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Under Xi Jinping, national security has swallowed up all other state policies, and Hong Kong's activists are paying the priceHours after attending a 4 June vigil, a Chinese student overseas is contacted by her father, bearing a message from the security services: do not participate in activities that might harm China's reputation. In a London theatre, three British actors starring in May 35th, a play about the 1989 Tiananmen killings, keep their identities secret and use pseudonyms. They take this step after actors drop out of a previous Tiananmen-related production in Arizona due to perceived risks to family in China.Thirty-five years have passed since the People's Liberation Army opened fire on the Chinese people, yet Beijing seems more determined than ever to suppress acts commemorating the deaths of 4 June - even small ones far beyond China's own borders. Such repression appears irrational: its targets are not influential political figures, their actions are limited in reach and the acts of suppression affect basic freedoms in other countries far from China. Yet it is illustrative of the sea change at the heart of Xi Jinping's China. The man dubbed the chairman of everything" is transforming China into a security state whose top priority is the securitisation of everything, all the way down to the individual.Louisa Lim is the author of Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong, and The People's Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited. She is an associate professor of journalism at the University of Melbourne Continue reading...

Former Trump fixer laments sad times we are living through' as addresses and phone numbers of wife and children posted onlineDonald Trump's former fixer Michael Cohen has become the latest target of doxing efforts by supporters of the former president following Trump's conviction of criminally falsifying business records last week.According to Advance Democracy, the addresses and phone numbers of Cohen's wife and children were posted on a website on Monday, days after the non-profit group warned of a high volume of social media posts containing violent rhetoric targeting the New York judge Juan Merchan and the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, each of whom played key roles in Trump's conviction. Continue reading...

Ex-leader of US Covid response said congresswoman and Fox News sparked credible death threats' against him and his familyAfter Anthony Fauci appeared at a contentious US House hearing on Monday, the former top public health official who led the nation's response to Covid-19 singled out the far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and Fox News as drivers of the credible death threats" that he described to lawmakers.Whether it's ... news media - you know Fox News does it a lot - or it's somebody in the Congress who gets up and makes a public statement that ... the deaths of X number of people [were] because of policies or some crazy idea that I created, immediately, it's like clockwork: the death threats go way up," Fauci said in an interview with CNN. Continue reading...

Lender denies whistleblowers' claim transactions worth $100bn were carried out in breach of sanctionsWhistleblowers have claimed Standard Chartered allegedly carried out billions of dollars of previously undetected transactions for Iran-linked entities and terrorist organisations, according to a New York court filing.Two whistleblowers, who include a former executive at the British bank, filed a motion last week to set aside a judgment that dismissed an earlier lawsuit they filed, in an attempt to revive their efforts. Continue reading...

If signed by governor, state could surgically castrate people convicted of sex crimes against children younger than 13 years oldLouisiana judges could order surgical castration for people convicted of sex crimes against young children under legislation approved on Monday - and if the Republican governor, Jeff Landry, signs it into law, the state apparently would be the first with such a punishment.The Republican-controlled state legislature passed the bill giving judges the option to sentence someone to surgical castration after the person has been convicted of certain aggravated sex crimes - including rape, incest and molestation - against a child under 13. Continue reading...

President's move comes amid voter dissatisfaction over migration, while progressive and Latino lawmakers express alarm. Plus, world's first personalized cancer vaccine halves the risk of death from melanomaGood morning.Joe Biden is expected to announce an executive order on Tuesday that would instruct authorities to temporarily seal the border with Mexico when illegal crossings exceed a daily threshold, in the harshest border action taken so far by his administration.What's been the reaction? Many progressive and Hispanic lawmakers were alarmed at the comprehensive order, and legal challenges are expected.How does it work? The jab, which is personalized for each patient, instructs their body to kill any remaining cancer cells and stop the disease from returning. Continue reading...

The city allows non-citizens to vote only in local elections, but Republicans have made it a central issue to stoke distrust in resultsIn a message left for the Washington DC board of elections on 1 May, a caller expressed anger at the city for allowing non-US citizens to vote in local elections.Where the hell do you get off letting illegals vote?" the caller, who does not leave their name, said in a voicemail that the board of elections executive director, Monica Evans, played for the Guardian. This is the nation's capital. You are traitors. Traitors to your own country." Continue reading...

What she has been through would sink most people. But the woman at the white-hot epicentre of Donald Trump's 34 felony convictions was always going to hold her nerveIn the opening scene of Stormy, the documentary about Stormy Daniels' life, she says: I have just been tormented for the last five years or so. And here I am, I'm still here." Probably the worst of the torment has been from Donald Trump's supporters, though they've never got together to explain what they're angry about. Is it that Daniels claims she had sex with Trump, in 2006? That she accepted $130,000 to keep quiet about it? Surely, if he's the richest and most virile man America ever produced, you'd think that was no big deal for him, and nice for her?Instead, as she described on the stand, giving evidence against Trump, the Maga lot have made her life a misery. Death threats layered with lurid threats of sexual violence, enough that she was constantly worried for the safety of her family, have poured in since 2018, when the Wall Street Journal first broke the story.Zoe Williams 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...

Julie Adams, who abstained from certifying May results, belongs to Election Integrity Network, founded by Trump ally Cleta MitchellA Republican on the Fulton county election board who refused to certify the May primary election is a member of an election denial activist network founded by Cleta Mitchell, a Trump ally who aided his efforts to overturn the election in Georgia and elsewhere.Julie Adams, who was appointed to the board in February, abstained from certifying the results of the May primary last month. Each of the other four board members, including the other Republican appointee Michael Heekin, voted for certification. No allegation of error or misconduct has been raised about the 21 May primary. Continue reading...

Last year the American won the Golden Trail Championship as a runner. A few months later she was winning a cross country skiing world cup raceFor most pro athletes, racing for 11 months each year in two different sports would be daunting, if not downright exhausting. For Sophia Laulki, it offers balance.During the winter, Laukli races for the US ski team in the FIS Cross Country World Cup. During the summer she competes in the Golden Trail World Series against the best short distance trail runners on the planet. In between, she allows herself the decadent luxury of an entire week off. Continue reading...

Far right ideology has not changed, it has become normalised in the minds of voters, thanks to a snowball effectThis week, citizens of all 27 EU member states will begin to vote in the European parliament elections. One outcome seems inevitable: the far right will make significant gains. Polls suggest that the two groups in the European parliament that harbour far-right parties could secure about 20% of the seats, a fourfold increase since the early 1990s. In four of the six founding EU states, these parties lead in the polls.Where does this far-right success come from? One explanation is that far-right parties have become more moderate over the years, while voters have become more radicalised. Yet research indicates that this explanation does not make sense. On their core issues, such as immigration and anti-establishment politics, far-right parties are as radical as ever, and according to research, voters are no less trusting of their politicians and parliaments than they were three decades ago, no less satisfied with the workings of democracy, and their attitudes to immigration have remained relatively unchanged. What has changed is not their ideologies, but that parties and voters have been driven into each other's arms.Matthijs Rooduijn is a political scientist at the University of Amsterdam Continue reading...

Social media has taught us that technology is neither innately good or bad. AI must be approached with this same critical mindset

Authorities confirmed 70 people were taken in to custody, cited for trespassing and released after they refused to vacate' the premisesPolice on Monday arrested pro-Palestinian demonstrators who occupied the lobby of a San Francisco building that houses the Israeli Consulate.Associated Press journalists saw police zip-tie the hands of about 50 people. Officers then put them in police vans and drove them away. San Francisco police later confirmed that 70 protesters were arrested and cited for trespassing after they refused to vacate the building". They have since been released from San Francisco county jail. Continue reading...

The Israeli PM's invitation comes amid deep differences with the Biden administrationBenjamin Netanyahu is set to become the first foreign leader to address a joint session of the US Congress four times, despite deep differences with the Biden administration.The Israeli prime minister's office said in a statement that a date for his address to Congress had yet to be set, but that it would not take place on 13 June as had been reported, due to a Jewish holiday. Continue reading...

Doctor, who was head of infectious diseases unit during height of the pandemic, tells Congress he and his family still get harassedAnthony Fauci, the former head of the US infectious diseases unit, has received credible death threats" stemming from his time overseeing the nation's fight against Covid-19, he has told Congress.Fauci, who was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during the height of attempts to halt the spread of the virus, told a hearing on Capitol Hill that the threats had continued until the present day, even though he retired in 2022. Continue reading...

The eruption began early Monday in a remote area that last saw lava a half-century ago, with absolutely no property in danger'Kilauea, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, began erupting early on Monday in a remote area that last erupted a half-century ago, the US Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said.The eruption is about 1 mile (1.6 km) south of the Kilauea caldera, in an area within Hawaii Volcanoes national park that last erupted in December 1974. The area surrounding the caldera has been closed to the public since 2008 because of other hazards, including ground cracking, instability in the crater wall and rockfalls. Continue reading...

Fire east of San Francisco was significantly surrounded after reportedly scorching more than 22 sq miles over the weekendCalifornia's largest wildfire so far this year was significantly surrounded on Monday after blackening a swath of hilly grasslands between San Francisco bay and the Central valley.The Corral fire was 75% contained after scorching more than 22 sq miles (57 sq km) over the weekend, the California department of forestry and fire protection, or Cal Fire, said. One home was destroyed and two firefighters were injured. Continue reading...

Stormy Daniels says she doesn't know what the sentencing could be, but compared Trump to a child that needed a punishment that not just matches the crime'

DoJ filing says president's interview with special counsel about handling of classified documents could be improperly altered'The US Department of Justice is making a novel legal argument to keep a recording of an interview with Joe Biden from becoming public. In a filing late last week, the bureau cited the risk of AI-generated deepfakes as one of the reasons it refuses to release audio of the president's interview with special counsel Robert Hur. The conversation about Biden's handling of classified documents is a source of heated political contention, with Republicans pushing for release of the recordings and the White House moving to block them.The justice department's filing, which it released late on Friday night, argues that the recording should not be released on a variety of grounds including privacy interests and executive privilege. One section of the filing, however, is specifically dedicated to the threat of deepfakes and disinformation, stating that there is substantial risk people could maliciously manipulate the audio if it were to be made public. Continue reading...

Novak Djokovic produced a stunning five-set comeback while both Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina won in straight setsRybakina wins first set 6-4So Svitolina is serving to stay in the first set. Which she does with not too much fuss, holding to 15. Just as Rybakina steps up to serve for the set, so does Avanesyan on Suzanne Lenglen. Where to look? Gah! At 30-all on Philippe Chatrier, Svitolina goes for broke down the line and misses. Set point for Rybakina. And there are two set points for Avanesyan. Rybakina doesn't mess about, taking hers, but Avanesyan is taken to deuce. And is then broken. It's 5-3. Continue reading...

These are the moments he lives for - right at the centre of things, all stardust and no responsibilityAlas, poor Dicky, I knew him well. Richard Tice and Nigel Farage had already given two press conferences in the previous week. Both times they had been given equal billing. Even though everyone but Dicky T knew who the real star was. On Monday all pretence had been pushed aside. Out came the op note. Nigel Farage was to make an emergency election announcement". Tice wasn't even mentioned as an afterthought. Even though he was probably paying for the pleasure.Dicky was determined not to be left out, though. The man with no charisma or personal warmth relegated once more to Nige's warm-up act. The man on the downward trajectory. Soon he will be relegated to doorman. I'm not sure if Tice even convinces himself. His patter is all third-rate Farage. The sort of thing you might get if you typed write me a bad Nigel speech" into ChatGPT. Reform was moving into eighth gear", he said. Really? Some of us were losing the will to live. Continue reading...

President's sharp political U-turn aimed at stemming record surge and winning support on key voter concernJoe Biden will this week sign an executive order to temporarily close the southern US border to asylum seekers in a sharp political U-turn aimed at winning support on a key voter concern in a presidential election year.The US president is expected to sign the order as early as Tuesday to seal the border with Mexico to migrants when numbers of asylum claimants rise above a daily threshold of 2,500. Continue reading...

Roughly $390m worth of GameStop shares had changed hands before 6am ET, following Keith Gill's first Reddit post in three yearsGameStop shares rose sharply on Monday after Roaring Kitty" Keith Gill, the man at the heart of a 2021 stock market frenzy around the struggling video gaming chain, returned to Reddit with a post which appeared to show a $116m bet on the chain.The stock soared by as much as 74%, before losing ground in volatile trading. By mid-morning, it was up by 31%. Continue reading...

Presumptive Republican nominee pointed to the 11 July sentence hearing, scheduled four days before the GOP national conventionDonald Trump has called on the US supreme court to step in and annul his guilty verdict in a hush-money trial that left him with the unwanted double distinction of being the first former US president to be a convicted felon.The 2024 presumptive Republican nominee made his plea in a typically florid post on his Truth Social site, highlighting that a sentencing hearing scheduled for 11 July falls just four days before the GOP's national convention in Milwaukee, when his nomination is expected to become official. Continue reading...

When Richard Nixon's perfidy was exposed, his party support crumbled. But with Trump, GOP leaders rallied around himThe Republican leaders were of one mind: if the Republican president committed a crime, he could no longer hold office. They had defended him to a point, but they understood that with proof of criminality they would withdraw their support. Even before the evidence was conclusive, their ultimate judgment about their constitutional duty and of the president's was certain. If it can be proved that he lied, resignation would have to be considered. It would be quick. Everything would be over, ended. It wouldn't drag out like impeachment." So stated senator Barry Goldwater, a previous Republican presidential nominee, still the icon of the conservative movement, in May 1973.It did not matter that Richard Nixon was popular, that he had won the presidency twice, the last time just a year earlier, in a landslide, carrying 49 states. Goldwater did not know that after he made his statement, the smoking gun" tape would be revealed on 5 August 1974. He and the other Republican leaders, however, did know then that a president who had authorized payment of hush money to the Watergate burglars in order win an election and had engaged in a coverup to thwart both the investigation and accountability in the courts would have to quit or face impeachment and removal.Sidney Blumenthal, former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has published three books of a projected five-volume political life of Abraham Lincoln: A Self-Made Man, Wrestling With His Angel and All the Powers of Earth Continue reading...

In an era of coaching philosophers, the Italian's pragmatic approach continues to give Madrid an edge in Europe

The more self-actualised you become, the higher you are on self-righteousness, blaming other people's problems on their failure to be as healthy as youOK, this is going to sound a little hypocritical, as I have hard-recommended every activity and pursuit, every wellness wheeze and rejuvenation exercise the modern world has dreamed up. Try hot yoga: it plugs you back into your inner child. How about a morning rave? All the cardio of a regular rave, none of the ecstasy: what's not to like? Botox? Fine, it's plastic surgery-lite, but also it makes you look much more friendly. Pilates, cycling, running, high-intensity interval training, Tough Mudders, barre, aerial silks, horse-riding: at some time or another, I have insisted to anyone who will listen that it's only their failure to incorporate, say, a horse into their weekly schedule that is standing between them and their best self.But there is a dark side to wellness, which I always, for shorthand, thought of as political: getting fit makes you more rightwing. The mechanism is incredibly simple: you embark on this voyage of self-improvement, and more or less immediately see results. You feel stronger and more energetic, probably your mood lifts, and pretty soon you think you are master of your own destiny. You're still not, by the way: destiny does not care about your step count. But until that fact catches up with you, which it may never, there you are, high on self-righteousness. You can tell this has happened to you when you start inhaling performatively, like the hero of an Ayn Rand novel. Continue reading...

The former Republican House speaker's comments arrive as Trump's guilty verdict is set to spark election integrity debatesKevin McCarthy, former Republican US House speaker, has said that Americans should accept the results of November's presidential race - as rising political tensions in the aftermath of Donald Trump's campaign finance violation conviction in New York are set to inflame election integrity issues.The relatively moderate McCarthy, who was ousted as speaker last year in a Republican power struggle and has since resigned from Congress, said on Sunday that every American should accept the results" of the election that is expected to pit Democratic incumbent Joe Biden against the former Republican president Trump. Continue reading...

The more the political establishment damns the ex-president, the more those outside its reach are drawn to himGuilty", screamed the one-word headline in the New York Times last week, dripping with undisguised glee. Howls of contempt descended on Donald Trump as he slunk from his Manhattan courtroom to cries of felon". He now awaits sentence and three more criminal trials, two of them over his response to his 2020 election defeat.Ecstasy is a dangerous substance in politics. Trump's enemies should be careful what they wish for. Within 24 hours of his leaving court, $39m reportedly poured into his campaign coffers. Though some Republicans seemed hesitant, an Ipsos poll for Reuters showed voting intention tilting in his favour. As with his victory in 2016, the more the political establishment damns him, the more those outside its reach are drawn to him. Continue reading...

There was a street party in the Akron area before gunfire broke out, killing a 27-year-old man whose identity was not yet releasedThe mayor and police chief of Akron, Ohio, called on witnesses to come forward with information about a mass shooting in the city that killed one person and wounded 24 others, some critically, over the weekend.This was a tragic incident which [affects] our entire community," Akron's mayor, Shammas Malik, said. The sheer number of victims is shocking and disconcerting. I want to be very clear: anyone who was involved in last night's shooting will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law." Continue reading...

Leftwing climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City triumphs with a landslide, taking between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote. Plus, Hunter Biden trial to startGood morning,Claudia Sheinbaum has won a landslide victory to become Mexico's first female president, inheriting the project of her mentor and outgoing leader, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, whose popularity among the poor helped drive her triumph.How Sheinbaum's victory made history: Sheinbaum is the first woman to win a general election in the US, Mexico or Canada. She will also be the first person from a Jewish background to lead Mexico.The election campaign was marred by violence: The poll has been the most violent in modern history, with more than 30 candidates killed and hundreds more dropping out as criminal groups vied to install friendly leaders.What will prosecutors say? They intend to use Hunter's memoir Beautiful Things to make the case that he knew he was addicted to drugs when he denied it on the form that every person must fill out when buying a gun.What does the president say? Biden has stuck by his son through all his troubles and that is unlikely to change now. But the trial could air potentially embarrassing family details. Continue reading...

Comparisons between the ex-president and the 20th-century Nazi leader are controversial but a new book says they resemble each other as political performance artistsWhen Donald Trump shared a video that dreamed of a unified reich" if he wins the US presidential election, and took nearly a full day to remove it, the most shocking thing was how unshocking it was.Trump has reportedly said before that Adolf Hitler did some good things", echoed the Nazi dictator by calling his political opponents vermin" and saying immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country", and responded to a white supremacist march in Charlottesville by claiming that there were very fine people on both sides". Continue reading...

Medicare Advantage enrollees report treatment denials and delays in payment, leading to harmful outcomes in healthcareJenn Coffey was sick, on several medications, and in and out of the hospital around 2016 when she made a decision that she has come to regret.Having fought off breast cancer, the former emergency medical technician faced numerous complications, and was diagnosed with two rare diseases: complex regional pain syndrome and small fiber neuropathy. Continue reading...

Oligarchs like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel aren't just hostile to progressivism. They're hostile to American democracy itselfElon Musk and the entrepreneur and investor David Sacks reportedly held a secret dinner party of billionaires and millionaires in Hollywood last month. Its purpose: to defeat Joe Biden and re-install Donald Trump in the White House.The guest list included Peter Thiel, Rupert Murdoch, Michael Milken, Travis Kalanick, and Steven Mnuchin, Trump's treasury secretary.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a 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 newest 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...

State GOP praises appointment of podcast host Janelle King as integrity-minded' as she replaces more moderate RepublicanA new appointee to the Georgia state board of elections has elicited questions about whether she may be part of preparations to subvert the election on behalf of Donald Trump and others who are hoping to cast doubt on results that don't go his way.Those fears are unfounded, she said. Continue reading...

The Alabaman who started boxing at 21 to pay for his daughter's medical care went further than anyone could have imagined. Too few people appreciated what he brought to the tableHe was never supposed to be a boxer. In a different timeline Deontay Wilder might have been scoring touchdowns or throwing down tomahawk dunks for the University of Alabama. That was the dream growing up poor in the shadow of Bryant-Denny Stadium on the streets of sports-mad Tuscaloosa, where he excelled for Central High School's football and basketball teams. And it was still the goal when the 6ft 7in teenager enrolled at nearby Shelton State Community College, where he sought to raise his grades enough to transfer and play for the home town Crimson Tide.That all changed with a routine visit to the doctor's office in 2005, when he learned his unborn daughter with his then-girlfriend would be born with spina bifida, an incurable birth defect in which the spine does not close fully during development. Right then Wilder, only 19, knew he needed money and he needed it yesterday. Continue reading...

After years of scandal and poor governance, the people are right to want checks and balances, and new voicesThe results are in, and the message is stark: the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has been humbled in the country's general election. South Africa is going through the biggest shift in its political landscape since the end of apartheid 30 years ago.Counting of Wednesday's poll shows that the party has fallen below the 50% required for a parliamentary majority for the first time since the end of minority white rule in 1994. It must now share power for the first time. And its political leaders will have to suffer the ignominy of scrambling to forge a coalition with their opponents. Continue reading...

Our convoluted response to the catastrophe in Gaza leaves a bitter aftertasteIt is common knowledge that we Slovenes are a hard-working, neat but in essence spineless folk. Our favourite pastime is oppressing our fellow citizens, especially our neighbours, peers and co-workers - always putting them into their designated places, preferably somewhere beneath us.We remain silent, however, when truth should be spoken to power. Oppressing others and staying silent is hard work! Our inability to resist the will of the great and the mighty - our bosses, rulers, domestic or foreign governments - makes us highly corruptible and, therefore, unreliable. It's not a coincidence that Slovenes are usually depicted with bowed heads and clasped hands: those are images of obedience, and obedience is, without a doubt, a calculated behaviour.Ana Schnabl is a Slovenian novelist, editor and critic Continue reading...

Despite being asked to clean up after themselves, about 3,000 students celebrating Memorial Day weekend left piles of debrisCollege students celebrating Memorial Day weekend by California's Shasta Lake left behind hoard of trash, according to US Forest Service officials.Last weekend, approximately 3,000 students from the University of California, Davis and the University of Oregon partied at Shasta Lake, a 30,000-acre reservoir in the golden state, and left piles of debris cluttered around the lake. Continue reading...

Real Madrid lifted the trophy and may dominate for some time to come, while PSG are about to enter an uncertain eraFrancisco Gento's record of six European Cup wins was one of those records that looked unassailable, belonging to the era of football scrapbooks. And yet Dani Carvajal, scorer of Real Madrid's first goal in the final, and Luka Modri matched the legendary winger's total with Madrid's 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund on Saturday. Toni Kroos, in his final club game, having won five with Real to add to his Champions League title in 2013 with Bayern Munich, joined them. Continue reading...

James Kane and Barbie Agostini pull up safe in Queens park with bundles of $100 bills inside and are told by police they can keep itA New York City couple who were magnet fishing" in a lake caught more than they had bargained for when they pulled out a safe that had $100,000 cash inside.James Kane and Barbie Agostini tossed a line with a strong magnet attached to the end into a lake in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens on 31 May, Friday afternoon. Continue reading...