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‘Abortion trafficking’ law mandates up to five years in prison for acting without parental consent even when child has been rapedThe Republican governor of Idaho, Brad Little, signed a bill into law on Wednesday that makes it illegal for an adult to help a minor get an abortion without parental consent.The law is the first of its kind in the US, creating a new crime of “abortion trafficking”, barring adults from obtaining abortion pills for a minor or “recruiting, harboring or transporting the pregnant minor” without the consent of the minor’s parent or guardian. Continue reading...

Georgia representative calls city ‘a terrible place’ after visit to support Donald Trump at court appearanceThe far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene risked stoking the wrath of New Yorkers for a second time this week, calling their city “disgusting”, “filthy”, “repulsive” and a “terrible place”.“I compared it to what I called Gotham City,” the Georgia Republican told Fox News. “The streets are filthy, they’re covered with people basically lying, on drugs. They can’t even stand up. They’re falling over. There’s so much crime in the city. I can’t comprehend how people live there.” Continue reading...

US firm reportedly seeks to buy more than 30% of FGS in deal that would give it enterprise value of about $1.4bnThe US private equity investor KKR is in talks to buy a stake in the public relations company FGS Global that would give it an enterprise value of about $1.4bn.KKR was in talks to buy more than 30% of FGS, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, although a person with knowledge of the talks said the final proportion may be lower. Continue reading...

Hours after his court appearance, it was clear ex-president’s political calculus remained unchanged. Plus, can ChatGPT make me a healthier, happier, more productive person?

As a historian, I see how the voices of enslaved people have been excluded from history. Now we must listen and respond to their descendantsOn 27 March 2007, nearly 450 years after Elizabeth I sponsored John Hawkins’ slaving expeditions to west Africa, Elizabeth II attended a service in Westminster Abbey to commemorate the bicentenary of Britain’s abolition of the slave trade. Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, delivered a sermon focused on slavery’s “hideously persistent” legacies. “We, who are the heirs of the slave-owning and slave-trading nations of the past, have to face the fact that our historic prosperity was built in large part on this atrocity,” he said.Moments later a Black protester dashed in front of the altar, disrupting the service with shouts of “This is an insult to us!” Her face impassive, Queen Elizabeth watched as security guards struggled with the protester, Toyin Agbetu, founder of the pan-African human rights organisation Ligali. As he was forcibly ejected, Agbetu pointed at the queen and yelled: “You, the queen, should be ashamed! You should say sorry!” In keeping with her own protocol and that of her namesake, Elizabeth I, whose motto was video et taceo (I see and keep silent), Queen Elizabeth said nothing. Continue reading...

Groups had stopped work funding out-of-state travel for abortions due to threats from Republican attorney general Ken PaxtonWhen the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade last June, Kamyon Conner sat at her desk and sobbed.As executive director of the Texas Equal Access Fund – a nonprofit based in north Texas that helps patients pay for their abortions – Conner was forced to shut off the group’s hotline for the first time in its nearly 20-year history. That meant cutting off a critical avenue for hundreds of largely low-income people of color to afford essential out-of-state care. Continue reading...

From tailing helicopters to photographers perched on ladders, the ex-president enjoyed a disproportionate amount of footage – againDonald Trump’s dramatic arrest and arraignment in New York City on Tuesday posed a conundrum for the media.Should they follow the case closely, knowing how Trump-drama boosted viewership, readership, and revenue during his presidency? Or cut off the free airtime and exposure Trump craves, and limit the potential for the former president to twist the arrest to his own benefit? Continue reading...

The ‘catch and kill’ practice at the heart of the New York indictment shows how the former president used the mediaAs a reality TV star, as a would-be business mogul, as a political candidate and as president, Donald Trump always counted on the news media to do his bidding.When he said “jump”, he expected reporters to respond: “how high?” Continue reading...

Cristal, 31, was one of many to speak up against sexual violence in federal prison, but at the end of her sentence was taken by IceIn early 2022, Cristal came forward about the horrific sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of multiple guards at the federal prison in Dublin, California – one of dozens of victims to speak up about misconduct.Today, rather than being reunited with her family after completing her sentence, she’s in immigration detention, awaiting deportation to Mexico – a country she left as a baby. Continue reading...

A watchdog complaint filed with the IRS presents an accounting of the money paid to Leonard Leo’s for-profit businessesLeonard Leo, a rightwing legal activist, has raked in more than $73m over six years from nonprofit groups that may be diverting money illegally to his businesses, according to a watchdog complaint seen by the Guardian.Leo is a hugely influential figure said to have been the chief curator of supreme court nominees when Donald Trump was US president. The devout Catholic is a staunch opponent of abortion rights. Continue reading...

The goalkeeper didn’t play football seriously until he was 14. He reflects on his time at the World Cup, Arsenal’s title challenge and family visitorsMatt Turner’s football journey is not what you might call traditional. He didn’t start playing the game until he was 14 – and that was because he wanted to stay in shape for basketball and baseball. Even then, he only played in goal when another player went down with an injury. From there he has progressed from MLS standout to Arsenal to USA’s starting keeper at last year’s World Cup. But he always wants more, something that is clear when he looks back at the team’s performance in Qatar.“There’s a hunger,” Turner says, reflecting on the US loss to the Netherlands in the round of 16. In the group stages, they had impressed with their style of play and went toe-to-toe with England in a 0-0 draw. The Americans had also achieved the main objectives born in the wreckage of the disastrous qualification campaign for the 2018 World Cup: make it to Qatar and reach the knockout stages. Continue reading...

Players on both sides of golf’s divide appear to be attempting to bury the hatchet for the duration of competition at AugustaNothing around Augusta National is exactly what it seems. You’ve maybe read, here and elsewhere, all the old stories about the place. Those bird noises you hear on the TV coverage? They say they’re dubbed in by the broadcaster. That azure water in the ponds? The groundskeepers are supposed to dye it just the right hue of blue. And all that immaculate grass? The whisper is they spray paint the bare patches. The club have always refused to confirm or deny any of it. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain, just enjoy the azaleas and have another cup of iced tea.This year, though, the atmosphere here feels even more unreal than usual. For this week, at least, someone seems to have called off the uncivil war that’s split the sport between the rival tours. Seems those famous southern manners are infectious. Continue reading...

The risks inherent in the technology, plus the speed of its take-up, demonstrate why it’s so vital that we keep track of it

The old showman was angry, dull and mired in grievances when he went to court. His supporters had to supply the funIt is a mark of Donald Trump’s enduring grip on our nightmares that in the run-up to his court appearance on Tuesday the dominant conversational tone in New York wasn’t one of schadenfreude, but anger – and not exclusively towards Trump. On public radio that morning, pundits speculated that publicity around the case had re-energised Trump’s base.I found myself muttering that this whole thing was a mistake. Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, had brought charges that were too thin, too obscure, too trivial in comparison with the real harm done by Trump. By summoning the circus back into town, Bragg had, effectively, said Beetlejuice three times, and now we would all have to suffer the consequences. Continue reading...

Meg O’Neil pushed 21-year-old to safety but was pinned beneath falling ice blocks from frozen waterfall on SundayA woman has died after pushing her fellow ice climber to safety as they tried to climb a frozen waterfall in Utah, according to authorities.In a statement released on Tuesday, the Duchesne county sheriff’s office said that it received reports on Sunday of an ice column falling as a group of three ice climbers tried to climb Raven Falls, a frozen waterfall near Indian Canyon in central eastern Utah. Continue reading...

China has said it would take ‘resolute’ measures to defend sovereignty, after denouncing Tsai’s meeting in California with McCarthy

Kevin McCarthy said the US must continue its arms sales to Taiwan after discussions with president Tsai Ing-wen in California. Tsai praised the 'strong and unique partnership' with the US.McCarthy became the most senior US figure to meet a Taiwanese leader on American soil in decades, despite threats of retaliation from China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own.

Death confirmed by Lee’s family as they and tech colleagues remember a ‘force of nature’Bob Lee, the creator of the payment platform Cash App, was killed in a stabbing in San Francisco early on Tuesday morning.Lee’s death was confirmed by his father on Facebook, who said he and his son had recently relocated to Miami from the Bay Area. Continue reading...

Decision clears way for former vice-president to appear before panel looking into 2020 election interference and Capitol attackThe former vice-president Mike Pence will not appeal an order compelling him to testify in the US justice department investigation of Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, attempts which culminated in the deadly January 6 attack on Congress.The order was handed down last week. A spokesperson for Pence announced the decision on Wednesday, clearing the way for Pence to appear before a grand jury in Washington. Continue reading...

Diplomats for the US, Britain, Albania and Malta walked out on a Russian envoy for children's rights at a UN security council meeting on Wednesday. Russia's Maria Lvova-Belova spoke to the council via video link, discussing the 'evacuation of children from conflict zones'. Lvova-Belova, along with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was issued an arrest warrant by the International criminal court after being accused of illegally deporting children from Ukraine to Russia since the invasion began. The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told reporters that the US had joined Britain in blocking the webcast so Lvova-Belova did not have 'an international podium to spread disinformation and try to defend her horrible actions'. Continue reading...

Former vice-president will not fight a judge’s order compelling him to appear before a special grand juryMoira Donegan writes for the Guardian today that Trump isn’t the ringmaster he once was, but we’re still watching his show:Will the criminal charges be good for Trump? Trump seems to think so, or at least that’s what he’s trying to project to the public. He raised a lot of money for his third presidential bid over the five days between his indictment and his arraignment: $7m, according to campaign officials. And as he was inside the courthouse being charged, his campaign sent out a fundraising email, asking supporters to purchase tee shirts featuring a fake mug shot of the former president, along with the words “NOT GUILTY.” They cost $47 a piece. Continue reading...

Twister is part of a system of extreme storms and severe weather that has already battered areas of Michigan, Illinois and IowaA tornado that tore through south-eastern Missouri overnight has caused widespread destruction and killed at least five people.The twister that struck overnight is part of a system of extreme storms that is spawning tornadoes and threatening more death and destruction across the central US. Continue reading...

Despite Trump’s denials he had an affair with McDougal, the prosecution team has cited evidence of payments made to herThe hush money payments Donald Trump has been accused of making involve not only adult film star Stormy Daniels, who has dominated headlines in recent months, but also Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model.In 2018, McDougal told CNN she had an extramarital affair with the former president that began in 2006, which Trump denies. He has been married to his third wife, Melania Trump, since 2005. Continue reading...

Former president’s wife notably absent both in New York for arraignment and in Mar-a-Lago for speechWhen Donald Trump was photographed entering his Trump Tower skyscraper on Monday evening in New York and then emerging again on Tuesday to face criminal charges in a Manhattan court, in a historic low for a former US president, he cut a solitary figure.And as he flew back on his private jet to Florida after pleading not guilty to 34 charges accusing him of covering up hush-money payments to an adult film star and an ex-Playboy model while he was married, the woman to whom he was then (and is now) married, Melania Trump, was not there. Continue reading...

Hours after his courtroom appearance, it was clear the former president’s fundamental political calculus is unchangedWhen the history-making indictment was read out against him in a New York City courtroom on Tuesday, former president and current contender for the Republican nomination in 2024 Donald Trump gained a new title: criminal defendant.Americans saw a quiet and tense Trump walk into the courtroom under the guard of both the Secret Service and the local police force – whose officers stood behind him during his appearance before a judge, as they do with any other defendant. There, he learned he was facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments and “catch and kill” attempts to suppress negative news coverage about his extramarital affair with the adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. Continue reading...

Augusta National’s chairman hopes for peace but the battle lines have been drawn – and this most traditional of tournaments is not immuneGreg Norman believes he was not welcome at the 2023 Masters. In his traditional pre-tournament address, Augusta National’s chairman, Fred Ridley, confirmed precisely that. Ridley refused to offer an assurance that Norman, the chief executive of the rebel LIV circuit, will ever receive an invitation to the opening major of the year.The schism at the heart of professional golf has put Norman in direct opposition to the PGA and DP World, formerly European, Tours. The Saudi Arabian-backed LIV series has 18 golfers in the Masters field, including six past champions, but Norman is a notable absentee inside this venue’s gates. Umpteen other leading administrative figures in the sport are in attendance. Continue reading...

Highly restrictive legislation clears state legislature by margins that suggest Democratic governor’s expected veto can be quashedA Kansas bill to impose some of the nation’s broadest restrictions on access to public bathrooms and ban transgender people from changing the name or gender on their driver’s licenses have cleared the state legislature by margins that suggest backers could override the Democratic governor’s expected veto.The Kansas senate voted 28-12 with one vote more than a two-thirds majority needed to overturn any veto, giving final passage to an earlier house-passed version and sending it to Governor Laura Kelly. Both chambers have Republican supermajorities. Continue reading...

The Manhattan prosecutor is using an untested strategy to enhance the misdemeanor charges against the ex-presidentProsecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office escalated 34 regular falsifying business records charges against Donald Trump to felonies by arguing the former president concocted a scheme to conceal election law violations and deceive tax authorities, the unsealed indictment showed on Tuesday.The grand jury charged the former president after Trump’s reimbursements to his then fixer Michael Cohen for $130,000 in hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016 were falsely recorded as legal expenses. Continue reading...

The par-five hole at the Masters known as ‘Azalea’ has a new tee to stop players cutting corners – but not everyone is happyRory McIlroy’s is 4.52. Tiger Woods’s sits at 4.38. Phil Mickelson’s is lower still, 4.26. The figures in question? Average scores at Augusta National’s par-five 13th hole when playing the Masters.There is an argument that par is merely a scoring tool, that it should not be taken seriously into account when course setup is considered. But in this corner of Georgia, it has long been assumed the custodians of the Masters do not take kindly to a hole being butchered by competitors in the style that has transpired at “Azalea” where from tee to green, there are approximately 1,600 of the flowers. Continue reading...

Playboy model Karen McDougal claimed affair with Trump in 2006, for which she was allegedly paid $150,000With the release of Donald Trump’s indictment on Tuesday confirmed the news that the 34 felony counts against the former president involved hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, the adult film star. But prosecutors also tried to connect that scheme to other extramarital affairs, including Trump’s alleged relationship with former Playboy model Karen McDougal.As the Wall Street Journal first reported in 2016, the parent company of the National Enquirer, which endorsed Trump’s first presidential bid, agreed to pay McDougal $150,000 for her story about an alleged affair with Trump beginning in 2006. But the tabloid ultimately did not publish McDougal’s account, effectively quashing the story in an industry tactic known as “catch and kill”. Continue reading...

My mother, Lillian Mirmak, who has died aged 87, was a court reporter, political activist and lover of culture and the arts. She grew up in the US, where she was active in the civil rights movement, and then lived in London for more than 50 years.Born in York, Pennsylvania, Lillian was the eldest of three children of Katherine (nee Craiger), a shop assistant, and John Mirmak, a draughtsman in a factory. She went to John P McCaskey high school in Lancaster, graduating in 1953 and then worked for two years in the office of a local meat factory before enrolling at Millersville Teachers College. Continue reading...

The trouble with the monarchy is not that it is too powerful but that it is utterly useless, a worthless vacuum shrouded in ceremony“Not My King,” say the yellow T-shirts of the anti-monarchists TV cameras may swerve around in the coronation crowds. But he is our king, willy-nilly, like it or not, as he and his family are our dependants. The Guardian’s deep dive into the royal family’s finances shows our monarchy costs a fortune, more than anyone else’s in Europe.The Borbones of Spain cost a mere £7.4m a year, while we pay our Windsors a very pricey £86m. And that’s before we add in the roughly £40m a year in revenues from their Duchy estates – adding up to £1.2bn over the years. That’s not much really, monarchists may claim. Out of £1tn in annual government spending, the royals’ consumption of taxpayers money is a mere bagatelle, a fleabite.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Republicans control 22 of 33 senate seats, giving them necessary votes to impeach officials including Democratic governorWisconsin Republicans won a supermajority in the state senate on Tuesday, giving them the necessary votes to impeach statewide officials, including the state’s Democratic governor and potentially state supreme court justices.Wisconsin Republicans now control 22 of the senate’s 33 seats after Dan Knodl, a Republican, narrowly defeated Democrat Jodi Habush Sinykin in a special election to represent a district that includes Milwaukee’s northern suburbs. Republicans also control 64 of the state assembly’s 99 districts. The Wisconsin constitution authorizes the state assembly to impeach “all civil officers of this state for corrupt conduct in office, or for crimes and misdemeanor” by a majority vote. A two-thirds majority is required in the senate for a conviction. Continue reading...

For fitness fanatics it can be galling to see our physical powers wane. The solution is to choose exercises to suit our age, and to find new interestsIn a lot of ways, I feel bad for people who decided they hated unnecessary physical exertion during PE lessons and have given it a studied miss ever since. But in one important way, I don’t: if you avoid picking up a barbell or lacing up a pair of running shoes until hitting middle age, you could roll into your late 40s faster and stronger than you have ever been. Whereas – and don’t feel too sorry for me, because I’m going to start showing off in a minute – at 44, the best way to describe my gym regime is probably “managed decline”.Let’s get the showing-off out of the way first. In my 30s – I didn’t actually start going to the gym myself until I was 29 – I could do a squat with double my own bodyweight on my back, and run 5km in a shade over 21 minutes. I could pull a small van and do a no-handed (AKA aerial) cartwheel. I could, and I’m not exaggerating, hoist a Vauxhall Astra hatchback off the ground 11 times in 90 seconds. I did just that in a competition.Joel Snape is a writer and fitness expert Continue reading...

New Yorker Nicola Vassell, who wants to share 'the idea of what the future could and should look like', on opening a business in the midst of a pandemic, the 24/7 attention required to be a gallerist, and the life of aesthetics, beauty and the mind Continue reading...

Everything that followed his election has flowed into the moment when the glum ex-president glowered in a Manhattan courtroomTuesday was the day when Donald Trump – the former real estate hustler, reality TV star, twice-impeached president and 2024 GOP frontrunner – won a new sobriquet. Now and forever, the major-domo of Mar-a-Lago will be known as the Indicted One. In fact, in all likelihood, by the end of the year, Trump could be described as the Oft-Indicted One.The cliche on cable television, often expressed with funereal gravity, was that “this is a sad day for America”. In truth, the sad day was 8 November 2016, when Trump oozed his way into the White House. Everything that followed has inevitably flowed into the moment on Tuesday afternoon when a glum and slumped Trump was photographed glowering in a Manhattan courtroom during his arraignment on 34 felony counts. The surprising case brought by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg was more sweeping that just the $130,000 in off-the-books hush money payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. It also involved the defrocked president’s sleazy alliance with David Pecker, then the aptly named publisher of the low-rent National Enquirer, to buy stories damaging to Trump and not publish them in what Bragg called a “catch-and-kill scheme”. Continue reading...

At its best, the US has strived to become a perfect union with equality and justice for all. At its worst, the elite have pursued the opposite goalsIf you actually believe the ringing words of the founding document of this country, that all men are created equal, then we must all be equal before the law, neither above it nor below it – neither immune to prosecution nor without the law’s protections.And yet, some have always been below the law since the Declaration of Independence was written. That document speaks of men in ways that exclude women, who in that era were largely controlled by fathers and husbands, and the Black people who were enslaved for another 87 years, and the Native Americans who faced genocide and dispossession into the 20th and, arguably, the 21st centuries.Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. Her most recent books are Recollections of My Nonexistence and Orwell’s Roses Continue reading...

Victory will have consequences for abortion and voting rights in the state as Democrats become serious about down-ballot racesJanet Protasiewicz’s victory in the Wisconsin supreme court race on Tuesday amounted to a political earthquake in Wisconsin, one of America’s most volatile political battlegrounds.Her victory underscores the continued political salience of abortion rights for Democrats. Her election to the court means that the Wisconsin 1849 abortion ban will be struck down (a case is already coming through the courts). Just as they did across the country in 2022, Democrats made it a central issue in the supreme court campaign and voters turned out. Continue reading...

I was reunited with my cousin in Canada. But knowing I may never see my family in Damascus again hurtsI would have to wait more than a decade to see my cousin Lujain again. That last time, we were teenagers; I was 16 and she was 19. It was the Easter holidays in 2010 and I was in Syria on holiday with my mum, dad and brother. My dad is Syrian and every few years we would go to Damascus to visit my grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins. I looked forward to seeing them and we were always able to just pick up where we left off. After the war began in 2011, my Syrian family became displaced around the world.Lujain and I began reconnecting online in 2020 during the pandemic. She now lives in Canada with her husband, Hasan, and their two little boys. Together, we began to explore our differing memories of Syria – mine full of nostalgia and Lujain’s fragmented and painful. A lot of families go through a natural separation over time; people emigrate in pursuit of a career or different lifestyle. The difference with our family is that this physical distance was never a choice – the decision to leave Syria was based on an instinct for survival.Laura Wadha is a Scottish/Syrian documentary film-maker and graduate of the National Film and Television School. Her film Born in Damascus was commissioned by the Scottish Documentary Institute and Screen Scotland and won the Berlinale Crystal Bear for best short film 2022 Continue reading...

In what was seen by many as a sombre day for the US and its judicial system, Donald Trump became the first US president to be indicted on criminal charges on Tuesday. He was briefly arrested as he surrendered and attended his arraignment in a Manhattan court, where he pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges of falsifying business records.The Guardian summarises a historic day of media frenzy as news crews followed Trump's every step – from Trump Tower back to his Mar-a-Lago residence

Groups have created incubator of policies that would restrict ballot access and amplify election fraud claimsThree of the most prominent rightwing groups which spread election denial lies and advocate for restrictions on voting rights in the US have joined forces in a secret attempt to woo top election officials in Republican-controlled states.Led by the Washington-based conservative thinktank the Heritage Foundation, the groups have created an incubator of policies that would restrict access to the ballot box and amplify false claims that fraud is rampant in American elections. The unstated yet implicit goal is to dampen Democratic turnout and help Republican candidates to victory. Continue reading...

Despite everything, Trump now seems more likely to secure the Republican nomination. He’s still the sun around which the Republican party orbitsReporters were lined up outside overnight, hoping to get one of just a handful of press seats in the courtroom. Protesters arrived, too, both supporting and opposed to the former president, and the cops corralled them into separate pens. By mid-morning, the scene on Centre Street in lower Manhattan had become crowded, chaotic and carnivalesque. Anti-Trump liberal protestors chanted “Lock him up!”, mimicking Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan in a delighted display of sinking to your opponent’s level.Pro-Trump protestors donned aviator sunglasses and their trademark red hats, and led confused cries of, “USA! USA!” Someone had handed out whistles, transforming the scene into a discordant, echoing cacophony. There were cameras outside Trump Tower in Midtown to film when he got into his motorcade to go to the arraignment, and there were cameras there outside the courthouse, to watch him get out of the car and walk inside.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

And it’s just the first of possibly many charges against the ex-president, the only US head of state to be charged with a crimeFormer president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments he made through his allies to hide extramarital affairs in the weeks before the 2016 election.As prosecutors in the New York courtroom reiterated, the issue wasn’t just that Trump directed these payments that put him at fault, but that the timing of them likely changed the course of his campaign and paved the way for Trump to interfere with election results for two cycles. And the criminal charges were only part of the picture when it comes to Trump’s election meddling, and the threats he has posed to US democracy. Continue reading...

Beset by natural disasters, a pandemic and a steep drop in student population, the island’s schools look to the federal government for helpThis story on schools in Puerto Rico was produced by the Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.There was little her family could salvage. Just a few plastic chairs, some photos, her school uniform. Continue reading...

Former president appeared subdued in New York, only to return to his inflammatory ways in Florida. Plus, the campaigners using using dating apps to boost voter turnout

The close ties between Poland’s ruling Law & Justice party and the church appear to be alienating votersThe Catholic church in Poland is close to an existential crisis. For one of the most Catholic countries in the world, and the homeland of Pope John Paul II, this is unprecedented. Poland is not becoming an atheist country overnight, but the trend is indisputably towards secularisation, especially among younger Poles. This will have significant political consequences for the ruling national conservative Law & Justice party (PiS), which has close ties with the church. Meanwhile, the country’s next parliamentary elections are due to take place this autumn.The Catholic faith has long been one of the distinctive pillars of Polishness, and played an important role in the nation-making process. In times of partitions, Nazi occupation and communism, the Catholic church portrayed itself as a bastion of resistance in the long quest for Polish independence. After 1989, it regained the land and property it had lost after the second world war, with a substantial increase, and returned to a primary role in the public sphere. There were often clergymen present at various secular celebrations (such as the opening of McDonald’s restaurants) or to introduce religion classes at schools.Dr Maria Skóra is a research associate at Institut für Europäische Politik, and a policy fellow at the Berlin-based thinktank Das Progressive Zentrum. She writes on politics for Social Europe and POLITYKA Continue reading...

Period poverty is widespread in the US, and Covid worsened the crisis. Yet it remains ‘shrouded in stigma and shame’Lynette Medley wasn’t usually shocked when a client divulged they’d done something illegal. As a sexual health therapist in Philadelphia, she focused on supporting vulnerable low-income people who engaged in risky and even criminal behavior. But she was appalled – and flooded with memories – when a young woman confided that she worked as a sex worker so she could afford to buy basic hygiene products, including tampons.“How is this still happening?” Medley thought to herself. “I had to go through this pain. My daughter had to go through this pain – and nothing seems to have changed.” Continue reading...

Kenneth Faried’s talent earned him a slot on the Team USA roster and a $50m contract. But he found himself on the outside as NBA tactics changedKenneth Faried is around 7,200 feet above sea level. At times, though, the former Team USA starter and Denver Nugget, he has felt much lower. His G League season with the Mexico City Capitanes concluded in late March, the team narrowly missing the playoffs. But Faried played well, averaging 11.3 points, 9.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists on the year. Still, he remains far from his ultimate goal. Many NBA fans probably remember the “Manimal” and his ferocious blocks and dunks. From his rookie year in 2011, Faried defied expectations. At 6ft 8in, he rebounded in traffic like an 8-footer. But now, he’s working to get back to the league after the game changed under his feet. For a player known for his hustle, the question remains, can he chase down another chance? And can he do so ahead of 9 April, the last game of the NBA regular season and the final day to amend rosters? He’s trying. But the road can be unrelenting.“For me, it was the depression,” Faried tells the Guardian, speaking about the ups and downs he’s gone through since leaving the NBA in 2019. “You go into depression. I went into depression. I had to seek therapy.” Continue reading...