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Vice-president offers advice to young people at leadership summit for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander groupsTwelve minutes into a health forum discussion for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander organizations, Kamala Harris on Monday offered a punchy piece of advice to younger members of the audience.We have to know that sometimes people will open the door for you and leave it open," the US vice-president said. Sometimes they won't, and then you need to kick that fucking door down." Continue reading...

A bad night for pro-independence parties, and a very good one for the Socialists, has vindicated Pedro Sanchez's conciliatory strategyIn a complex political landscape, Sunday's regional elections in Catalonia duly delivered a finely balanced result. Though the Catalan branch of the Spanish Socialist party (PSC) comfortably topped the poll as the largest party, it needs to solve some challenging parliamentary arithmetic in order to govern. Days and weeks of haggling and horse-trading loom.The underlying message of the election, however, was much clearer. After years of extraordinary turbulence and bitter strife, the momentum that drove the campaign for Catalonia's independence appears to have subsided. For the first time in more than a decade, pro-independence parties failed collectively to win either a majority of votes, or a majority of seats in the regional parliament. Continue reading...

Former marketer at insurance firm credited with sparking 2021 memestock rally returned to X after three years off social mediaShares in GameStop doubled on Monday after Roaring Kitty", the man at the heart of the stock market frenzy surrounding the video gaming chain three years ago, resurfaced on social media.Trading of GameStop was halted several times as its shares surged to their highest levels in more than a year when New York opened for trading. Continue reading...

Johnny McEntee says in TikTok video he keeps fake Hollywood money' so when they go to use it, they get arrested'Johnny McEntee, the former White House Trump aide closely linked to plans for radical federal government reform should Donald Trump win re-election, stoked outrage with a TikTok video in which he claimed to give unhoused people fake money, thereby to ensure their arrest.So I always keep this fake Hollywood money in my car," McEntee said in the video posted last week by The Right Stuff, a dating site for rightwingers of which McEntee is a co-founder. Continue reading...

Surveys put ex-president up in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Georgia and Nevada as Biden campaign brushes off significanceDonald Trump leads Joe Biden in five crucial battleground states less than six months out from election day, new polls showed.The surveys from the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena College put the former president up in Pennsylvania (three points), Arizona (seven), Michigan (seven), Georgia (10) and Nevada (12). Biden led by two points in Wisconsin. Continue reading...

For the second time in league history, the three promoted sides will be relegated. And the underlying numbers paint a grim picture for the English pyramid

Expert with American Museum of Natural History held in Istanbul after allegedly trying to take about 1,500 samplesA scorpion and spider expert with the American Museum of Natural History was detained in Istanbul on Monday while allegedly attempting to smuggle samples of both arachnida groups out of Turkey.Lorenzo Prendini was held by police at Istanbul airport for allegedly trying to take about 1,500 samples out of the country, Turkish media reported. Continue reading...

Dozens leave university commencement ceremony to protest comedian, who has vocally supported Israel since 7 OctoberDozens of students walked out of Duke University's commencement ceremony on Sunday as some chanted free Palestine" to protest its guest speaker, the comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who has supported Israel throughout the war in Gaza.Figures in robes and caps, some waving Palestinian flags, filed out of crowds of graduates assembled on the grass in the North Carolina university's football stadium. Continue reading...

Huge effort to save the horses involved clearing a roadway into the thick woods and building a bridge utilizing logs and plywoodUp to 40 first responders toiled for hours in a Connecticut forest to successfully rescue two horses who had become stuck in a muddy swamp on a local farm.The huge effort to save the horses involved clearing a roadway into the thick woods and building a makeshift bridge utilizing logs and plywood. The area was not accessible for equipment and would require manpower to extricate them from the woods," said the Lebanon volunteer fire department in a statement. Continue reading...

It's right to celebrate a groundbreaking medical trial. But what many of us really want is more support for people with hearing lossAs someone who has been hard of hearing since I was a teenager, I read with great interest about the case of Opal Sandy - the 18-month-old British toddler who has recently had her hearing restored" in a pioneering medical trial.Opal was born with auditory neuropathy, which is caused by the disruption of nerve impulses travelling from the inner ear to the brain, and which left her completely deaf. But after taking part in what is being heralded as a groundbreaking" gene therapy trial at Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge, she can now hear almost perfectly.Oliver-James Campbell is a journalist and social media manager Continue reading...

Republicans are using a narrative of chaos and philosophical divisions on Israel' among Democrats to sink Biden's campaignRepublicans have identified recent college protests against Israel's war in Gaza as the core of an election campaign narrative of chaos that they hope can be used to sink Joe Biden's presidency.The approach was bluntly crystallised by Tom Cotton, the Republican senator from Arkansas, in a recent television interview when he mocked the encampments that have sprung up in recent weeks as little Gazas" and lambasted the president for a perceived failure to unequivocally denounce instances of antisemitism. Continue reading...

Families of the hostages are leading calls for a ceasefire. Let us hope the roar of guns in Rafah isn't used to drown them out

Shipments of high-payload bombs have already been halted, and Blinken said the sale of further weapons systems may be stopped if a full-scale offensive goes ahead. Plus, the growing threat posed by drug-resistant superbugs

Campus protests in solidarity with the people of Gaza have braved abuse and police raids but history will be kinderThe student left is the most reliably correct constituency in America. Over the past 60 years, it has passed every great moral test American foreign policy has forced upon the public, including the Vietnam war, the question of relations with apartheid South Africa, and the Iraq war. Student activists were at the heart of the black civil rights movement from the very beginning. To much derision and abuse, they pushed for more rights, protections and respect for women and queer people on their campuses than the wider world was long willing to provide. And over the past 20 years in particular, policymakers have arrived belatedly to stances on economic inequality, climate change, drug policy and criminal justice that putative radicals on campus took up long before them.They have not always been right; even when right, their prescriptions for the problems they've identified and their means of directing attention to them have not always been prudent. But time and time and time again, the student left in America has squarely faced and expressed truths our politicians and all the eminent and eloquent voices of moderation in the press, in all of their supposed wisdom and good sense, have been unable or unwilling to see. Straining against an ancient and immortal prejudice against youth, it has made a habit of telling the American people, in tones that discomfit, what they need to hear before they are ready to hear it.Osita Nwanevu is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

United Auto Workers union sees two of German-owned carmaker's plants as key in effort to unionize industry in southern USThe United Auto Workers (UAW) union is setting its sights on its next big union victory in the south, at two Mercedes-Benz plants in Vance and Woodstock, Alabama.Coming off the historic union election win at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, 5,200 workers are to begin voting in their union election from 13 May to 17 May. The UAW's recent win at Volkswagen to represent about 4,300 workers was one of the biggest union election wins in manufacturing in the past 16 years. Continue reading...

After years of slovenliness, I finally have somewhere to hang all my worn-but-not-dirty clothes. That just leaves the rest of my mess ...I've often mentioned the cardboard removal box where I dump my worn-but-not-dirty clothes, craving, I think, the cleansing fire of public shame. Who lives like that? How do other people not end up with a clirty - that's clean-dirty - floordrobe (apologies for the double portmanteau)?It felt like a broken windows" thing - the US policing term for visible minor neglect acting as a gateway to crime or, in my case, shrugging surrender to the march of entropy. At my age, in this empty nest, it's a slippery slope. Does moisturiser matter? Why bother with a plate for whatever fridge scrapings I'm calling lunch? What's wrong with some wholesome soil under my nails? Fail to floss once and next thing I know, I'm Stig of the Dump, living in a dump.Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

With Trump family members as state delegates, as well as national party co-chair, GOP lawmakers fall in line to support ex-presidentIn practical terms, Barron Trump's truncated stint on the political stage as a Florida delegate to the Republican party's national convention was little more than symbolic. His father Donald Trump's third successive presidential campaign as the Republican nominee was all but certain anyway, and the names of those who will confirm it are essentially inconsequential.It did affirm to many analysts, however, how the former president has maneuvered to seize almost total control of the party's state apparatus nationwide. Nowhere is that more apparent than Florida, where the capitulation was completed by the choice of delegates for July's convention in Milwaukee. Continue reading...

The best college player in a generation will be paid significantly less than even the lowest earners among her male counterparts. But there are grounds for optimismThe surest sign of a sports league on the rise is the arrival of a story about one player's salary. And ever since it was reported that the biggest star in women's college basketball, Caitlin Clark, will earn $338,000 over the next four years after turning professional in the WNBA, the foul cries have been coming from all corners.When I saw the numbers - $76,000 in the first year, $78,000 in the second year, $85,000 in the third year - for somebody who is now the face of women's basketball, it seemed kind of ridiculous," Today show host Hoda Kotb said. Even Dave Portnoy, majordomo of the proudly misogynistic Barstool Sports, seemed offended: he offered Clark $10m to play for his company's hoops team. The incredulity went all the way to the top: Joe Biden posted on X that it's time that we give our daughters the same opportunities as our sons and ensure women are paid what they deserve." Continue reading...

Tech investor led 800m funding round into UK self-driving car software company Wayve

For years I tried so hard to find that elusive band of forever friends. But maybe this isn't a mould I was made to fit intoAccording to cinema and television, women are constantly forming incredible female friendships. From Steel Magnolias to Bridesmaids, Sex and the City to The Golden Girls, these are the kind of friends you can rely on to get you through the hard times - you laugh, they laugh; you cry, they cry. The only thing you have to figure out is: are you a) the clever one, b) the sexy one or c) the funny one?And yet, for years I had been searching for my own tribe, to no avail. I met every new opportunity with openness and enthusiasm, sure that my forever best friends were out there somewhere if I just looked hard enough. My search was just taking a little longer, I told myself. Even Thelma had Louise. It was only as I reached my mid-40s that I realised that might never happen.Tara Judah is a film critic and writerDo 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...

Trial for New Jersey senator will start Monday as he insists he's innocent of 16 felony charges, including bribery and extortionThe criminal corruption trial of Democratic US senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey is scheduled to get under way in a Manhattan federal court Monday, with prosecutors preparing a colorful tale of a greedy politician with a fondness for gold bullion, fast cars, and almost half a million dollars in cash found hidden around his home.Menendez, 70, insists he is innocent of the 16 felony charges brought against him by the US attorney's office of the southern district of New York, including bribery, extortion, obstruction, and acting as a foreign agent. Continue reading...

About 1,000 were at party when altercation began and gunfire erupted, resulting in victims that sheriff says are mostly younger'Three people were killed and at least 12 were wounded Saturday night in a shooting at party in south Alabama.Andre Reid with the Baldwin county sheriff's office's investigation division told WALA-TV that about 1,000 people were attending a May Day party near the community of Stockton when an altercation started and gunfire erupted. Reid said most of the victims were younger people". Continue reading...

Sales to proceed despite failing to regain control of its website as staff and cybersecurity scramble to fix issueThe success of New York's spring art auctions was in jeopardy Sunday, a day after auction house Christie's confirmed that its website had been hacked, potentially shutting out some bidders on $850m worth of art work going up for bid this week.Yet despite failing to regain control of its website, Christie's said that its auctions - the most important of the year in the art world - would go ahead in person and by phone. Continue reading...

Ex-president calls Hopkins' cannibalistic Lecter late, great' while condemning people who are being released into our country'Donald Trump on Saturday praised fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter as a wonderful man" before segueing into comments disparaging people who have immigrated into the US without permission.The former president's remarks to political rally-goers in Wildwood, New Jersey, as he challenges Joe Biden's re-election in November were a not-so-subtle rhetorical bridge exalting Anthony Hopkins' cannibalistic Lecter in Silence of the Lambs as late [and] great" while simultaneously condemning people who are being released into our country that we don't want". Continue reading...

From Man City's defender turned winger to Nicolas Jackson's game-winner, we hand out honors (and dishonors) from the top-flight weekendArsenal were not at their melodic best in their 1-0 win over Manchester United on Sunday. But at this stage of the season, it's results, not performances, that matter. The goal that kept them alive in the title race came courtesy of Leandro Trossard, with a hat-tip to Casemiro and Andre Onana in the United defense. Continue reading...

Democrat warns Hamas could become stronger if Israel wages all-out Rafah assault, while Blinken offers more measured commentsPoliticians in the US on Sunday stepped up their denunciation of Israel over its conduct in Gaza, with a leading Democratic senator accusing the key American ally of strategic and moral mistakes" - and secretary of state, Antony Blinken, saying it was testing the boundaries of international law.In an interview on CNN's State of the Union, the Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy, a member of the Senate foreign relations committee, warned that Hamas was likely to become stronger if Israel waged an all-out assault in Rafah. Continue reading...

A strike by journalists at the state broadcaster sends a disturbing signal in one of the European Union's most important member statesAccording to the latest audit of press freedom by Reporters Without Borders, Italy has tumbled down itsinternational rankings. A crucial factor in its report was the desire of Giorgia Meloni's radical right government to sell off a state-controlled news agency to a press baron - one who just happens to be an MP in her ruling coalition. But in one of the European Union's most important member states, as Ms Meloni's radical right coalition consolidates its grip on power, there are plenty of other reasons to fear for the future of freeexpression and media impartiality.This week, a philosopher from Rome's Sapienza University will become the latest public intellectual to appear in court, after being accused of defamation by agovernment figure. In a talk show, DonatellaDiCesare described the language used by the agriculture minister, Francesco Lollobrigida (MsMeloni's brother-in-law), as neo-Nazi in tone. Under Italy's draconian defamation laws, she risks a substantial prison sentence if eventually found guilty in a criminal court. Continue reading...

A French official said there is no record of a scheduled meeting with the South Dakota governor - nor had they invited herThe French government has joined the chorus of detractors taking aim at South Dakota governor Kristi Noem's political autobiography No Going Back, which many now see as having eliminated her chances of being Donald Trump's vice-presidential selection.Days after Noem removed a passage claiming she had met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, officials at the Elysee Palace in Paris are questioning a passage that describes a cancelled meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron. Continue reading...

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Mike Pence, Chris Christie and Paul Ryan refuse to vote for the president despite calling Trump unfit - and their harshest critics are fellow RepublicansThey have broken with Donald Trump. They have gone public with their concerns about the threat that he poses to democracy and the rule of law. But vote for Joe Biden? That is a bridge too far.A split has emerged in the Never Trump" movement in the Republican party. There are some who denounce the former US president and contend that, in what is essentially a two-party system, there is a moral imperative to vote for his Democratic opponent in November. Continue reading...

It was supposed to be a celebration of graduation, but instead students are taking stock of a historic week of activismThe week at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, was supposed to be a celebratory one. In other years, the campus would be buzzing with activity around finals and commencement. Final-year students would be preparing to salute their alma mater goodbye.Instead, the Cal Poly campus on this rugged part of California's coast sat empty. Classes were held remotely, with students and professors unable to come on to campus. On Wednesday, graduating students were taking photos on the edges of campus, smiling in their caps and gowns. Just out of frame were the orange barriers and police cars blocking entrances. Continue reading...

Small demonstrations held on Saturday, including at Virginia Commonwealth University and University of Wisconsin-MadisonSmall pro-Palestinian protests popped up sporadically on Saturday as colleges and universities from North Carolina to California held commencement ceremonies, including dozens of graduating students at Virginia Commonwealth University who walked out on an address by Republican governor Glenn Youngkin.While some of the estimated 100 students and family members who left during Youngkin's speech showed support for Palestinians, others held signs signaling opposition to his policies on education, according to WRIC-TV. Continue reading...

Staff at a Chinese supermarket chain can take unhappy days' whenever they want. Perhaps we're finally recognising a basic truth: work doesn't make us happyNo more croaky, fake phone-in-sick voice for the employees of one regional Chinese supermarket chain: the founder of Pang Dong Lai, Yu Donglai, is offering employees up to 10 days' unhappiness leave".I want every staff member to have freedom. Everyone has times when they're not happy, so if you're not happy, do not come to work," Yu said at an industry conference, according to the South China Morning Post. Staff can take unhappy days" when they want, in addition to normal sick and holiday leave entitlements, and management can't refuse: Denial is a violation," Yu said. He seems like a decent boss: employee salaries are nearly double the sector average, and Yu has reportedly spoken out against China's long hours culture and said: We want our employees to have a healthy and relaxed life, so that the company will be too." (Though, combined with Pang Dong Lai's slogan, Freedom and love", there's a slight echo of the free granola bar, nap pod, good vibes" tyranny of tech's punishing work culture.)Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Post-industrial states such as Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and even upstate New York, are seeing a boom in outdoor activitiesAt a nondescript mall in Beavercreek, a sleepy suburb in south-west Ohio, workers are unpacking the latest camping equipment, bikes and kayaks ahead of a grand opening of Ohio's fifth REI co-op location.Surrounded by farmland and leafy streetscapes in a region that relied on manufacturing and an air force base as its economic lifeblood for decades, Beavercreek and the wider post-industrial midwest might not quickly conjure up images of outdoor bliss. Continue reading...

Almost 20 years before the 2013 New Orleans shooting, a baby was nearly beaten to death in an enduring cycle of violenceTo many across the US and even around the world who followed its aftermath, the story of the 2013 Mother's Day shooting in New Orleans - which injured 20 people at one of the city's vaunted second-line parades - is a simple one.Siblings who dealt drugs and were locked in a feud over territory indiscriminately fired into a crowd, mortally wounding one local writer and cultural advocate - Deborah Big Red" Cotton - who died four years later. Continue reading...

Few residents of this Wisconsin small city have seen a migrant but some are blaming Biden for an invasion' regardless and elsewhere in the state an influx of foreigners is not all it seemsRhinelander is closer to the Arctic Circle than to Mexico, so it is no great surprise that few people in the small Wisconsin city have laid eyes on the foreign migrants Donald Trump claims are invading" the country from across the US border 1,500 miles to the south.But Jim Schuh, the manager of a local bakery, is nonetheless sure they are a major problem and he's voting accordingly. Continue reading...

Republican US senator from Alabama best known for delivering widely ridiculed State of the Union speech in MarchKatie Britt, the Republican US senator from Alabama best known for delivering a widely ridiculed State of the Union speech in March, marked the run-up to Mother's Day on Sunday by introducing a bill to create a federal database to collect data on pregnant people.The More Opportunities for Moms to Succeed (Moms) act proposes to establish an online government database called pregnancy.gov" listing resources related to pregnancy, including information about adoption agencies and pregnancy care providers, except for those that provide abortion-related services. Continue reading...

Company, which operates roughly 2,000 stores, declined to disclose number of stores where merchandise will not be availableTarget confirmed Friday that it won't carry Pride Month merchandise at all stores in June after the discount retailer experienced a backlash and lower sales over its collection honoring LGBTQ+ communities.Target, which operates roughly 2,000 stores, said decisions about where to stock Pride-themed products, including adult apparel, home goods, foods and beverages, would be based on guest insights and consumer research". Continue reading...

In terms of self-sacrifice, I do far less than my mother (your Nanima) did for meWhy don't you ever say, I love you' to Nanima?", you used to ask.I am Indian! I take my mum to the temple instead." Continue reading...

Porcine pals Patty and Betty were shot by butchers who said their GPS screwed up' when it pointed them to the wrong houseA family in Washington state says a mobile butcher mistakenly slaughtered their pet pigs recently after showing up to the wrong address.Security camera footage showed an unknown truck pulling up to the home of the family in question when they were not there on 1 May. One of the employees of the family's farm, who was sent to check on their home, informed them that someone had shot the pigs. Continue reading...

US supreme court justice gives one-hour talk at meeting of judges, attorneys and other court personnel of 11th circuit court of appealsClarence Thomas told attendees at a judicial conference Friday that he and his wife have faced nastiness" and lies" over the last several years and decried Washington DC as a hideous place".The US supreme court justice spoke at a conference attended by judges, attorneys and other court personnel in the 11th circuit judicial conference, which hears federal cases from Alabama, Florida and Georgia. He made the comments pushing back on his critics in response to a question about working in a world that seems mean-spirited. Continue reading...

Ethnic cleansing and war crimes in Darfur have left 25 million people in urgent need, yet the west's attention is elsewhereParents are killed in front of their children. As they cry for help, the children die too. Panicked people fleeing attacks become moving targets. Entire communities are set ablaze and destroyed. Dislocation, hunger and thirst follow, a prelude to famine and death.Abandoned, terrified, unprotected, unseen, the people despair.This is not a description of Gaza today. It's Sudan, war-torn, desperate - and largely ignored. Upper estimates of the number of people killed there since a senseless civil war erupted just over one year ago reach 150,000. About 9 million residents, principally in the western Darfur region, have been displaced. Aidagencies say 25 million people are in need of urgent assistance. The future cohesion of a country already cleaved by the 2011 secession of South Sudan and conscious of next-door Libya's disintegration is at stake. Continue reading...