continue reading...

Christopher Krebs was dismissed days after his office called the 2020 election ‘the most secure in American history’The US special counsel investigating Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 election defeat is examining his firing of a cybersecurity official whose office said the vote was secure, the New York Times said.Jack Smith, who is also investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents, has subpoenaed former Trump White House staffers as well as Christopher Krebs, who oversaw the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa) under Trump, the Times said, citing unnamed sources. Continue reading...

Former New Jersey governor, who ran for Republican nomination in 2016, intends a ‘more hopeful note’ as he takes on TrumpThe former New Jersey governor Chris Christie will reportedly announce a second run for president next week, seeking to take the political fight over the 2024 Republican nomination to Donald Trump.The news site Axios first said Christie, 60, would launch his campaign in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Conspiracy theories abound as to who is behind the strikes, but the idea that all is going to plan is getting harder to sustainRussian authorities are trying to downplay a series of drone attacks across Moscow, including on its most elite area, Rublyovka. The Kremlin has blamed Ukraine, although Kyiv has denied any involvement in the attacks – the first of this scale on Russian soil since it invaded Ukraine 15 months ago.Russian media reports originally suggested as many as 30 drones targeted the city, and videos of (apparent) direct hits on buildings went viral. But soon Kremlin officials reclaimed the narrative. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin claimed only eight drones had participated in the attack, and insisted any damage to buildings was caused by debris after they were shot down. Defence minister Sergei Shoigu, buoyed up by support from politicians and president Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, tried to distract from the embarrassment, citing the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed by Russian forces, and the Nato equipment Russia has purportedly destroyed.Dr Jade McGlynn is a research fellow at King’s College London and the author of Russia’s War and Memory Makers: The Politics of the Past in Putin’s RussiaDo 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...

Federal safety authority Osha has imposed millions in fines on discount retailer which is largest retail chain in USDollar General, the retail chain with the largest number of stores in the US, has faced scrutiny from government safety regulators in recent months over dozens of violations and fines for “systemic hazards” at the discount retailer.The chain has grown from more than 8,000 stores in 2008 to over 18,000 locations today in 47 states. That outsized growth has been accompanied by millions of dollars in penalties for safety violations and lawsuits over injured workers and customers. Continue reading...

Democratic congresswoman confirms she will not support agreement to raise debt ceiling and avoid 5 June defaultThe New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she would vote against the debt limit deal on Wednesday night, as the 5 June deadline looms.On Tuesday, the Hill said the office of one of the most high-profile progressives in the US House confirmed she would not support the controversial agreement to raise the debt ceiling, which was agreed by Republicans under the speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and the Biden White House. Continue reading...

Aderrien Murry was shot by a police officer responding to 911 call, resulting in collapsed lung, fractured ribs and lacerated liverThe family of an 11-year-old boy who was shot and seriously injured by a police officer in Mississippi is filing a federal lawsuit against police and city authorities.A police officer responding to a 911 call shot Aderrien Murry on 20 May in the city of Indianola, causing the child to suffer a collapsed lung, fractured ribs and a lacerated liver. The boy was released from hospital last Wednesday. Continue reading...

We’ve already seen a wave of hate campaigns against brands who support LGBTQ+ people in even the smallest of waysPride Month is about to get started and you know what that means: the shops are full of rainbow flags and what the Conservative Political Action Coalition (CPAC) has called “demonic paraphernalia”. As insiders know, Clause 3.4 of the Gay Agenda stipulates that during the month of June homosexuals of the world must unite to brainwash the masses and convert innocent heterosexuals to our dastardly ways.For the last few years corporations have happily gone along with all this. They’ve made a big song and dance about how they value things like inclusivity and diversity and human rights. They’ve spoken about how important kindness is. They’ve kowtowed to LGBTQ+ people who have made unreasonable demands that they be treated like people. They’ve talked about dangerous things like respect and acceptance.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Should the National Spelling Bee reorganize itself as a truly international event? It may be just the shake-up that’s needed for this languishing cultural institutionThe English language is perfect for spelling bees. It’s replete with loanwords borrowed from dozens of languages, from Amharic to Zuñi. Its basic vocabulary is challengingly variegated, composed of three substrates, one Latin, one Norman French, and one Germanic, each with different spelling patterns. In principle, any country in the Anglophone world – and, as the existence of Yup’ik, Spanish, Iñupiaq, and Diné spelling bees demonstrates, even non-Anglophone countries – could hold spelling bees. Yet, for whatever reason, spelling bees haven’t really taken off in Canada or Britain. They seem to be uniquely American, perhaps because they reward hard work and tap into cultural memories of schoolhouses and quaint pioneer traditions. The fact that bees are uncompromising – that spelling is sudden death – lends competitions an inherent telegenicity. And as we all know, Americans love a good episode of reality TV.The Scripps National Spelling Bee is celebrating its 95th anniversary this year, with a new executive director at the helm who I hope will be successful in restoring stability to the Bee. The last few years have been tumultuous. Several months into the pandemic, the 2020 Bee was abruptly canceled. Despite calls to extend eighth graders’ eligibility owing to these extraordinary circumstances, Bee officials denied eighth graders the chance to participate in 2021, dashing the hopes of many students who had dedicated hundreds of hours to studying in hopes of winning the coveted loving-cup trophy. The year 2021 saw the inauguration of controversial new rules which essentially converted the bee into a spelling-and-vocabulary competition and introduced a new finals format reminiscent of TV game shows: a 90-second “spell-off” can now be invoked by judges to prevent co-champions. The fact that spelling errors during the spell-off don’t disqualify spellers effectively eliminates the all-or-nothing quality which gives bees their exquisite drama. Since 2019, the Bee has been contending with alleged cheating scandals at regional bees, reduced revenue, regional sponsor shortages caused by local newspapers’ demise, and diminished publicity due to demotion from primetime ESPN to Ion. It’s high time to shake things up a bit.Scott Remer is a professional spelling bee tutor, freelance writer, and the author of the textbooks Words of Wisdom: Keys to Success in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Sesquipedalia!: A Rigorous Vocabulary Study Guide, and Regional Bee Ready!. He is also the coach of the Ghana Spelling Bee champions. Continue reading...

On the 102nd anniversary of the killings, efforts for justice in Greenwood are buried under hollow symbolismThis year, on the 102nd anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre, television crews won’t descend upon Greenwood, the neighborhood where as many as 300 Black people were murdered by a white mob in 1921. Thousands of protesters won’t march through the streets chanting “justice for Greenwood”, as they did following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. Joe Biden won’t be on hand to declare Greenwood a symbol of the “American spirit”, as he did on the centennial of the race massacre in 2021.Despite the pop culture awareness delivered by HBO’s Watchmen and Lovecraft Country, Greenwood risks going it alone once again. All too often, that’s been the normal state of play in the neighborhood known across the United States as “Black Wall Street”. Continue reading...

No longer a far-right subculture, the movement’s anti-feminist tenets are now inserting themselves into mainstream western politics“In some more traditional relationships (but not all) the man disciplines the woman either physically (like spanking) or with things like writing lines and standing in the corner,” one woman advises another on the Red Pill Women forum, an online community of rightwing, anti-feminist women.Welcome to the weird and frightening world of trad wives, where women spurn modern, egalitarian values to dedicate their lives to the service of their husbands. My research into this far-right subculture began during the writing of my book on the far right and reproductive rights. I was curious to learn how the movement, determined to reduce women to reproductive vessels to aid white male supremacy, recruited women to its cause. The answer was a toxic combination of anti-feminism, white supremacy, normalised abuse and a desire to return to an imagined past.Sian Norris is a freelance investigative journalist and the author of Bodies Under Siege: How the Far-Right Attack on Reproductive Rights Went GlobalDo 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...

While the Tories’ dire record on green issues gets worse by the day, Keir Starmer’s pledges show an impressive commitmentIt’s been a long time coming, but at last it seems that voters who give a damn about the climate emergency will have a real choice at the next general election. While the Tories have fiddled, Labour has been putting together a pretty impressive pro-climate portfolio.The latest pledge to ban all new domestic oil and gas developments and cut off borrowing for fossil fuel-related projects sits in diametric opposition to Tory plans to suck as much oil and gas as possible out of the North Sea. And Labour’s goody bag of climate measures contains plenty more that environmentally informed voters can cheer.Bill McGuire is professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL and author of Hothouse Earth: an Inhabitant’s Guide Continue reading...

Austria, France, Germany, Sweden and now Spain – the firewall between the mainstream and the far right is crumblingNormalisation is the process by which something unusual or extreme becomes part of the everyday. What once provoked horror and outrage soon barely registers. The way the presence of Donald Trump became a mere fact of political life is perhaps the most familiar example. But the normalisation of the far right is happening across the democratic world.Once Trump became “normal”, events that seemed even more extreme did too. A 2022 survey found that two in five Americans thought civil war was “at least somewhat likely” in the next decade. One political scientist speaks of the possibility of rightwing dictatorship in the US by 2030.Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The committee voted 7-6 to allow debate by the full chamber with expected vote on passage today. Plus, the downfall of Elizabeth HolmesGood morning.The bipartisan debt ceiling deal brokered by Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy passed an important hurdle yesterday evening, advancing to the full House of Representatives for debate and an expected vote on passage on Wednesday even amid opposition from far-right Republicans.What has been said about the deal? Members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus have balked at the deal. Chip Roy of Texas, who in January played a key role in securing the speakership for McCarthy after 15 rounds of voting, amid a rightwing rebellion, had perhaps the most pungent response. He said the debt ceiling deal was a “turd sandwich”, because it did not include spending cuts demanded by the hard right.What else has been said? Another rightwing firebrand, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, said he “anticipate[d] voting for” the bill, having said: “I think it’s important to keep in mind the debt limit bill itself does not spend money.” But comparative moderate, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, resorted to personal abuse of Biden when she tweeted: “Washington is broken. Republicans got outsmarted by a president who can’t find his pants. I’m voting no on the debt ceiling debacle because playing the DC game isn’t worth selling out our kids and grandkids.”Who is Reade and what did she say Biden did? Now 59, Reade was a staffer for Biden when he was a US senator from Delaware. In 2020, as Biden ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, she claimed that in 1993, in a Senate corridor, he pushed her against a wall and assaulted her. Biden has repeatedly denied the accusation. Continue reading...

Freedom caucus has attacked House leader Kevin McCarthy’s deal with Joe Biden to raise the debt ceiling before the default deadline of 5 JuneMembers of the hard-right House freedom caucus have attacked the proposed spending cuts in the debt ceiling bill as woefully inadequate, and vowed to oppose the legislation when it hits the floor.“We had the time to act, and this deal fails – fails completely,” Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, chair of the freedom caucus, said on Tuesday. “We will do everything in our power to stop it and end it now.” Continue reading...

For all the talk around Nikola Jokić and Jimmy Butler ahead of the NBA finals, history shows reserves like Denver’s Bruce Brown and Miami’s Duncan Robinson could be the differenceBefore the 1982 NBA finals against the Los Angeles Lakers, Earl Cureton had no idea when he might play in the series. But instead of focusing on what he didn’t know, the backup forward-center for the Julius Erving-led Philadelphia 76ers focused on what he could. Stay ready, observe the game. Don’t lose sight of how to help, even in small doses. It doesn’t matter that you’re a reserve on the sidelines, Cureton told himself. Still, the experience was jarring; his first time in the league’s final series. The playoffs are a different animal compared to the regular season and the NBA finals are even more pressurized. Though this all swirled in Cureton’s mind some 40 years ago, the task remains the same for players today. Indeed, in this year’s NBA finals, players like Denver’s Bruce Brown Jr and Miami’s Duncan Robinson will undertake crucial roles coming off the bench for their squads. But what exactly does it take to excel as a backup in the league – especially in June?“Your mental focus is the most important thing you have to sharpen when it comes to the playoffs,” Cureton tells the Guardian. “With my situation [in Philly], I never knew when I was going in. And you never know what’s going to happen – foul trouble, injuries. You have to prepare yourself like you’re going to be out there every single game.” Continue reading...

One-off deals, such as the one with Jaguar Land Rover to produce electric batteries, won’t keep pace with the big industrial strategies of the US and EUThe UK government looks set to land a deal with Tata-owned Jaguar Land Rover, in which the company will construct an electric-vehicle battery plant in Somerset in exchange for about £500m in subsidies. Jaguar Land Rover had previously warned that Brexit tariff rules could make production in the UK inviable.This is not the only time ministers have been warned about the effects of Brexit on investment. Already, the UK’s decision to leave the EU is costing £100bn a year in output. Of more than 100 leading UK manufacturers, almost half have said their EU suppliers are growing more cautious about doing business in the UK.Mariana Mazzucato is professor in the economics of innovation and public value at University College London, and the founding director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose Continue reading...

The rising incidence of wildfires means many Californians can no longer insure their property. It’s a sign of what’s ahead for the whole housing marketInsurance company documents aren’t exactly renowned for being riveting reading. This week, however, State Farm, the largest insurance firm in the US by premium volume, came out with an eyeball-grabbing update: it has stopped accepting new homeowner insurance applications in California.In a statement, the company said the decision was based on the heightened risk of natural disasters, such as wildfires, along with historic increases in construction costs. Continue reading...

Ex-president promises executive order revoking right enshrined in 14th amendment during anti-immigrant tirade on social mediaSpeaking 125 years after the US supreme court settled the issue of birthright citizenship, former president Donald Trump pledged once again to end it.If elected back to the White House next year, Trump said in a video posted to social media on Tuesday, he will on day one sign an executive order to ensure the children of undocumented migrants “will not receive automatic US citizenship”. Continue reading...

Nguyet Le, 63, ‘beat her hands bloody trying to escape’, according to the case that was filed by her four adult childrenAn Arby’s manager “beat her hands bloody trying to escape or get someone’s attention” before she died locked inside a freezer at one of the fast-food chain’s restaurants in Louisiana, court records said.The detail is contained in a lawsuit filed by family members of Nguyet Le, 63, against Arby’s and the owner of the store. Continue reading...

The prime minister is stubbornly attached to an outdated ideology, but has no plan for adapting to volatile timesEven if you don’t call it “price control” (and Downing Street would prefer that you don’t), asking supermarkets to limit the cost of basic goods is an extraordinary thing for a Conservative government to contemplate.It may not happen. If it does, it will be voluntary, say ministers – just a nudge to retailers, so they keep the cost of living down. Definitely not the sort of thing that was last attempted 50 years ago, under a weak Tory prime minister struggling to control inflation, while grappling with strikes and sliding towards election defeat. Nothing like that at all.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnistRafael Behr will discuss his new book, Politics: A Survivor’s Guide, at a Guardian Live event on Monday 12 June. The event will be live in London and livestreamed. Book tickets here Continue reading...

The committee voted 7-6 to allow debate by the full chamber with expected vote on passage on WednesdayThe bipartisan debt ceiling deal brokered by Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy passed an important hurdle Tuesday evening, advancing to the full House of Representatives for debate and an expected vote on passage on Wednesday even amid opposition from far-right Republicans.Earlier in the day, McCarthy, the Republican speaker of the US House, had insisted that supporting the debt ceiling deal would be “easy” for his party and it was likely to pass through Congress despite one prominent rightwinger’s verdict that the proposed agreement is a “turd sandwich”. Continue reading...

Mike Matson, the city mayor, said remains of two people may be within the rubble amid protests of city’s swift demolition plansFive people remain unaccounted for after part of an apartment building collapsed in Davenport, Iowa, over the weekend, officials said Tuesday.The remains of two people may be within the rubble, the city’s mayor, Mike Matson, said at a news conference, which came amid protests and criticism that the city was moving too quickly toward demolishing the building. The 116-year-old brick and steel structure, built as a hotel, had more recently been used as apartments and tenants had been allowed to remain even as bricks began falling from the building. Continue reading...

Court reverses earlier decision by Governor Gavin Newsom not to free woman convicted of killings of Leno and Rosemary LaBiancaA California appeals court said on Tuesday that Leslie Van Houten, who participated in two killings at the direction of cult leader Charles Manson in 1969, should be let out of prison on parole.The appellate court’s ruling reverses an earlier decision by Gavin Newsom, the state’s governor who rejected parole for Van Houten in 2020. She has been recommended for parole five times since 2016. All of those recommendations were rejected by Newsom or Jerry Brown, California’s former governor. Continue reading...

Former Senate staffer who made claim in 2020 appears on Russian media alongside convicted Russian agent in US Maria ButinaTara Reade, a former Senate staffer who in 2020 accused Joe Biden of sexual assault, said on Tuesday she had defected to Russia.“I’m still kind of in a daze a bit but I feel very good,” Reade told Sputnik, a Russian press outlet supportive of President Vladimir Putin, while sitting with Maria Butina, a convicted Russian agent jailed in the US but now a member of parliament in Russia. Continue reading...

The incident is the latest in a season of heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing this yearA Chinese fighter pilot performed an “unnecessarily aggressive maneuver” near an American surveillance aircraft operating over the South China Sea last week, according to US military.The incident – which the Pentagon says is part of a pattern of behavior by China – comes at a time of already heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing over issues including Taiwan and an alleged Chinese spy balloon that was shot down after traversing the United States earlier this year. Continue reading...

Committee debate comes amid opposition from both sides to agreement that would stave off a catastrophic defaultMembers of the House Freedom Caucus have said they will rethink the House speaker leadership if the debt ceiling agreement passes.During a Tuesday press conference outside of the Capitol, several House Freedom Caucus members spoke out against the Biden-McCarthy deal. Continue reading...

One of Bear River state park’s white heifers gave birth to a snowy calf, which is healthy and runs in circles called ‘zoomies’Staffers at the Bear River state park in south-west Wyoming welcomed four brown bison calves this spring and thought the birthing season was finished.But earlier this month, as staff visited the animals’ pasture, they saw a “little white ball of fluff”, park superintendent Tyfani Sager said. Continue reading...