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House leader Hakeem Jeffries condemns former president over behavior related to expected indictment in New YorkDonald Trump’s incendiary rhetoric over his expected indictment in New York could “get someone killed”, the Democratic leader in the US House warned.“The twice-impeached former president’s rhetoric is reckless, reprehensible and irresponsible,” Hakeem Jeffries, from New York, told reporters at the Capitol in Washington. Continue reading...

New Orleans students Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson recently presented their findings on the Pythagorean theoremTwo New Orleans high school seniors who say they have proven Pythagoras’s theorem by using trigonometry – which academics for two millennia have thought to be impossible – are being encouraged by a prominent US mathematical research organization to submit their work to a peer-reviewed journal.Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson, who are students of St Mary’s Academy, recently gave a presentation of their findings at the American Mathematical Society south-eastern chapter’s semi-annual meeting in Georgia. Continue reading...

Students from at least five local high schools called on legislators to take action to address gun violence after two recent incidentsMore than a thousand Denver high school students protested over gun violence in their schools, rallying on Thursday and Friday at Colorado’s capitol after yet another such incident had occurred.Students from at least five Denver high schools gathered late on Thursday to demonstrate after a fatal shooting at an area high school earlier this week, following another one last month. Continue reading...

Florida governor, who trails former president in Republican polls, says he would not accept an offer to join Trump’s ticketRon DeSantis, the rightwing Florida governor and rising Republican star, has said he would not accept an offer to be Donald Trump’s running mate because he is “probably more of an executive guy”.“I think that you want to be able to do things,” the Florida governor told the hard-right Newsmax channel. Continue reading...

Security guards fought off an armed man wearing a devil mask who was trying to enter a strip club in Tampa, Florida on 19 March. CCTV footage released by Tampa police showed the man being tackled as his gun dropped to the ground. The man was taken into custody by Tampa police, who said they believed the security guards prevented a mass shooting. One of the three officers who fought off the man suffered mild injuries. No one in the venue was injured Continue reading...

‘Can you imagine if … he had written personal checks as part of that controversy?’ Lanny Davis says without naming ClintonA lawyer representing a key witness in the investigation into Donald Trump over hush money payments has drawn comparisons between the case and the sex scandal that embroiled Bill Clinton, as it became clear there would be no indictment in the Trump investigation until next week at the earliest.Lanny Davis, who represents Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer, hypothesized about what might have happened if Clinton had handled his affair with Monica Lewinsky differently. Continue reading...

Canarsie cow to meet fellow celebrity escapees at rescue center where animals live on vast pasture: ‘He’ll be ecstatic’It’s been one hell of a week for the Canarsie cow, a black angus calf who started this week on his way to a slaughterhouse and will end it settling into his new home on a New Jersey farm.After he escaped a truck hauling him from a Pennsylvania farm to certain death at Saba Live Poultry in Canarsie, Brooklyn, he went on a rampage through the streets. Slaughterhouse employees and workers at a nearby pizza shop tried to catch up with him, in a chase that lasted several minutes. Continue reading...

Republicans hail policies they say will give parents a say in their children’s schooling – but critics say it’s a guise to advance a rightwing education agendaSpeaking recently at a theater in Davenport, Iowa, Donald Trump marveled at the crowd’s reaction when he vowed to “bring back parental rights into our schools”. The line elicited thunderous applause – one of the loudest ovations of his nearly two-hour address.“Can you imagine what I’m doing? I’m saying, ‘Parents, you have rights’ … and the place goes crazy,” remarked the former president, who is again seeking the Republican nomination. Continue reading...

Shou Zi Chew attempts to play down concerns over data and privacy as lawmakers call for ban on Chinese-owned app. Plus, majority of trans adults are happier after transitioningGood morning.The chief executive of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, was forced to defend his company’s relationship with China, as well as the protections for its youngest users, at a testy congressional hearing on Thursday that came amid a bipartisan push to ban the app entirely in the US over national security concerns.What are the key takeaways from TikTok hearing in Congress? Chew defended TikTok’s privacy practices, stating they are are in line with those of other social media platforms, adding that in many cases the app collects less data than its peers. “There are more than 150 million Americans who love our platform, and we know we have a responsibility to protect them,” Chew said. Here are some of the other key criticisms Chew faced at yesterday’s landmark hearing, and what could lie ahead.Did the strikes kill anyone? Yes. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported: “US strikes targeted a weapons depots inside Deir ez-Zor city, killing six pro-Iran fighters, and two other fighters were killed by strikes targeting the desert of Mayadine and near al-Boukamal.” Continue reading...

Pie-in-the-sky fantasies of carbon capture and geoengineering are a way for decision-makers to delay taking real actionThe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, one of which dropped this week, are formidably researched and profoundly important, but they mostly reinforce what we already know: human-produced greenhouse gases are rapidly and disastrously changing the planet, and unless we rapidly taper off burning fossil fuels, a dire future awaits.The message is far from hopeless – “Mainstreaming effective and equitable climate action will not only reduce losses and damages for nature and people, it will also provide wider benefits,” said the IPCC chair, Hoesung Lee, in the press release. “This Synthesis Report underscores the urgency of taking more ambitious action and shows that, if we act now, we can still secure a liveable sustainable future for all.” Continue reading...

How activists and visionaries across the nation are designing the new hubs of Black commerceWhen most people hear the words “Black Wall Street”, their thoughts tend to dart straight to Greenwood, the prosperous Tulsa enclave that rose to prominence in the early 1900s and lay in ruins after the 1921 Tulsa massacre. In a horrific flashpoint of US history, a white mob descended on the north Tulsa neighborhood, looting and burning down Black-owned businesses and killing approximately 300 people.Phil Armstrong, a Tulsa resident and the president and CEO of the Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice, says that the ruinous massacre is only half the story. In fact, the city of Tulsa began rebuilding the Greenwood district almost immediately after the riots. By 1942, one year after the devastation, the zone was home to 242 Black-owned businesses including bowling alleys, hotels and boutiques – double the amount there had been 12 months prior. Continue reading...

Rabbi Gilad Kariv, a Labour party member of Israel’s parliament, warns ultra-conservative members are pushing tighter controlsA prominent member of the Israeli parliament has a warning for America’s Jewish community: one of the greatest threats to Israeli democracy comes from within its own ranks.On a visit to New York to rally opposition against the “judicial coup” by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, rabbi Gilad Kariv cautioned that “rightwing forces in the Jewish community in America and ultra-right players” were driving and financing the push toward a political takeover of Israel’s supreme court and nationalist policies to tighten control over the occupied Palestinian territories. Continue reading...

Atlanta may be a work in progress after an off-season of change, but their 21-year-old Argentinian already looks like he is too good for the leagueThiago Almada’s 35-yard free-kick goal for Atlanta United against the Portland Timbers has been viewed millions of times on social media. A decent number of those views were surely made by European scouts keeping a close eye on the Argentinian, who has lit up the early stages of the new Major League Soccer season with four goals and four assists in as many games.Almada is MLS’s must-watch player. Atlanta United are a work in progress after an off-season of change, but their No 23 is the full package. He can dribble, he can pass, he almost always makes the right decision and he can pick out the top corner with a laser of a free-kick from a position closer to the halfway line than the goal, as he demonstrated earlier this month. Continue reading...

The war is a test of China’s ability to manage its interests. Putin, Zelenskiy, the EU, the global south: it’s trying to keep them all on sideThe Moscow summit between the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, was described as a visit that may change the world order by many international media. Xi’s visit came at a time of great need for isolated Putin, but the rest of the world remains puzzled about precisely how far China will go in supporting Russia in its horrific war in Ukraine.While China demonstrates a willingness to maintain the status quo in its relationship with its biggest nuclear neighbour, Xi has still not provided a straightforward answer on exactly what kind of support is on offer, beyond deepening bilateral trade ties and elusively worded further coordination in international affairs. Nor is there a clear next step for Beijing’s “peace plan” until a call between Xi and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, takes place.Dr Yu Jie is a senior research fellow on China in the Asia-Pacific Programme, Chatham House Continue reading...

Unfortunately, actual justice may prove to be far more elusiveYou have to hand it to Stormy Daniels.After all of Donald Trump’s well-documented malfeasance over the decades – his fake university and failed casino, his Covid denialism, his consorting with dictators, his blatant lies about election fraud, his incitement of a deadly riot – it has taken a hush money payment to a porn actress to create the most imminent threat that he’ll face criminal chargesMargaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

Hanif Kureishi talks of cocaine nights with his kids. He makes the whole issue sound simple. I can’t believe it is“Say nothing, she’s going to use it,” my 13-year-old daughter said to my 15-year-old son, like a Miranda warning. It was the week after the novelist Hanif Kureishi had tweeted: “I’ve had some great cocaine nights with my children, and I know friends who take MDMA with their kids, though this isn’t something I would do, out of the fear of talking too much.”Before I even considered too deeply whether I’d ever take drugs with my kids – obviously this is a purely hypothetical, what-if question – it seemed useful to know whether they’d ever take drugs with me. Even though they said nothing, in case I used it, I knew the answer would be no. They’re very anti-drugs, for which I blame/thank the school.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Governor signs law putting restrictions on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and other platforms, including requiring them not to get minors addictedThe governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, has signed sweeping social media legislation requiring explicit parental permissions for anyone under 18 to use platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. He also signed a bill prohibiting social media companies from employing techniques that could cause minors to develop an “addiction” to the platforms.The former is the first state law in the US prohibiting social media services from allowing access to minors without parental consent. The state’s Republican-controlled legislature passed both bills earlier this month, despite opposition from civil liberties groups. Continue reading...

Violent funnel with gusts reaching up to 110mph ripped through roofs and scattered debris high into the airThe National Weather Service (NWS) has confirmed that the violent funnel of swirling winds that ripped through roofs and scattered debris high into the air near downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday was indeed a tornado – and the strongest one the area has seen in more than three decades.It was the second tornado to touch down in southern California this week in an area unaccustomed to facing that particular kind of extreme weather. “It’s definitely not something that’s common for the region,” said NWS meteorologist Rose Schoenfeld, noting that the last time the weather service’s LA office sent out tornado assessment teams was in 2016. Continue reading...

Her final first minister’s questions was a sad moment for the outgoing SNP leader but was business as usual for the Scottish ToriesSome rage against the dying of the light. Boris Johnson is howling into the wind. Crying out for meaning, begging for attention. Anything but be forgotten. But his time is up. All that remains for him is life as another old curiosity on the after-dinner speaking circuit. A job he hates almost as much as he hates himself for doing it. He despises the people – the little people – to whom he is obliged to talk. Most of whom only listen with one ear open at best. He is the amuse-bouche entertainer who has backed himself into a narcissistic cul-de-sac.Others, though, leave the political stage at a time of their own choosing. On their own terms. Just over a month ago, Nicola Sturgeon surprised even her closest allies by announcing she was standing down as leader of the SNP. Some bits of her resignation statement didn’t quite make sense. She claimed her party was in good health and never nearer to achieving independence. In which case why walk away now? But the other, more personal stuff, felt real. She had had enough. Her entire adult life devoted to frontline politics. She just wasn’t feeling it so much any more. She wanted more Nicola time. Continue reading...

The international criminal court’s issuance of an arrest warrant for the Russian president over Ukraine is welcome. It needs supportIt is entirely likely that Vladimir Putin may never be held fully accountable for his crimes. But the possibility of eventual justice grew somewhat brighter with the international criminal court’s decision last week to issue an arrest warrant for overseeing the abduction of Ukrainian children.The compelling evidence of the forced transfer of thousands of children for adoption or to “re-education camps” is appalling. But this is only one of many horrors that Mr Putin has unleashed on Ukraine. There is growing support for prosecuting him for the invasion itself, which would require the creation of a special tribunal as the crime of aggression is not within the ICC’s scope. These calls are made in part because it is usually hard, if not impossible, for war crimes investigators to prove that those at the top sanctioned atrocities on the ground. Mr Putin can, however, be clearly linked to the abductions. Last month, the children’s rights commissioner, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, indicted alongside the president, appeared on television thanking him for her “adoption” of a 15-year-old boy from Mariupol. This is the beginning of the case against Mr Putin, not necessarily the end. Continue reading...

A week that began with a bang fizzled out as grand jury unlikely to deliver verdict in hush money payment case until next weekOver the weekend Donald Trump set off an international maelstrom of media attention when he announced he would be “arrested on Tuesday”.Like so many of Trump’s certain proclamations, it proved to be throughly wrong, and the grand jury weighing whether to charge Trump over payments to an adult film star is now unlikely to deliver its verdict until next week. Continue reading...

Body found after shooting occurred at East high school in Denver, wounding two administratorsA body found in the Colorado woods near an abandoned car was that of a 17-year-old student accused of wounding two administrators in a shooting at his Denver high school on Wednesday, a coroner’s office said.The Park county sheriff, Tom McGraw, said the body was discovered on Wednesday not far from the student’s car in a remote mountain area about 50 miles south-west of Denver, near the small town of Bailey. The town had been ordered to shelter in place while officers from agencies including the FBI combed the forest. Continue reading...

Alvin Bragg writes to committee chairs seeking his testimony saying there is ‘no legitimate basis for congressional inquiry’The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, on Thursday accused Republicans in the US Congress of interfering in his investigation of Donald Trump over a hush money payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels.A letter from House Republicans demanding testimony and documents related to the investigation “only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested … and his lawyers repeatedly urged you to intervene”, Bragg wrote in a letter of his own. Continue reading...

There are invigorating versions of Guys and Dolls, Oklahoma! and Cabaret in London – and some enticing new dramas coming – yet theatre risks being cut off from its pastDavid Hare has argued this week that musicals are strangling the growth of straight plays in the West End. I have some sympathy with his point, but it is one that could have been made anytime in the past two decades, during which there has never been less than 25 tune-and-toe shows in the commercial sector. What is curious is Hare’s timing, since right now three London theatres traditionally associated with straight plays happen to be housing quite exceptional musicals.Hare seizes on Oklahoma!’s occupation of the beautiful Wyndham’s theatre. Director Daniel Fish, however, has done precisely what the best directors of classic plays have been doing for ages: he gives us a fresh perspective on a familiar work without (well, almost without) altering the text. Instead of the usual gung-ho hymn to rural America, we get a dark, disturbing study of the victimisation of the outsider – in this case Jud Fry – by a small, self-regarding community. Continue reading...

Hosting of Out and Equal Workplace summit is seen as response to governor’s fight against LGBTQ+ rights in FloridaDisney is pushing back against Florida’s rightwing Republican governor Ron DeSantis’s crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights by hosting a major LGBTQ+ conference.The Out & Equal Workplace summit has touted itself as the “largest LGBTQ+ conference in the world” and draws more than 5,000 attendees annually. For the next two years, the Out & Equal non-profit which focuses on LGBTQ+ workplace equality will be held at Walt Disney World in Orlando, the Miami Herald reports. Continue reading...

Regulators plan to put an end to businesses ‘tricking’ customers into paying for services they no longer wantIt is one of the ires of the digital age: signing up for a new subscription can be done in a few clicks, but cancelling it later is often difficult and can sometimes feel almost impossible.Now the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is trying to change that for customers in a new proposal that would require companies with customers on recurring payment programs to offer easy online cancellation. Continue reading...

Clip shows officer intercepting package in Cary, North Carolina, amid a standoff between a Swat team and an armed suspectAn Amazon delivery driver in the US delivered a package during a police standoff with an armed hostage-taker, with the dangerous exchange caught in a viral video.The handoff happened last month but recent video of the delivery has spread widely, snagging over 6m views on TikTok. Continue reading...

Kristina Karamo says she will not be ‘intimidated’ into withdrawing tweet despite outcry across political spectrumThe chair of the Michigan Republican party refused to withdraw a comparison of proposed gun control laws to the treatment of Jewish people in Nazi Germany, despite outcry across the political spectrum.Kristina Karamo, a far-right election denier who took charge of the Michigan GOP in February, said she would not be “intimidated or bullied” for equating state efforts to introduce safe gun storage regulations and universal background checks to actions by the Nazi regime which murdered approximately 6 million Jewish people and hundreds of thousands from other groups.The Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...

Richard Eckstrom was placed under harsh spotlight after blunder that lay undetected for nearly 10 years was discoveredThe South Carolina comptroller general, Richard Eckstrom, will resign next month after a $3.5bn accounting error in the year-end financial report he oversaw.The state’s chief accountant, a Republican, will leave the elected post he has held for 20 years on 30 April, according to a copy of the resignation letter obtained by the Associated Press. Continue reading...

A Fox News journalist reporting on a shooting at a Denver high school on Wednesday was reunited with her son in an emotional on-air moment. Alicia Acuna spotted her son, a student at East high school, as she was reporting from the scene where a 17-year-old student had shot and wounded two school administrators. ‘Excuse me, my son just came up, and I had not seen him,’ Acuna says in the middle of the broadcast, before embracing him. East high school was placed on lockdown as police investigated the shooting

Ashish Jha, Joe Biden’s Covid response coordinator, likely to leave the administration once emergency team is dissolvedThe White House plans to disband its Covid response team in May, according to reports, with some staff members having already departed as the coronavirus public health emergency designation is due to expire.The Washington Post reported that Ashish Jha, Joe Biden’s Covid response coordinator, is likely to leave the administration once the team is dissolved, as the president seeks to move forward from a pandemic which has killed more than 1.1 million in the US. Continue reading...

Likely Republican contender for White House says remark was ‘mischaracterised’ but calls Vladimir Putin a war criminalRon DeSantis has reversed his position on Ukraine, after facing widespread criticism for calling the Russian invasion a “territorial dispute”.Speaking to Fox Nation in an interview to be broadcast in full on Thursday, the Florida governor and probable contender for the Republican presidential nomination said his “territorial dispute” remark had been “mischaracterised”. Continue reading...

Texas senator claims court dominated 6-3 by conservatives after ruthless GOP power plays must remain ‘independent’The Republican senator Ted Cruz, whose party defied convention to delay then rush conservatives on to the supreme court, has introduced a constitutional amendment to stop Democrats expanding the court in response.“The Democrats’ answer to a supreme court that is dedicated to upholding the rule of law and the constitution is to pack it with liberals who will rule the way they want,” Cruz said. Continue reading...

Nuclear plant relies on single backup power line; EU leaders to discuss Ukraine’s armament needs; plus, 10 writers face their fiercest food fears

Cross-party cooperation is the key to facing down the doubters and delayers

FDA granted accelerated approval for Makena in 2011 to address issue of preemies, but major study says drug doesn’t workMakena is the only drug approved specifically to prevent premature birth, a major health issue facing children and families, in the US. In the 12 years since it was fast-tracked by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), hundreds of thousands of patients in America have received injections of Makena, which is about 5,200% more expensive than generic versions of the same medication.There was just one problem: there’s no evidence Makena actually works. Continue reading...

Messages proving network hosts and executives knew what they were saying was false and ‘reckless’ are now on record foreverAs Fox News continued to broadcast lies about Dominion voting systems and the 2020 election, Tucker Carlson, one of its star hosts used one word over and over to describe what the network was doing – “reckless”.Those messages were the first pieces of evidence Justin Nelson, a lawyer representing Dominion, displayed on Tuesday as he began his argument for why a judge should rule the network defamed his client. “Reckless was a meaningful word” – in order to win the case, Nelson has to prove that Fox acted with “actual malice” – that its hosts, producers, and executives knew the statements were false or acted with reckless disregard to the truth. Continue reading...

Watchdog finds PFBS toxicity value was altered in 2021 report, as scientists say episode part of ‘larger rot at the agency’Trump administration appointees at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) meddled in agency science to weaken the toxicity assessment of a dangerous chemical, a new report by the US body’s internal watchdog has found.In response to what it labeled “political interference”, the Biden administration in February 2021 pulled the assessment, republished it months later using what it said is sound science, and declared it had resolved the issue. Continue reading...

Building through free agency is typically seen as unwise, but several teams have addressed weaknesses this month without overpayingWith Aaron Rodgers ready to depart Green Bay, the Lions are in pole position to win the NFC North. They overhauled a shoddy secondary during the early days of free agency, adding CJ Gardner-Johnson, Cameron Sutton, and Emmanuel Moseley. Continue reading...

The US is one of the few countries that allows donors – who are often struggling economically – to be paid for plasmaI was sitting in the bright sun watching a college football game next to my dad last fall, talking with him about the book I’d just finished writing and he’d just finished reading, several months before it would be released to the public.“Are there really that many people who sell plasma?” he asked. Continue reading...

One administrator critically injured and another in stable condition after shooting at East high school on WednesdayA 17-year-old student shot and wounded two school administrators at a Denver high school on Wednesday morning, after a handgun was found during a daily search of the boy that was being conducted because of behavioral issues, authorities said.Suspect Austin Lyle remained at large following the shooting at East high school and was wanted for attempted homicide. The gun he used was not immediately recovered, the Denver police chief, Ron Thomas, said. Continue reading...

Beijing is watching ‘very carefully’ how world responds to Russian aggression, says US secretary of state

Pacific storm brought damaging winds and more rain and snow to saturated state, as heavy rain and snowmelt could cause floodingThe start of spring offered little reprieve for California as another atmospheric river doused the saturated state with more rain and snow. Five deaths have been linked to the storm across the Bay Area, after thrashing winds toppled trees and branches and thousands were left in the dark across the state due to widespread power outages.California’s unexpected siege of wet weather after years of drought has loaded mountains with so much snow that roofs have been crushed and crews have struggled to keep highways clear of avalanches. Tuesday’s storm, which came on the first full day of spring following the state’s extraordinary winter, was the result of a Pacific low pressure system interacting with California’s 12th atmospheric river since late December, according to the National Weather Service, which warned that flood risks remain across the region into Wednesday. Continue reading...