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The president’s cognitive ability, a conservative media concern, has increasingly become more mainstreamIn 2019, a manipulated video spread through social media platforms showing Joe Biden on stage telling an audience that he “shouldn’t be president”. Biden’s voice had been slowed down, giving the impression he was slurring his words, while footage from a real speech he gave at an Iowa university was edited to cut out context, splice together clips and make it seem like he was calling himself “Slow Joe Biden”.It was a full year before Biden formally became the Democratic nominee for president, but already the narrative that he was in serious cognitive decline was beginning to take shape. Over the course of the 2020 presidential race, a procession of far-right meme-makers, Republican party operatives and Trump campaign officials would suggest Biden was losing it. More deceptively edited videos circulated, Fox News hosts claimed Biden was senile, attack ads ran suggesting he was mentally unfit and Donald Trump tweeted that his opponent had “dementia”. Continue reading...

From Covid to crime, from immigration to cultural issues, the Florida governor is aiming to paint Trump as too liberalDonald Trump is not the most rightwing candidate running for the White House. That is a statement few would have thought possible after the former president’s brand of nativist-populism reshaped the Republican party’But as the Republican primary election for 2024 gathers pace, Trump finds himself eclipsed on the right by Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, who is betting that the party’s voters are spoiling for an even more extreme agenda. Continue reading...

The decision to observe Pride did not spark street brawls last year. This time, things were very differentHundreds of furious demonstrators. Police in riot gear. Barricades on the street and helicopters overhead. This was the scene outside a suburban California school board meeting this week, as the board planned to vote on whether the district should officially recognize June as LGBTQ+ pride month.A year ago, the decision to observe Pride at schools in Glendale, a suburb about 20 minutes from downtown Los Angeles, did not spark street brawls or result in multiple arrests. But this year things were different. Continue reading...

Prejudice abounds in spate of Puerto Ricans being denied services in contiguous US despite being American citizensThey were denied prepaid car rentals, blocked from buying drinks at a grocery, and prohibited from boarding their flight in different parts of the US.All were from Puerto Rico, whose residents have been American citizens since 1917. But all were recently mistaken for international travelers lacking proper identification and denied services for which they had already paid, highlighting the prejudice that people from the largely Spanish-speaking island – and Spanish speakers in general – face in the US. Continue reading...

The blowing up of a Ukrainian dam echoes a traditional cycle of destruction and self-destruction marking the country’s historyBeneath the veneer of Russian military “tactics”, you see the stupid leer of destruction for the sake of it. The Kremlin can’t create, so all that is left is to destroy. Not in some pseudo-glorious self-immolation, the people behind atrocities are petty cowards, but more like a loser smearing their faeces over life. In Russia’s wars the very senselessness seems to be the sense.After the casual mass executions at Bucha; after the bombing of maternity wards in Mariupol; after the laying to waste of whole cities in Donbas; after the children’s torture chambers, the missiles aimed at freezing civilians to death in the dead of winter, we now have the apocalyptic sight of the waters of the vast Dnipro, a river that when you are on it can feel as wide as a sea, bursting through the destroyed dam at Kakhovka. The reservoir held as much water as the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Its destruction has already submerged settlements where more than 40,000 people live. It has already wiped out animal sanctuaries and nature reserves. It will decimate agriculture in the bread basket of Ukraine that feeds so much of the world, most notably in the Middle East and Africa. To Russian genocide add ecocide. Continue reading...

Joseph Dituri, 55, spent a record-breaking time in structure 30ft below surface of Key Largo lagoon to study medical effectsA professor who spent 100 days living and researching underwater has finally resurfaced this weekend.On Friday, Joseph Dituri, a University of South Florida professor and a retired US naval officer, emerged from the depths of a Florida Keys scuba divers’ lodge after he went underwater three months ago. Continue reading...

The former PM’s insistence to ‘Get Brexit Done’ is the biggest historic mistake this country has made in peacetimeAs a master of public manipulation, Boris Johnson has few equals. His resignation has all the characteristics of a disaster turned into an opportunity. For weeks now, an all-party committee of the House of Commons has been crawling over the evidence of his behaviour behind closed doors when the rest of us were locked down. This report appears to have confirmed his worst fears. A suspension from the House of Commons, a recall petition from constituents, a difficult byelection and political humiliation.Most of us would have cowered at the prospect. But with one spectacular coup de théâtre, he was free. The Commons report could hardly recommend a 10-day suspension for an MP who had already gone. The debate would no longer focus on whether he did or did not lie to the Commons. It would become centred on Boris and his future. Continue reading...

Northern Irishman deserved better treatment from PGA Tour but has a tendency to prevail against a backdrop of tumultRory McIlroy could spend half of his life battling misconceptions had he the inclination or the energy. The latest surround the supposed fury the 34-year-old should have over the extraordinary events of recent days, where aghast onlookers have witnessed the PGA and DP World Tours combine with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) to ensure – in theory at least – peace in our golfing time. A lesson in recent history would be apposite before McIlroy’s position is considered.The Northern Irishman has cause to be conflicted. He was as stunned by Tuesday’s announcement as everyone bar the handful of individuals who have changed the shape of elite golf for ever. The rest of us required smelling salts. Yet the sense McIlroy was embattled or insistent on continuing war is inaccurate. Continue reading...

Former president, who faces 37 charges related to retention of secret documents, addresses Republican conventions in Georgia and North CarolinaDonald Trump delivered his first public address following the announcement of his federal indictment this week in Columbus, Georgia, on Saturday.The former president took the stage at state Republican conventions in Georgia and North Carolina where he lashed out against the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Biden administration, called his recent indictment “a travesty of justice” and repeated unsupported conspiratorial claims that Joe Biden had stashed secret documents in the Chinatown neighborhood of Washington DC. Continue reading...

What if men aren’t lonely in defiance of their status as oppressors – what if they’re lonely because of that status?Last month I travelled to England, a country I had not visited for 13 years, to attend a funeral. When it came time to choose what to read on the long flight, I threw Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice into my bag, mostly on a whim. I’d read it and loved it many years before but why it came with me, I can’t entirely say.The trip was bleak. I sat in galleries by myself. I ate lunch by myself. And I attended the funeral by myself, where the men from my family assembled in awkward clusters, surrounded by each other, but, in an immediately recognisable way, standing alone. Continue reading...

Harvard-educated mathematician waged 17-year bombing campaign from isolated shack in Montana wildernessTheodore “Ted” Kaczynski, the Harvard-educated mathematician who retreated to a dingy shack in the Montana wilderness and ran a 17-year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others, died on Saturday. He was 81.Branded the “Unabomber” by the FBI, Kaczynski died at the federal prison medical center in Butner, North Carolina, Kristie Breshears, a spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Prisons, told the Associated Press. He was found unresponsive in his cell early on Saturday morning and was pronounced dead around 8am, she said. A cause of death was not immediately known. Continue reading...

Golfer put his career on hold to help his girlfriend cope with cancer and will tee up at the major on Thursday with renewed hope“Dude, it has been crazy.” At this point in 2022, Corey Pereira had no clue of the battles that lay ahead. His key concern surrounded poor form, which would ultimately lead to him losing status on the Korn Ferry Tour, the understudy to the PGA Tour. Golfing dreams lay shattered.“I was struggling with my game,” he says. “I was upset, frustrated. It’s not a good place to be. My first year out there, I got injured and lost my card that way. Last year, I didn’t have an excuse. Golf is about fine lines. I was on one side of that as an amateur, unfortunately the last couple of years I’ve been on the other. I knew I had to get better, step up my work and improve.” Continue reading...

He is taking the coward’s way out by quitting the Commons because he calculated that he was going to be sacked from parliamentSeveral books, many profiles and countless commentaries have been written about the life and crimes of Boris Johnson during the lurid passage of that toxic meteor through our political firmament. You have my sympathies if you don’t have much remaining appetite for delving into the inky depths of his dissolute character, but one thing has not been said quite enough. The man is a coward. Whenever faced with the consequences of his actions, he ducks. Whenever confronted with a choice that requires some courage, he swerves. Whenever asked to make good on a promise, he betrays. Whenever the choice is fight or flight, he flees.This is one of the many respects in which he is so starkly different to Winston Churchill, the wartime leader he preposterously invited people to think of as his inspiration and role model for leadership. After the disaster of the Dardanelles campaign during the First World War, Churchill resigned from the cabinet and sought redemption and rehabilitation by crossing the Channel to serve on the western front. Found guilty of lying to parliament about the squalid scandal of Partygate, Mr Johnson can do no better than act the guilty schoolboy trying to hide from a deserved punishment. He is quitting as an MP because scarpering from the Commons was the last desperate resort left to him to avoid answering for what he did. He is scuttling from the scene of one of his most flagrant and egregious crimes against public life rather than face the music for trying to cover up a scandal by lying about it to parliament and to avoid the entirely appropriate sanction recommended by the seven MPs on the privileges committee. Continue reading...

Panel’s opinion could pave way for full regulatory approval next month for treatment of disease that affects 6.5m AmericansA panel that advises the Food and Drug Administration agreed that a new drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease was beneficial for slowing cognitive decline, paving the way for full regulatory approval next month.Earlier this year, the drug, known as lecanemab, was granted partial, or accelerated, approval, but that restricted it to people who could pay $26,500 a year or were enrolled in a clinical trial. Under its current status, it is not available under the public health programs Medicare and Medicaid. Continue reading...

An insatiable Heat side that has overcome so much to reach the NBA finals as a No 8 seed finds it back against the wall once again following Denver’s Game 4 win on Friday nightFor a just minute or two early in the fourth quarter, it seemed possible, perhaps even probable. Nikola Jokić picked up a fifth personal foul and trudged to the bench. A double-digit deficit – the Miami Heat’s cue to spark into life throughout this unlikely playoff run – was quickly halved with a Jimmy Butler and-one.The Heat’s Kaseya Center rose with expectation. They had seen this before; the sheer will of a Heat team that has defied conventional logic for two months. In the end though, their eighth-seeded team have met an obstacle they perhaps cannot overcome, even when tossing aside logic. Continue reading...

Partisan politics and rule of law on collision course after former president and current candidate charged on 37 federal countsFormer US president Donald Trump’s stunning criminal charges have triggered a fierce counterattack from Republicans, putting America on a collision course between partisan politics and the rule of law ahead of a potentially explosive election.On Friday prosecutors unsealed a devastating 37-count indictment against Trump, accusing him of risking some of the country’s most sensitive security secrets after leaving the White House in 2021. He mishandled classified documents that included information about the secretive US nuclear programme and potential domestic vulnerabilities in the event of an attack, the indictment said. Continue reading...

If anyone should feel guilt it’s the policymakers and politicians who have made being a parent so damn expensive that a lot of us have no choice but to waitHow do you know if you really want to have kids? Do your ovaries start hurting? Does the sight of a small child make you well up with tears? Do you start seeing dancing babies all Ally McBeal-style? Do you just wake up one morning bursting with the realization that you want to be a parent? Continue reading...

Mission of ‘Air DeSantis’ to transport migrants to other states gives Florida governor chance to burnish hardline reputationThe already congested skies over the western US became a little more crowded this week after Florida’s rightwing Republican governor Ron DeSantis ordered the return to flight of one of America’s most notorious transport airlines.Air DeSantis, as supporters colloquially refer to the state’s unauthorized alien transportation program, doesn’t even exist as an official entity. It isn’t registered as a company, or with the Federal Aviation Authority, is mired in legal troubles, and has been grounded for months. Continue reading...

The sprawling indictment targeting the former president is set out like chapters in a novel easily digested by a trial juryBy laying out Donald Trump’s own admissions and incriminating eyewitness accounts from his employees, the indictment unsealed on Friday provided compelling evidence that the former US president could find exceedingly difficult to overcome and avoid a conviction.The sprawling, 38-count indictment (in which Trump’s valet was also charged) filed in the US district court in Florida revealed the previously unknown extent of Trump’s blatant efforts to retain the country’s most sensitive secrets and obstruct the government’s attempts to get them back. Continue reading...

Police say all victims are expected to survive their injuries after incident in Mission District on Friday nightMultiple victims were struck by bullets during a mass shooting in San Francisco’s Mission District on Friday night, but authorities said there were no fatalities.“We can confirm there are 9 shooting victims – all are expected to survive their injuries,” the San Francisco police department said in a tweet. Continue reading...

The monster in the Kremlin was surely behind the Ukraine dam explosion. Nato allies have to stop him before he blows up everythingOf course the Russians did it. Blowing up Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine last week is cowardly Vladimir Putin’s long-planned response to what he fears is the start of Kyiv’s counteroffensive. Only Russians really had the means, motive and opportunity. Only this malevolent Kremlin regime would wilfully inflict human and environmental havoc on so vast a scale.It’s impossible to prove at this point. And, of course, Putin’s loathsome sycophants lied about it, blaming Ukrainian self-sabotage. That’s what they do, these mobsters. They lied about the Russian-supplied missile that destroyed Flight MH17 over occupied Donbas in 2014. They lied about the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Putin lied blatantly about invading Ukraine, right up to the moment he did. Continue reading...

Scaling back of moderation and rise of AI are creating the perfect storm to weaken elections and democracyIncreasing misinformation on social media, platforms scaling back content moderation and the rise of AI are converging to create a perfect storm for the 2024 elections that some experts warn could put democracy at risk.YouTube this week reversed its election integrity policy, allowing content contesting the validity of the 2020 elections to remain on the platform. Meta, meanwhile, reinstated the Instagram account of misinformation super spreader Robert F Kennedy Jr and will allow Donald Trump to post again imminently. Twitter has also allowed Trump to return, and has generally seen a rise in the spread of misinformation since billionaire Elon Musk took over the platform last year. Continue reading...

The Florida district judge was appointed by the ex-president three years ago and there’s no certainty she will remain on the case but her name is on the summonsAileen Cannon, the Florida district judge assigned to oversee Donald Trump’s classified documents case, initially at least, was appointed to the federal bench by the former president three years ago, and gave him a favorable ruling at an earlier hearing last year.But Cannon was later rebuked by an appeals court panel for granting Trump’s request for an independent special master to review the documents. That action slowed the justice department’s investigation and prompted questions over her impartiality. Continue reading...

Following his indictment, Trump asked supporters to ‘make a contribution to peacefully defend our movement from the neverending witch hunts’

I owe my happiness to the queer friends I made. And to my younger self who hated being gay: all is forgivenI was lying awake the other night, thinking about death, when I realised something big. Of all the things I could be reincarnated as – a tapeworm, a dung beetle, a writer (again) – the thing I most fear is coming back as straight. Honestly, the idea sends a shiver down my spine. Because, no disrespect to my straight friends, but I don’t know how they get through the day. Straight women, in particular. I don’t understand how they go through life, dealing with the whole power dynamic in opposite-sex relationships, without even the option of dating other women. I don’t think I could hack it, and they have my utmost respect.It’s not just the romantic side of things, though – over the years, being gay has shifted my entire worldview. It’s made me think twice about every social norm, from the nuclear family to uncomfortable footwear. And I’m not saying that all straight people lack the imagination to challenge these things too, but being gay really helps. Recently, it dawned on me that I’m perfectly within my right to shop for clothes in the men’s section, and that in itself has been a revelation. Again, I know straight women who do this. But when it comes to wearing “men’s” clothes with any real ease and confidence, being a lesbian just helps.Eleanor Margolis is a columnist for the i newspaper and DivaDo 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...

A pair of former unified champions who have strayed from once-clear paths to stardom will meet on Saturday at Madison Square Garden with a chance to restore faded lusterSome of boxing’s most compelling matchups wither on the vine before they’re finally made and others take place before they’ve ripened. One could argue that Saturday’s fight at Madison Square Garden between Josh Taylor and Teófimo López falls partway into each column.Like the soupy haze that has enveloped Manhattan for most of the week, the outlook ahead of the scheduled 12-round showdown for Taylor’s WBO junior welterweight title is thick with uncertainty. Both men are former unified champions in different weight classes whose once-clear paths to mainstream stardom have been diverted not by outright disaster, but lengthy spells of inactivity and performances short of their heightened standards. Yet each is heartened by the reality that a restoration of luster is one big result away. Crossroads fights like these seldom take place so close to the summit. Continue reading...

Driver of Jeep stopped for running red light helps police jail man – her own passenger – suspected of attempted murder and kidnapBy mouthing the words “help me” to an officer who had pulled her over for a traffic stop, a woman in South Carolina helped authorities jail a man suspected of a shooting and a kidnapping: her own passenger, according to authorities.The unusual encounter began when officer Kayla Wallace pulled over a woman behind the wheel of a Jeep that ran a red light during the early evening of 28 May, the North Myrtle Beach police department said in a statement this week. Wallace noticed the woman was in distress while seated alongside 29-year-old Collin Bates, the police’s statement added. Continue reading...

John Reyes and his family were cleaning out his father-in-law’s home when they made the surprise discoveryCleaning out a house for renovation can oftentimes produce some unsavory surprises, but a family in Los Angeles got lucky – a million times over – with one of their finds.John Reyes, a realtor in the Inland Empire area, was helping his wife, Elizabeth, clean out her father’s 1900s-era home last year when they discovered more than 1m copper pennies in a cramped crawlspace in the basement, according to KTLA news. The trove has a face value of at least $10,000, but could be worth more than $1m. Continue reading...

Indictment accuses former president of risking national security, foreign relations, safety of US military and intelligence gatheringThe US senate judiciary committee chairman, Dick Durbin, has said the investigation led by special counsel Jack Smith should be allowed to continue “without interference”.In a statement on Friday, Durbin added that Donald Trump “should be afforded the due process protections that he is guaranteed by our constitution, just like any other American”.I think before the sun sets today, the attorney general of the United States should be standing in front of the American people, should unseal this indictment, should provide the American people with all the facts and information here.And the American people be able to judge for themselves whether this is just the latest incident of weaponization and politicization at the justice department or it’s something different. Continue reading...

Plaintiff, who was altar boy in Chesterfield, Missouri, said he was abused by priest Gary Wolken, jailed for abusing another boyThe Roman Catholic archdiocese of St Louis has agreed to pay $1m to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who was sexually abused as a child by a priest who previously spent 12 years in prison for abusing another boy, an attorney for the victim said Friday.The plaintiff was an altar boy at a church in Chesterfield, Missouri. The suit alleged he was abused by Gary Wolken starting in 1993, when the boy was in fourth grade, and continuing through 1995. The lawsuit said the plaintiff repressed memories until he was an adult. Continue reading...

Special counsel Jack Smith, who has pursued criminal charges against Donald Trump, has said his team would seek 'a speedy trial'. His statement to reporters followed an indictment against the embattled former president getting unsealed, which included 37 federal charges related to the mishandling of confidential national security documents including nuclear weapons secrets. Smith said it was 'very important' that 'the defendants in this case must be presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law'

Trump took steps to retain classified documents subpoenaed by the justice department, according to indictment

Trump took classified documents including information on nuclear weapons and secret plans to attack a foreign countryDonald Trump took classified documents including information on nuclear weapons in the US and secret plans to attack a foreign country, according to a 49-page federal indictment unsealed Friday afternoon.The former US president, alongside a military valet, now faces a sweeping 37-count felony indictment related to the mishandling of classified documents. Continue reading...

Donald Trump is the first former president in US history to face federal criminal charges – is this a gamechanger or just another chapter in the drama?

The Miami lifer and Methuselah of the NBA finals, who turns 43 on Friday, has done more to define the Heat’s unimpeachable team culture over two decades than any other figureThere were 29.8 seconds left in Game 3 of the NBA finals when Udonis Haslem made the creaky walk from the Miami Heat bench to the scorer’s table on Wednesday night. By then the Denver Nuggets’ 109-94 victory was well in hand, and many of the Heat faithful had long since made for the exits.For his part, though, Haslem at least could say he got a shot up, and missed, before ducking into the locker room – the most action he’d seen since the playoffs tipped off a month and a half ago. The only highlight in that garbage-time effort was Haslem blowing past Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the oldest to participate in the NBA finals at 42 years and 363 days. And with Heat legend’s retirement looming after the buzzer sounds on this series, well, he damn sure isn’t about to go out like that. Continue reading...

Rightwing governor Greg Abbott unveils new measures at US-Mexico border condemned by critics as ‘chilling’The governor of Texas announced the state will install a barrier made of buoys along a section of the Rio Grande where people often wade or swim across the treacherous river from Mexico seeking refuge in the US, as the state committed $5.1bn towards ramping up plans to thwart border crossings.Greg Abbott said a “new, water-based barrier of buoys” will be placed in the river. At a press conference he showed a line of large red buoys floating in the center of the Rio Grande. Continue reading...

German carmaker becomes first to gain permit for offering self-driving cars in California, but with strict conditionsThe California department of motor vehicles has approved Mercedes-Benz’s automated driving system on designated highways under certain conditions without the active control of a driver.California is one of Tesla’s largest markets, accounting for 16% of the carmaker’s global deliveries last year, according to Reuters calculations. Continue reading...

Former president prepares for his second arraignment after federal charges filed over mishandling of classified documents

The would-be president and the US right look ready to side with Putin, and walk away from a fight the free world must winThe war for Ukraine gets darker and more terrifying, and now a new front has opened up many miles away – in a US Republican party whose biggest players are itching to abandon Ukraine to its fate.Proof of the conflict’s deepening horror came this week, with the destruction on Tuesday of the Kakhovka dam in Russian-controlled Ukraine, releasing a body of water so massive it’s best imagined not as a reservoir but as a great lake. The result has been the flooding of a vast swath of terrain, forcing thousands to abandon their homes and flee for their lives. But the menaces unleashed by this act go further than the immediate and devastating effect on the people who live close by.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Decision affects 15,000 hotel workers who are pushing for raises, affordable healthcare and safe workloads and staffing levelsHotel workers are threatening to strike in California over pay and conditions in what would be the largest ever strike by hotel workers.In a strike authorization vote held on 8 June, workers voted 96% in favor of authorizing a strike, which could begin as early as Fourth of July weekend. Continue reading...

Will the NRL’s new 10-season deal in Las Vegas help revive the colourful but fractured US rugby league scene?By Gavin Willacy for No Helmets RequiredThey were hanging off the rafters and window ledges. They were standing on rooftops and perched along precarious walls: Sydney Cricket Ground was overflowing. More than 65,000 people were inside and another 5,000 were locked out, scrambling for vantage points. But this was no Origin decider. Seventy years ago this week, the SCG was packed out for the visit of the American All Stars, a team of college football players who had no knowledge of rugby league just a month before.Three days later, to mark the Queen’s coronation, another 32,554 fans attended the SCG to watch the Americans score 41 points against a New South Wales side featuring Clive Churchill, Keith Holman, Noel Pidding and Harry Wells, courtesy of a generous display of defending and refereeing (albeit the Blues heaped on 62 points themselves). American half-back Gary Kerkorian, a Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback the previous season, scored all 13 of his kicks at goal that week. The future looked exhilarating. Continue reading...

Prosecutor overseeing Mar-a-Lago classified papers and Trump election interference cases has indicted former president

For the first time ever, a leading US presidential contender will be running under the cloud of possible imprisonment. Yet this may not hold back TrumpOn Thursday night, word of the government’s indictment of Donald Trump seeped out. The 45th president is reportedly slated to be arraigned this coming Tuesday on seven separate counts. He stands accused of violating the Espionage Act, false statements and conspiracy to obstruct justice.Irony abounds. As a first-time candidate, he led chants of “lock her up”. From the White House, he sought jail for his political opponents. Now on his third bid for the presidency, Trump must contend with an array of pending federal and state prosecutions and investigations.Lloyd Green is an attorney in New York and served in the US Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992 Continue reading...