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The Harvard and Columbia journals trampled free expression in a rush to suppress a human-rights lawyer's writing on IsraelOn a normal day, the Columbia Law Review's website is not a feast for the eyes. What it lacks in visual appeal, it makes up for with a panoply of articles and student notes addressing a range of legal issues. But for much of last week, the website displayed just a single line: Website is under maintenance."One would be forgiven for envisioning a shiny new website on the horizon. But these four words were a lie. There was no maintenance.Erika Lopez is a recent graduate of Columbia Law School, where she was an editor and DEI chair of the Columbia Law ReviewTascha Shahriari-Parsa is a recent graduate of Harvard Law School, where he was an editor and online chair of the Harvard Law Review Continue reading...

The conviction of peaceful pro-democracy activists is another shameful moment in the ongoing crackdownSeven years ago, Lord Neuberger, a judge of the HongKong court of final appeal - and formerly president of the UK's supreme court - described the Chinese region's foreign judges as canaries in the mine". Their willingness to serve was a sign that judicial independence remained healthy, but if they start to leave in droves, that would represent aseriousalarm call".That was before the extraordinary uprising in 2019 to defend Hong Kong's autonomy, and the crackdown that followed. The draconian national security law of 2020 prompted the resignation of an Australian judge, and two British judges quit in 2022. Last week, two more birds flew: Lord Sumption and Lord Collins of Mapesbury. Lord Sumption (with other judges) had said that continued participation was in the interests of the people of Hong Kong. Now he says that those hopes of sustaining the rule of law are no longer realistic" and that a [once] vibrant and politically diverse community is slowly becoming a totalitarian state". He cited illiberal legislation, Beijing's ability to reverse decisions by Hong Kong courts and an oppressive political environment where judges are urged to demonstrate patriotism". Continue reading...

The pickleball floodgates opened fast and they opened wide - I found a community, a sense of purpose and belongingTwo months in and I'm addicted, riding the pickleball wave and hooked on the feeling.At 54, I'm generally a self-proclaimed hot mess" thanks to menopause - AKA my surly sidekick who snuck up out of nowhere, hit me like a runaway train, and left me creaky and cranky but too tired to shoot up a flare. Truth be told, I hit a wall and I wasn't embracing the change" with open arms (more like tightly coiled fists). Mood swings, hot flashes and weight gain (why the hell is it all in my midsection?) - all the usual suspects. Not to mention that it's nearly impossible to meet new people these days (especially single and in my 50s) when we work remotely, shop online and drink at home. And don't get me started with online dating.Shanti L Nelson is a writer and photographer Continue reading...

US supreme court justice and wife, Martha-Ann Alito, made unguarded comments to film-maker posing as conservativeSamuel Alito, the US supreme justice at the center of a flag controversy that has called his impartiality into question, has said one side of the US's bitter left v right ideological conflicts has to prevail, in secretly recorded remarks that are likely to exacerbate concerns about judicial neutrality.In unguarded comments made to a film-maker posing as a conservative, Alito - one of the court's most conservative justices - also agreed with the assertion that the US had to be returned to a place of godliness". Continue reading...

Independent federal monitor launches inquiry into United Auto Workers chief Shawn FainShawn Fain, the president of United Auto Workers, is under investigation by an independent federal monitor over allegations of retaliation against other union leaders, according to a court filing on Monday.Neil Barofsky, the union's monitor, opened an investigation in February to review allegations, including one from the UAW secretary-treasurer, Margaret Mock, saying she had faced retaliation for her refusal or reluctance to authorize certain expenditures for Fain's office, according to the filing. Barofsky also opened a probe into Mock's actions. Continue reading...

What nobody tells you about sport, when you're exercise-agnostic, is that it contains pleasures that have nothing to do with being active

Former Trump attorney denies having regrets about his role trying to overturn the 2020 election resultAfter emerging on Monday from having his mug shot taken in connection with the fake 2020 electors case pending against him in Arizona, Rudy Giuliani boasted about having no regrets over his actions that led to the criminal charges against him.I'm very, very proud of it," the former Donald Trump attorney and ex-mayor of New York City said as he left the state courthouse where he was processed on Monday. Continue reading...

Case is related to the purchase of a firearm that prosecutors say was made while president's son was addicted to drugsJurors will resume deliberations on Tuesday in the criminal case against Hunter Biden over a gun he bought in 2018 when prosecutors say he was in the throes of a crack cocaine addiction.Jurors deliberated for less than an hour on Monday afternoon before leaving the federal courthouse in Delaware. They're weighing whether Joe Biden's son is guilty of three felonies in the case pitting him against his father's justice department in the middle of the Democratic president's re-election campaign. Continue reading...

Decrease in violent crime accompanied by a major drop in murders and reported rapes, but many in US still believe crime rate is higherViolent crime in the US dropped by 15% in the first three months of the year, new figures have shown, the latest evidence in a broader decline of crime across the country that has occurred over the past year.The decrease in violent crime, from January to March compared to the same period in 2023, has been accompanied by a major drop in murders and reported rapes, which both fell by more than a quarter in the first three months of 2024, according to the new quarterly data released by the FBI. Continue reading...

Trust is essential for a healthy, functional society. What happens when it's lost? Continue reading...

From Putin to China, the continent faces dramatic challenges - a rightward lurch leaves the union less able to protect its peopleThe European election results both confirmed and invalidated a widely expected rightwing surge. But what does this mean for Europe's place in the world at a time when Putin has the upper hand in Ukraine, war in the Middle East shows no sign of ending, Trump is a threat on the US electoral horizon and China is throwing its weight around?The far-right surge was felt most acutely in Europe's two largest countries. If you glance at the electoral maps of France and Germany, they are stunning. Marine Le Pen's National Rally's victory on the map of France is ubiquitous; in the latter, the east-west cleavage is as deep as ever, with the far-right AfD tightening its grip on eastern Germany. In other European countries, such as Italy and Austria, the far right also topped the polls.Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian Europe columnist Continue reading...

My true crime obsession led me to spend countless hours and thousands of dollars investigating a missing persons case. I didn't crack it. But I nearly cracked under the pressureAdmit it: you have listened to so many true crime podcasts that you think you could solve a murder.That was how I felt, anyway. Several years ago, when true crime was at its peak, I developed a severe case of an affliction blighting millennial women around the world: amateur detective syndrome. I had immersed myself in so many murder mysteries that I figured it couldn't be that hard to investigate one. I have written about the ethics of true crime, but I didn't think much about the ethics of my decision to embark on a true crime crusade. I just wanted to find a juicy story. Continue reading...

Statement backing hostages-for-ceasefire deal described as hopeful sign' by US. Plus: Mexico's anti-avocado militias

Fake populists like Elise Stefanik (Harvard '06) and Josh Hawley (Yale '06) attack higher ed to protect corporations and the richMore than a third of Harvard's graduating seniors are heading into finance or management consulting - two professions notable for how quickly their practitioners make a bag", or make money, reports the New York Times.Similar percentages show up in other prestigious universities.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His newest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

From crisps, to screens, to nits, there's nothing that can't be weaponised by a sufficiently motivated mother or fatherWhen our kids are small, parents flex at each other over things such as food (crisps or not?), toys (wooden or plastic?), screens (none or loads?) - we'll compete over anything. The toddlers don't notice; they're too busy squabbling over every resource that isn't infinite. That's why everyone in this bracket always looks so tired. Then they all pretend it's because they didn't get enough sleep.There's a really long mid-childhood period where the hierarchy of parental excellence can be measured using only one metric: does your kid have nits? No way, does your kid still have nits? Continue reading...

Jared Huffman sounds alarm over extremist manifesto for second Trump term produced by Heritage FoundationThe blueprint for a potential second Donald Trump presidency known as Project 25 would take a wrecking ball" to America's democratic norms and institutions, a leading Democrat has warned.Representative Jared Huffman spoke to the Guardian ahead of the launch of a congressional working group designed to sound the alarm about the rightwing roadmap and ensure that Trump never has the chance to implement its extreme agenda. Continue reading...

Ex-prosecutors and historians warn that Republicans' parroting of ex-president's wild allegations of political bias could erode trust and lead to violenceDonald Trump is posing new threats to prosecutors, judges and the rule of law in the US by ratcheting up vitriolic attacks on the American legal system, which many Republican allies and far-right media are loudly echoing, ex-prosecutors and historians said.Fears are growing that Trump's conspiratorial screeds on his Truth Social site and interviews on rightwing media falsely charging that his conviction in the New York hush-money case was rigged" and a scam", are eroding trust in the US justice system and could precipitate violence, pre- or post-election. Continue reading...

Although we can't be complacent about digital interference in our democracy, this new wave of hysteria is not the answerSixteen days before the Brexit referendum, and only two days before the deadline to apply to cast a ballot, the IT system for voter registrations collapsed. The remain and leave campaigns were forced to agree a 48-hour registration extension. Around the same time, evidence was beginning to emerge of a major Russian hack-and-leak" operation targeting the US presidential election. Inevitably, questions arose as to whether the Russians had successfully disrupted the Brexit vote.The truth was more embarrassingly simple. A comprehensive technical investigation, supported by the National Cyber Security Centre - which I headed at the time - set out in detail what had happened. A TV debate on Brexit had generated unexpected interest. Applications spiked to double those projected. The website couldn't cope and crashed. There was no sign of any hostile activity.Ciaran Martin is a professor at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, and a former chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre Continue reading...

The American has seen the best players brought down during his career among chess's elite. And he does not necessarily see losing as a bad thingAs college and high school commencement speakers counsel the next generation, how about this advice? Embrace defeat.This doesn't mean playing to lose, but rather, if and when you lose, seek to learn from the experience in hopes of improving in the future. This approach has been adopted by NBA greats past and present, from Kobe Bryant to Giannis Antetokounmpo - as well as by American chess grandmaster Maurice Ashley, who writes about it in his new book, Move by Move: Life Lessons On and Off the Chessboard. Continue reading...

The ugly rhetoric of the Tories and Reform obscures a simple truth: most voters understand the need for foreign workersThere's turmoil in the EU as the far right advances. Macron risks all, trusting that people vote in protest for the remote EU parliament, but vote for real governments at home. After all, we sent Nigel Farage to fart rude taunts and abuse at MEPs for 20 years until Brexit, and he got nowhere much in the UK.But Britain, with a resurgent Labour party set to sweep in, is on a reverse path. Our own hard-right wing, in the form of Farage's Reform party, may relegate the Conservatives to third place in votes, and the sideshow battles between the rump right will be a fascinating farrago. But the future is all with Labour and how it governs.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

FBI chief condemns Peltier, 79, who denies killing agents on Pine Ridge reservation in 1975, as remorseless killer'Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist who has served nearly 50 years in prison for the killing of two FBI agents, was due to have his first parole hearing since 2009 on Monday, his lawyer said.Peltier, 79, has maintained that he did not kill the FBI special agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams in 1975 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Advocates, including figures such as the late Nelson Mandela and a former prosecutor and judge involved in his case, have long said he should be freed because of what they call legal irregularities in his trial. Continue reading...

Ex-president talks to officials via video call from Florida, with lawyer, in arrangement some called special treatmentDonald Trump was interviewed by New York probation officials on Monday, a required step before his July sentencing in his criminal hush-money case, the Associated Press reported.Trump, who declined to testify at the trial, appeared for the probation interview by video conference from his residence at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, with his lawyer Todd Blanche by his side. The arrangement garnered complaints of special treatment, but city officials contend that is not the case. Continue reading...

Reverend, pastor and professor, who was a close adviser to Martin Luther King Jr, dies in Los Angeles after short illnessThe Rev James Lawson Jr, an apostle of nonviolent protest who schooled activists to withstand brutal reactions from white authorities as the civil rights movement gained traction, has died, his family said on Monday. He was 95.His family said Lawson died on Sunday after a short illness in Los Angeles, where he spent decades working as a pastor, labor movement organizer and university professor. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed. You can read the latest US politics news hereAntony Blinken's visit to Israel comes as the UN security council in New York is scheduled to vote on a US-drafted resolution backing its proposed Gaza ceasefire deal.Washington is struggling to gain the unequivocal backing of Israel or Hamas for a three-stage deal proposed by Joe Biden, that would lead to the release of all the remaining hostages in return for Israel accepting steps towards a permanent ceasefire and the eventual withdrawal of its forces from Gaza - two key Hamas demands.My message to governments throughout the region, to people throughout the region, is if you want a ceasefire, press Hamas to say yes. Continue reading...

Police investigating after packages worth nearly 55lb (25kg) discovered on Dauphin Island, south of MobileNearly 55lb (25kg) of what appears to be cocaine recently washed up on the shores of Alabama, local police said.The police department in the community of Dauphin Island made the discovery, saying the recovered amount was worth about $450,000. Officers then contacted the Mobile county sheriff's office, which also has jurisdiction in the area and is investigating the situation. Continue reading...

The French president's decision to call a snap parliamentary election, after Marine Le Pen's triumph in European polls, is a fateful momentAhead of Sunday's European election results, attention was understandably focused on the impact of a potential far-right surge on the balance of power in Brussels institutions. In the event, the pan-European centre held, just about, with more moderateconservative parties generally enjoying agood night. But that was not even close to being the main headline of the evening.Emmanuel Macron's shock decision to call snap legislative elections, after a humiliating defeat at the hands of Marine Le Pen's National Rally party (RN), is a gamble of the highest order, taken from a position of weakness. Even by the standards of a president who created his own movement to demolish the traditional centre-left and centre-right, it is a surprisingly risky move. In a Sunday evening address, Mr Macron told the nation that it was a necessary one in order to clarify" aresult that saw the extreme right win a combined 40% of the vote. That clarification, when it comes on 7July, may or may not be welcome. Continue reading...

Republican extremist tells crowd The man that I worship is also a convicted felon'Donald Trump has been compared to Jesus Christ by the far-right Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene at a campaign rally for the former president in Las Vegas, a city more renowned for evoking images of gambling than biblical scenes.Greene, who makes frequent references to her Christian faith, cited Trump's supposed Christ-like qualities to challenge the Democrats' efforts to capitalise on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's status as a convicted felon following his recent conviction in a case involving hush money paid to an adult film actor and falsified business records in a New York court. Continue reading...

Doctors and other medical professionals vacationing on the beach helped save teen's life after a shark bit herThe mother of a Florida teen who lost her leg and hand in a shark attack recently said the girl's first words after waking up from her brutal ordeal were: I made it".Lulu Gribbin, from Mountain Brook, Alabama, was one of three people who were injured in a spate of shark attacks Friday at Rosemary beach in Florida's Walton county, in the western part of the state. Continue reading...

Darryl Mefferd's death was labeled an accident', but a report questions a Vallejo police officer's role in the fatal incidentCalifornia law enforcement officials have worked for seven years to keep secret a death in police custody, labeling the case an accident" and refusing to disclose basic information to journalists and the family of the victim, an investigation published on Monday reveals.Darryl Mefferd, 49, died on 8 December 2016 while he was detained by police in Vallejo, a city of 125,000 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The case was uncovered by Open Vallejo, a local non-profit news organization, which shared its records with the Guardian. Continue reading...

The beauty of international football is that nobody can go out and buy a perfectly balanced squad

The real problem is how past wars are invoked not only to ramp up today's defence spending, but to agitate for fresh conflictAttacks on Rishi Sunak for cutting short his attendance at the D-day commemoration have been overblown. His early return home was a presentational error, but he had attended the relevant British ceremonies and is in the midst of an election campaign. The final day was a giant sound and light show with a photocall mostly for assorted heads of state rather than heads of government. No protocol necessitated Sunak's presence. King Charles had already attended the appropriate commemoration. This was a clear case of using any brick to hurl at an unpopular politician in an election.Remembrance days always risk mixed messages. They are traditionally occasions for recalling, thanking and comforting those personally involved. D-day did not mark the end of the second world war, but it was a hugely significant event in its conduct. Nor was this, as is now so often said, the last time we could say thank you. The last first world war veterans survived until 2009. There will be enough to keep D-day, VE Day and the Battle of Britain in vox pops for some years to come.Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Poll comes as the Biden campaign has ramped up its rhetoric in attacking Trump directly in recent weeksMore than half of Joe Biden's supporters are primarily motivated to cast their vote for the president in order to prevent a return of Donald Trump to the White House, according to a new poll.Opposing Trump is the main reason to back Biden for 54% of the Democratic incumbent's voters, the new CBS/YouGov poll found, up from 47% in a similar survey conducted in March, which was prior to the presumptive Republican nominee being found guilty of business fraud by a New York jury. Continue reading...

The US and its people are unsettled, simultaneously depleted and ready to fight

Crystal Mason was convicted of voter fraud after the 2016 election, when she cast a ballot without realizing she was ineligible to voteAmerican psyche: a new series exploring the angst at the heart of the American electionIt was the day of the full solar eclipse on the outskirts of Fort Worth last April, and Crystal Mason was trying, just for a second, to relax. Continue reading...

Bull hopped fence and ran through concession area, lifting one person off the ground, before professionals secured itA rodeo bull named Party Bus hopped a fence surrounding an Oregon arena and ran through a concession area into a parking lot, injuring at least three people before wranglers caught up with it, officials said.The crowd at the 84th Sisters Rodeo in the city of Sisters was singing along with Lee Greenwood's God Bless the USA on Saturday night, most with their cellphone flashlights on, as the bull ran around the arena before what was to be the final bull ride of the night, when the bull hopped the fence, according to a video shot by a fan. Continue reading...

The state's homeowners' associations (HOAs) are notorious for petty bureaucracy - including threats of eviction for the wrong kind of dog or decorative garage door hingesIf you had to name the state where a Vietnam war veteran almost lost his apartment for owning the wrong kind of dog; in which a ring of thieves made off with millions of dollars of residents' money they were obligated to look after; and where a family was threatened with legal action over decorative garage door hinges, intuition would lead you to Florida.Such absurdities from homeowners' associations (HOAs) abound where the nation's highest concentration of condominium developments, gated communities and upmarket resorts blend seamlessly with an abundance of petty bureaucracy and outright crookedness. Continue reading...

There are many topics up for healthy debate at the moment - yet we remain united against the Russian enemyI am concerned that people here are becoming more fatalistic, and care less about the danger," says Gregory Scherban, a friend of mine, a Kharkiv resident and a volunteer helping the evacuation of those escaping the new Russian assault in the villages in north-east Ukraine.I understand what he means. Walking with colleagues through northern Saltivka - once a populous residential area on the edge of Kharkiv that was hit by heavy shelling in the early stage of the war - we hear the sounds of explosions. I'm scared but my colleagues from the area are calm. It's too far away," they say, casually. An air alert warns about further strikes, but the communal workers nearby continue repairing the road as if nothing is going on. The air alert can be on for dozens of hours at a time, so not resuming activity isn't an option. Continue reading...

That risk is notoriously hard to predict. There's no reliable procedure for assessment or solid evidence on which to base itWarnings about nuclear escalation in Ukraine are now being issued with increasing frequency and urgency, due to dramatic changes in policy by some of Kyiv's main western supporters.Some European countries, including Britain, France, the United States and Germany, have changed course, giving Ukraine the green light to use their weapons against sites within Russia. The latter two limited their permission to Ukrainian strikes aimed at defending Kharkiv province - although, according one report, Joe Biden may even lift that geographic restriction, as well. These steps are responses to devastating Russian strikes on Ukraine, many from points beyond its reach. Continue reading...

Organisers are cashing in on defectors' desperation to turn out for Europe but the ethics of doing so are open to questionIt is golf's equivalent of blasphemy to suggest that anybody should be paid to play in a Ryder Cup. As the theory rumbled around the US camp during their defeat against Europe in Rome last year, the tutting and tittering was audible.The biennial clash became a play thing for the corporate classes long ago. It generates tens of millions for the European Tour Group and the PGA of America. But pay participants? The mere discussion is viewed as offensive. It is about the pride, the passion, the novelty of team golf at elite level. Most of these lads wouldn't you-know-what on each other were they on fire from week to week, but the Ryder Cup forges bonds. Or so we are told. Continue reading...

I had always called myself a collector'. Then I saw that holding on to things had become my way of coping with hard timesWas it the crate of saved wrapping paper, carefully archived by colour? Or the sheath of car tax discs, dating back to my first vehicle (owned 16 years ago), stored in a monogrammed wallet that did not bear my initials? No, it was the sweet little pillbox, shiny in its innocence, that revealed the greatest horror: every tooth I have ever lost. Further grotesque inspection determined that, alongside fragmented baby fangs were wisdom teeth - suggesting that the filing system had been upheld for quite some years. If I'd kept them this long, perhaps I should still hang on to them, I reasoned. As always, an attempt to chuck things out had been thwarted.I have always collected. It started with pencils, soaps and china animals, progressing to more mainstream hobbyist items: stamps, coins and gem stones. My childhood fossil collection expanded into acquiring rocks and stones more generally, until my bedroom was full of museum-like pockets, each group neatly curated. As a Brownie, my collector's badge was awarded for my collection of collections, the assessor agog at the sheer number of cigarette cards, beads and Fimo models on display. I loved books and sheet music, too, and it was broadly accepted that this need to keep and arrange things - often in ways that made no sense to others - was part and parcel of a curious mind.Claire Jackson is a journalist who writes about classical music, art and animals Continue reading...

Gynecomastia - the benign growth of male breast tissue - is easily fixed but at a prohibitive cost for most Nigerians, leading many men to experience stigma and poor mental healthIt was a few days before my 21st birthday in 2017 when my mother pointed out a small lump on my chest. I was weightlifting at the time and often walked around the house shirtless. Three weeks later, the lump had doubled in size. I went to a hospital, where a doctor diagnosed gynecomastia, a benign condition where an imbalance between the hormones testosterone and oestrogen causes an overdevelopment of breast tissues.The irony was not lost on me: I was weightlifting because I aspired to the kind of masculinity typified by a chiseled chest and bulky muscles, but instead I had acquired a distinctly feminine trait. Continue reading...

Ex-president makes direct appeal to service workers in swing state Nevada, which polls suggest is leaning his wayAt a campaign rally Sunday in sweltering hot Las Vegas, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump told the crowd he would seek to end taxation of income from tips, a direct appeal to service workers in the swing state of Nevada, which polls suggest is leaning his way ahead of the 5 November election.That promise reveals one more point to a vague Trump tax plan that has so far included pledges of tax relief to middle-income workers and small businesses. Current law requires tipped employees to report those tips as income. Continue reading...