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Justin Welby is the latest in a long line to link his state of mind to the residents of Hundred Acre WoodDuring a series of lectures for passion week, the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, opened up about his mental health. In confessing how he had long relied on antidepressants to “restore me to Eeyore status from something much worse”, he noted how his predecessor, Dr Rowan Williams, once advised him “there is almost no human situation that cannot be explained with the hermeneutical tools of Winnie the Pooh”. Certain psychologists have, in recent years, concurred with this observation, writing academic papers on how the characters in the Hundred Acre Wood are expressions of disorders: Tigger suffers from ADHD, Rabbit is a narcissist, Piglet has an anxiety complex and Pooh displays obsessive compulsive maladies associated with eating honey.AA Milne himself tended to be dismissive of such readings and certainly would have been amused by the idea of archbishops swapping sermons about his nursery tales. After serving at the Somme, he was not convinced by religion – for all his “hush, hush listen who dares, Christopher Robin is saying his prayers”, he never had his son baptised, unpersuaded that he was born in sin. Continue reading...

Party members call on Biden to do more to protect reproductive rights amid conflicting judicial rulings on mifepristoneDemocrats angrily denounced as “dangerous” and “draconian” a decision by a Texas judge that threatens access to a widely used abortion medication, while demanding the Joe Biden White House do more to protect reproductive rights.Nearly a quarter-century after the Food and Drug Administration approved the abortion pill mifepristone, the federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk on Friday sought to invalidate the agency’s decision, handing down an unprecedented order that – if upheld – would severely restrict access to one of the most commonly used methods of terminating a pregnancy. Continue reading...

Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a ruling on Friday aiming to suspend the FDA’s approval of abortion drug mifepristoneTexas-based federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk on Friday issued a ruling aiming to suspend the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, a common abortion drug approved for use 23 years ago that has been consistently found to be safe and effective.It is widely believed that the anti-abortion groups who brought the case challenging the FDA’s authorization of the drug did so in Amarillo, Texas, so that it would be certain to land on the desk of this particular judge. Kacsmaryk, who was appointed by Donald Trump, is known for disregarding precedent and for weighing in on the far-right side of culture war issues. Continue reading...

US vice-president shows support for Democrats ousted by Republicans from state house as scandal rages onAbout 500 people packed the chapel at Fisk University, a historically Black college in Nashville, Tennessee, and sang the civil rights anthem This Little Light of Mine while they waited for US vice-president Kamala Harris to appear. When she did, the crowd erupted in cheers.Harris and her listeners were there to show support for her fellow Democrats and state lawmakers Justin Jones, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson – Jones and Pearson were ousted from the Republican-controlled Tennessee house of representatives after joining a protest in favor of gun control at the capitol in Nashville, and Johnson narrowly survived an expulsion vote. Continue reading...

When it comes to trans people playing sports, the people pushing anti-trans legislation dress up their bigotry in the language of women’s rightsAccording to the Kansas State High School Activities Association, about 106,000 students participate in the organization’s sports and activities. Guess how many of those students are transgender girls? Three. That’s right, just three. Continue reading...

Victories in Chicago and St Louis, plus a key judicial race in Wisconsin, argue against tacking to center, leftwingers sayProgressives in the midwest had three reasons to celebrate on Tuesday. In Wisconsin, the liberal judge Janet Protasiewicz delivered a resounding victory in the state supreme court race, flipping control of the court for the first time in 15 years. In Chicago, the progressive mayoral candidate Brandon Johnson prevailed over Paul Vallas, a more conservative Democrat who ran on a tough-on-crime message. And in St Louis, progressives won a majority of seats on the board of aldermen, the lawmaking body for the city.As they took their victory lap, progressives made clear that they viewed the wins as merely the beginning of a broader trend in America’s elections. Continue reading...

The tech executive’s killing shouldn’t be used to push forward punitive measures and a ramp-up of mass incarcerationThis story was published in collaboration with Mission Local.Robert Harold “Crazy Bob” Lee died on the pavement in the wee hours last Tuesday after being stabbed while he walked through an abandoned street of downtown San Francisco. Continue reading...

Reactions to the former president’s court appearance on hush money charges were diametrically opposite depending on political persuasionIf the US needed a reminder that a rather large group of Americans completely disagree with another very large group of Americans, it got one this week.Donald Trump’s arrest in New York City on Tuesday, when he was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in relation to hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, was marked by diametrically opposed rallies, commentary and media coverage. Continue reading...

Trump made history by becoming the first former US president to be criminally charged but his successor has studiously avoided the subjectThe biggest news story in the US this week was Donald Trump’s unprecedented appearance at the defendant’s table in a Manhattan courtroom – an event that Joe Biden took pains to appear blissfully unaware of.On the day Trump learned he was facing 34 charges related to falsifying business records in the first-ever indictment of a former American president, Biden spent his day talking on the phone with the French leader, Emmanuel Macron, and Britain’s King Charles III, and presided over a meeting with his science and technology advisers at the White House. And, despite the best efforts of the reporters who follow him around on a daily basis, he ignored all questions about the allegations made by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg. Continue reading...

25 years on from the Good Friday agreement, the Iron Lady’s implacability and its unintended consequences are a lesson in humilitySeldom did a nickname feel so apt. Margaret Thatcher bent her foes – Tory sexists, trade union leaders, Argentine generals, Irish republicans, Soviet premiers – to her will. Armoured with a conviction she was right, she charged into one battle after another, slaying orthodoxy and precedents. What was this if not the work of an Iron Lady?Thatcher unleashed a revolution in the 1980s that transformed Britain’s political economy, jolted Europe’s left-leaning consensus and emboldened her great ally Ronald Reagan. She widened the Great Man theory of history to include women, and fortified it. Epochal events bore her stamp.Rory Carroll is the Guardian’s Ireland correspondent and author of Killing Thatcher: the IRA, the Manhunt and the Long War on the Crown (which in the US is titled There Will Be Fire: Margaret Thatcher, the IRA and Two Minutes That Changed History) Continue reading...

Calcea Rujean Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson’s achievement was not the first time trigonometry has been used to prove the theoremCompelling evidence supports the claims of two New Orleans high school seniors who say they have found a new way to prove Pythagoras’s theorem by using trigonometry, a respected mathematics professor said, even if the students’ “really important and fantastic” achievement is not the first time trigonometry has been used to prove the theory, as their school apparently touted.Álvaro Lozano-Robledo, of the University of Connecticut, spoke this week in a series of TikTok videos, addressing international reports about Calcea Rujean Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson. Continue reading...

GOP-controlled state house voted to expel Black lawmakers Justin Jones and Justin Pearson while sparing Gloria JohnsonKamala Harris made an urgent trip to Nashville on Friday to meet with two Black Democratic lawmakers expelled from the state legislature for their role in in a peaceful protest calling for gun control in the aftermath of a school massacre, an unprecedented act of retaliation that sparked accusations of overt racism.The Republican-controlled legislature voted on Thursday to expel representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, but to spare a white Democratic lawmaker, Gloria Johnson, who participated in the same protest but narrowly avoided being kicked out. Continue reading...

Vice-president visiting lawmakers at Fisk University as Republican-controlled house’s move condemned as racist

The move will test whether the former Democrat can build a centrist base – and also risks splitting votesThe Arizona US senator Kyrsten Sinema is preparing for an independent re-election campaign in a move that will not only test whether the former Democrat can build a centrist base apart from her former party – but may also risk splitting votes among Democratic supporters.Earlier this week, Sinema gathered her team in Phoenix and discussed re-election strategies, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing anonymous sources. Part of the meetings involved Sinema and her team reviewing slideshows that laid out a timeline of her potential run, as well as timing details, according to the Journal which reviewed the slides. Continue reading...

American came close to giving up the game after difficult recovery from knee injury but is in relentless form at AugustaTwelve months ago Brooks Koepka finished the Masters by trying to put his fist through a car window round the back of Augusta National’s caddie hut. He had just signed for a score of 75, which meant he missed the cut and finished in a tie for 59th. “I don’t even know if I should be saying this,” he admitted on Friday, “but I tried to break the back window with my fist.”First time it bounced right off again. So then he tried again, and it still did not break. “Yeah,” he said with a chuckle, “I guess Mercedes makes a pretty good window.” Continue reading...

Conservative justice says he was told ‘personal hospitality’ from mega-donor did not have to be reported, as impeachment calls growThe US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas said on Friday he was advised the “personal hospitality” extended to him for more than 25 years by the Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow, detailed in an explosive report by ProPublica, did not have to be reported under ethics rules.“I have endeavoured to follow that counsel throughout my tenure,” Thomas said in a rare statement, “and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines.” Continue reading...

Proposed rules require any decisions to restrict trans people from competing to involve important educational objectivesThe Biden administration has released a proposal that would forbid schools and colleges across the US from enacting outright bans on transgender athletes competing in sports.But teams could create some limits in certain cases – for example, to ensure fairness, according to the proposal, which did not go into extensive detail about the term. Continue reading...

Nicholas Tartaglione faces life imprisonment after killing of four men over perceived money debtA former New York police officer who shared a jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein at the time of the sex trafficker’s suicide executed four men and then buried them in a mass grave over what he perceived to be a debt of money, federal jurors determined on Thursday.Nicholas Tartaglione faces life imprisonment after being found guilty of the killings of Martin Luna, Urbano Santiago, Miguel Luna and Hector Gutierrez, according to a statement from US justice department prosecutors. Continue reading...

Glossip, who is scheduled to be executed 18 May, was convicted of the 1997 murder-for-hire killing of his bossThe conviction and death sentence for the Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip should be thrown out and a new trial ordered, the state’s new attorney general said on Thursday, as support has grown even among death penalty supporters who say Glossip is innocent.In a filing with the Oklahoma court of criminal appeals, the attorney general, Gentner Drummond, said that although the state is not suggesting Glossip is innocent, the key witness against Glossip lied to the jury about his psychiatric treatment and reasons for taking the mood-stabilizing drug lithium. Continue reading...

Seven people share their views on the former president being charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the hush money caseDonald Trump on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges of falsifying business records in what prosecutors alleged was a conspiracy to influence the 2016 presidential election.It is the first time a former president has faced criminal charges in the US. Later, at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, he addressed friends, family and supporters, listing his grievances against investigators, prosecutors and rival politicians. Continue reading...

Allegations that ex-Barclays boss aided sex trafficking operations run by Jeffrey Epstein labelled ‘baseless but serious’Lawyers working for Jes Staley have accused JP Morgan of “slanderous” attacks against the ex-Barclays boss, saying allegations that he aided sex trafficking operations run by the late billionaire Jeffrey Epstein were “baseless but serious”.Staley’s lawyer made the comments in a Manhattan district court filing as he urged a judge to give his client more time to review thousands of documents related to JP Morgan’s lawsuit against him, and sever that case from two lawsuits lodged against the US bank over its alleged role in aiding Epstein’s crimes. Continue reading...

In an extraordinary act of political retaliation, Tennessee Republicans expelled two Democratic lawmakers, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, from the state legislature for their role in a protest calling for more gun control after a deadly school shooting in Nashville.Banishment is a power the chamber has used only a handful times since the civil war. Most state legislatures are able to expel members, but it is generally reserved as a punishment for lawmakers accused of serious misconduct, not as a weapon against political opponents

Rebekah Jones says 13-year-old, charged over apparent threats to middle school in February, targeted for political reasonsThe arrest of a Florida teenager for allegedly threatening a school shooting has reignited a bitter feud between a former health department analyst fired after she accused the state of covering up Covid data, and Republican governor Ron DeSantis.The 13-year-old is the son of Rebekah Jones, the founder of Florida’s pandemic database, who clashed frequently with DeSantis after her dismissal on grounds of insubordination. Continue reading...

Until we address gerrymandering nationwide, the good news from Wisconsin could be a temporary victoryIt’s been a long time since Wisconsin could feel anything close to hope.More than a dozen years ago – when the first Harry Potter movie still played in theaters, and Katy Perry’s Firework and Bruno Mars’s Grenade topped the pop charts – Republican operatives and lawmakers locked themselves in a Madison, Wisconsin, law office and then locked themselves into power.David Daley is the author of Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count and Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy. He is a senior fellow at FairVote Continue reading...

Joe Biden and Barack Obama condemn expulsion of Justin Jones and Justin Pearson from Republican-controlled state houseTwo Democratic lawmakers have been expelled from Tennessee’s GOP-dominated House, an extraordinary act of political retaliation for their role in a gun control demonstration after the killings at a Nashville elementary school last week.Thousands of protesters have flocked to the Tennessee state capitol to support three Democratic members who were facing removal. Only two of the three were ultimately forced out. Continue reading...

Joe Biden and Barack Obama condemn expulsion of Justin Jones and Justin Pearson from Republican-controlled state house. Plus, why do so many of Forbes 30 under 30 alum face jail?Good morning.Two Democratic lawmakers have been expelled from Tennessee’s GOP-dominated House, an extraordinary act of political retaliation for their role in a gun control demonstration after the killings at a Nashville elementary school last week.What has Barack Obama said about the expulsion? The former president joined in the condemnation, tweeting: “This nation was built on peaceful protest. No elected official should lose their job simply for raising their voice – especially when they’re doing it on behalf of our children.”What have Democrats said? The progressive New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: “This is beyond party or partisanship. This degree of corruption is shocking – almost cartoonish. Thomas must be impeached. Barring some dramatic change, this is what the [chief justice John] Roberts court will be known for: rank corruption, erosion of democracy, and the stripping of human rights.” Continue reading...

Grammy-winning rapper was found dead six months ago at friend’s home in Los AngelesGrammy-winning rapper Coolio died from a fentanyl overdose, his manager said on Thursday, six months after the musician was found dead at a friend’s home in Los Angeles at the age 59.Born Artis Leon Ivey Jr, Coolio was best known for his 1995 single Gangsta’s Paradise, from an album of the same name. Continue reading...

The closure would lead to hundreds of job losses in a community of just under 3,000 people in FennimoreWorkers and union leaders are calling for a boycott of Energizer – the battery maker famous for its “Energizer bunny” adverts – over its plans to shut down plants in Wisconsin and move jobs offshore to Singapore, the UK, and a non-union plant in North Carolina.Using the hashtag #BadBunny the Teamsters union called this week for a protest boycott. “The name of their company is a joke. The only thing they are ‘energizing’ is another economy in another country,” said Teamsters general president Sean O’Brien. Continue reading...

Young players are entering the NBA with more money, fame and playing time than ever before. But they also have less guidance from established veteransShortly before Memphis Grizzles star Ja Morant flashed a handgun inside a strip club on Instagram Live in early March, his team held a players-only meeting. Steven Adams, the 10-year NBA veteran who at 29 is by far the oldest member of the Grizzlies, urged his younger teammates to conduct themselves more professionally on the road after starting the season 12-20 away from home.But the message did not resonate with Memphis’ franchise player. Morant went to the strip club, acted recklessly, and was given a suspension for his actions. Continue reading...

Ex-CEO Charlie Javice, 31, is just the latest from the magazine’s list to see criminal chargesJust a few years ago, Charlie Javice was riding high. In 2019 the tech CEO landed a spot on Forbes’s 30 Under 30 list for her work on a startup called Frank, which she described as “Amazon for higher education”. What does that catchy but completely empty phrase mean? It means Frank helped students navigate the financial aid process. It was apparently so successfully at doing this that JPMorgan Chase acquired the company for $175m in 2021 and Javice was made a managing partner at the bank. The entrepreneur shared the news on LinkedIn, boasting that in just four years Frank had grown to serve “over 5 million students at over 6,000 colleges”.Turns out those numbers might have been just a teeny bit exaggerated. On Tuesday Javice, 31, was charged by the justice department with “falsely and dramatically inflating the number of customers of her company” in order to get JPMorgan Chase to buy it. According to the lawsuit, Frank only had about 300,000 clients and fabricated data to show a larger customer base. She enlisted a data scientist to make up a few million customers, basically, and JPMorgan, which has about 240,000 employees and pays its CEO $34.5m for his expertise, didn’t seem to spot this in its due diligence. Continue reading...

We can all learn from an episode in which one MP allegedly called another a ‘crybaby’ and parliamentary TV caught the reactionsIt has been described as “everyone’s worst nightmare” and a “wrong group-chat horror”, which you might think a bit melodramatic – only if you’ve never experienced it yourself.As it is, political scandals are rarely so relatable. New Zealand’s Green party is in highly public turmoil after one politician sent a message seeming to criticise a colleague to a group of their other colleagues, apparently by mistake. Continue reading...

The adult film star sat down with Piers Morgan for 1.5 hours, saying the former president should be ‘held accountable’In her first major interview since Donald Trump’s indictment, Stormy Daniels has said that while she wants the former president to be “held accountable” she doesn’t believe he should go to prison.“I don’t think that his crimes against me are worthy of incarceration. I feel like the other things that he has done, if he is found guilty, absolutely,” Daniels, 44, said in an interview with Fox Nation’s Piers Morgan released on Thursday. Continue reading...

Jon Rahm four-putted the first but recovered to shoot 65, sharing the lead with Brooks Koepka and Viktor Hovland after day oneAs if making two holes-in-one on consecutive holes in yesterday’s par-three contest wasn’t achievement enough, Seamus Power nearly emulates Louis Oosthuizen’s 2012 albatross on 2. He creams his second downhill from 239 yards to five feet, and tidies up for the first eagle of the week. He’ll be given some lovely crystal by the committee for that; more importantly, having started with a bogey, he’s also now got a share of the lead at -1.Meanwhile, apropos the aforementioned CBS theme, here’s Dan O: “Just making sure you’re aware of this. It’s pretty awful but also kind of cool? I only just heard it last year and still can’t really believe there’s a version with lyrics.” It is difficult to believe, yes. Nevertheless, all together everyone, you know the words: ♬ It’s the legions of Arnie’s Army and the Golden Bear’s throngs / and the wooden-shafted legend of Bobby Jones♯ Continue reading...

The five-times champion had some good moments in his first round, but too many mistakes led to a two-over-par finishIt’s an odd truth that if you’ve got to ask someone who it is you’re watching at Augusta National then you already know the answer. At a quarter-to-ten, half an hour before Tiger Woods was even due on the 1st tee, the crowd was packed four or five deep down the length of the fairway, and three times as thick again up by the clubhouse. So anyone who arrived hoping to see him afterwards needed to be awfully comfortable up on their tip-toes, or else try to find a vacant pine tree root to perch on so they could peer over everyone else’s heads.After all these years, Woods is still the only man in the field here who draws a gallery like that. Catching a glimpse of him has become as much of a Masters tradition as buying a pimento cheese sandwich or posing for a photo out round the back of the clubhouse. It’s one of the things every daytripper wants to cross off their list. They don’t much mind whether they’ve caught him playing a particularly good shot or not, his five-foot pars earn the same sort of roars as other people’s ten-foot birdies. Continue reading...

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemns ‘shocking corruption’ after ProPublica report details luxury items from top Republican donorClarence Thomas, the most conservative justice on the US supreme court, is facing renewed calls for impeachment after it was reported that for two decades he has accepted undisclosed luxury gifts from a Republican mega-donor.Thomas may have violated financial disclosure rules when he failed to disclose travel on yachts and jets and other gifts funded by the property billionaire Harlan Crow and uncovered by ProPublica. Continue reading...

Threatening calls, emails and letters to Juan Merchan and his family come following arrest of ex-president in hush money caseThe New York judge who presided over the arraignment of Donald Trump and the judge’s family have reportedly received multiple threats following the historic arrest of the former president.In court in Manhattan on Tuesday, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts related to his hush money payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels. Continue reading...

For too long, the plant world has laughed at our puffy faces and runny noses. Finally there’s a plan to stop themWe should all realise by now that nature hates us. Plants use their roots to whisper among themselves, according to the latest research, conspiring underground, plotting our destruction. They “prompt their neighbours to grow more aggressively, presumably to avoid being left in the shade”. That sounds like a rather charitable presumption to me. We underestimate their capacity for nefarious scheming at our peril. And they save their nastiest trick for this time of year.We fall for it every time. “See how pretty we are!”, they say. “Wonder at our divine colours, marvel at our sublime textures; how delicate is our beauty! Love us.” It is an act of the damnedest subterfuge, for this is the time of year they also just happen to start bellowing out their Powder of Deep Suffering, which they would rather we call pollen. And we’re supposed to believe this is some kind of coincidence?Peter Ormerod is a journalist with a particular interest in religion, culture and gender Continue reading...

Jane Rosenberg was one of three permitted sketch artists during the hearing involving the ex-president on TuesdayThe next cover of the New Yorker will feature a drawing of Donald Trump at his arraignment on felony charges this week – the first time a courtroom sketch has graced the cover of the famous magazine.Jane Rosenberg was one of three permitted sketch artists during the hearing involving the former president at the Manhattan criminal courthouse on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Senator Ted Cruz among those backing repeal of law criminalising homosexual conduct was ruled unconstitutional in 2003Texas lawmakers are edging closer to repealing the state’s sodomy ban, two decades after the law was ruled unconstitutional.A state house committee voted unanimously on Wednesday to pass a bill that would repeal the 1973 law criminalising homosexual conduct, which has been unenforceable since it was deemed unconstitutional by the US supreme court in 2003. Continue reading...

Pretending wellness is a matter of personal choice is a convenient way for society to uphold systems of oppression

Nephew of JFK and son of former attorney general launches long-shot challenge to Biden for Democratic nominationRobert F Kennedy Jr, an anti-vaccine activist and scion of one of the most famous American political families, is running for president.Kennedy, 69, filed a statement of candidacy on Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission. Continue reading...