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Passenger returning from the DRC said luggage contained dried fish, but inspection revealed four dead monkeysA US customs and border protection dog has caused a stir at Boston's often bustling airport after sniffing out something unusual in luggage from a traveler returning from Africa: mummified monkeys.The passenger returning from a visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo reported that the luggage contained dried fish. But an inspection at Boston Logan Airport revealed four dead monkeys whose bodies were dehydrated, agents said. The traveler said he brought the monkeys into the US for his own consumption, customs and border patrol spokesperson Ryan Bissette said Sunday.The Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...

The Joe Biden White House rebuked the former president's comments as appalling and unhinged'Donald Trump has said he would encourage" Russia to attack any of the US's Nato allies whom he considers to have not met their financial obligations.The Joe Biden White House immediately rebuked the former president's comments, saying in a statement: Encouraging invasions of our closest allies by murderous regimes is appalling and unhinged - and it endangers American national security, global stability, and our economy at home." Continue reading...

UN officials and Biden have said an offensive in city, where about 1.3 million Palestinians are sheltering, would lead to a bloodbath'In a call Sunday with Benjamin Netanyahu, Joe Biden told the Israeli prime minister that Israel should not launch a military operation in Rafah without a credible and executable plan for ensuring the safety of and support for the more than one million people sheltering there".The call between the US president and Netanyahu was the first between the two leaders since Biden on Thursday used the phrase over the top" to describe Israel's military strikes in Gaza in response to the 7 October attack by Hamas. Continue reading...

Prosecutors allegedly turn over exhibit on threats made against potential witness to Trump's lawyers after judge ordered them toSpecial counsel prosecutors have produced to Donald Trump a sealed exhibit about threats to a potential trial witness after the federal judge overseeing his prosecution for retaining classified documents ordered the exhibit turned over despite the prosecutors' objections, people familiar with the matter said.The exhibit was a point of contention because it detailed a series of threats made against a witness who could testify against the former president at trial, and the matter is the subject of a criminal investigation by a US attorney's office. Prosecutors had wanted to withhold it from Trump's lawyers. Continue reading...

Haley had appointed Scott to the US Senate in 2012 when she was governor of South CarolinaThe son of longshot Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley referred US senator Tim Scott - their fellow South Carolinan - as senator Judas" while criticizing Scott's endorsement of Donald Trump.Senator Judas - excuse me, senator Scott," Nalin Haley said during a campaign rally in Gilbert, South Carolina. Continue reading...

Stephen Curry made a three-pointer with 0.7 seconds left to help the Golden State Warriors beat the Phoenix Suns 113-112 for their sixth victory in seven games. With the Warriors down 112-110 and 3.3 seconds to play, Curry caught the inbound pass from Brandin Podziemski, turned and hit a 29-footer for his ninth three-pointer of the night

In email to donors first lady adds to chorus of critics who have condemned Robert Hur for disparaging Biden's memoryFirst lady Jill Biden has expressed disbelief that the author of the US justice department's report clearing her husband of criminal charges over his handling of classified documents prior to his presidency would invoke the death of the couple's son to score political points".Believe me, like anyone who has lost a child, Beau and his death [in 2015] never leave him," she wrote late Saturday in an email to donors supporting Joe Biden's re-election campaign, days after special counsel Robert Hur's report asserted that the president could not remember when his and Jill Biden's son died. Continue reading...

Access Bank CEO Herbert Wigwe, his wife and son die in crash, along with former group chairman of Nigeria's stock exchangeThe chief executive of Nigeria's largest bank, his wife and his son were among six people killed in a Friday night helicopter crash in a remote part of the Mojave desert along the California-Nevade border, according to officials.Access Bank CEO Herbert Wigwe, his wife, Doreen Chizoba, and son Chizi, died in the crash along with the former group chairman of Nigeria's stock exchange, Abimola Ogunbanjo. Those identities were first released by the director general of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in a post on X. Continue reading...

Event has already been widely used as PR opportunity for notorious Chechen unit accused of war crimes in UkraineLed out by a beaming Adam Kadyrov, the son of the Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, a group of muscular men sporting black beards strode on to the brightly illuminated stage in Dubai last week to receive gold medals and a $5,000 (3,960) cheque.The men were members of the notorious Chechen Akhmat Kadyrov special police regiment, a group that Ukrainian officials have said was responsible for some of the worst atrocities in the war with Russia. The unit had just won one of the contests at the international Swat Challenge games, which are held each year in the United Arab Emirates. Continue reading...

The once-exalted attraction is threatened by financial troubles, animal rights activists and federal and local authoritiesFor decades, Miami Seaquarium was a jewel in Florida's well-polished crown of popular tourist attractions, known to millions worldwide as the home of the beloved aquatic television superstar Flipper the dolphin.But these are tough times for the once-exalted aquarium, mired in a battle for its survival against the weight of animal rights activists, federal inspectors, financial troubles and now the Miami-Dade commission, which says it is behind with the rent and has begun eviction proceedings. Continue reading...

Will Patrick Mahomes win his third NFL title with Kansas City? Or will Brock Purdy help San Francisco capture the championship in Las VegasRun the ball. The Niners' run defense has been poor all season. Over the past two months, they've sunk to near unplayable levels of suckitude. For all the flaws of this version of the Chiefs' offense, one thing they've been able to do is plow forward with the run. Thanks to the unique style of Isiah Pacheco, a running back who runs like a llama that's escaped from its pen, they're able to grind out tough yards. If KC can run the ball early, they'll be able to establish the flow of the game and limit the exposure of their undermanned receiving corps. OC Continue reading...

Lessons learned from anti-Arab attacks in the early 2000s help a new generation respond to hateful rhetoric and threatsOn the main street of Michigan Avenue in Dearborn, it's common to see business signs in both Arabic and English script. A Lebanese grill sits across from a Yemeni coffee house, and next door a store sells hijabs. The Arab American National Museum, the only such institution in the US, is a half mile away from a playground and public elementary school in the third largest district in Michigan.The Arab American presence touches every corner of Dearborn - more than half of its nearly 110,000 residents are of Middle Eastern or north African origin. And that unique cultural blend is what draws many to this growing city just 10 miles west of downtown Detroit. Continue reading...

Critics say president is gravitating back towards his comfort zone in the centre ground, and his refusal to call for ceasefire in Gaza has caused particular furyIn front of a giant banner that said Restore Roe", Joe Biden was holding his first rally of the year in Manassas, Virginia, to campaign for abortion rights, a top issue for Democrats in this year's election.But Biden did not receive the universal affirmation he might once have expected. His 22-minute speech was interrupted at least a dozen times by protesters scattered throughout the audience who rose to shout out demands for a ceasefire in Gaza. It was a jarring collision that revealed a president who stands accused of befriending then betraying the left - and now risks losing a critical part of his coalition. Continue reading...

This week Tate Modern is presenting the largest ever exhibition of work by the woman I wrote off after interviewing herTwenty-five years ago, I predicted a low-key future for the world-famous person I had just excitedly interviewed; a woman once at the centre of the avantgarde, but still regularly pilloried in popular culture.Well, as it is fashionable to admit a failure of judgment, I can now say I was quite wrong about what lay ahead for Yoko Ono. Today," I pronounced in 1999 for this newspaper, it is pretty clear that her art will never be seen as establishment, or even be commercially owned, in the way that the work of many of her New York contemporaries has been appropriated by the mainstream". Embarrassingly, I also felt the need to convince readers that Ono had once been highly rated by the art world, before her identity as a Beatle's wife consumed her. Continue reading...

With the royals as ambassadors for these luxury cars, there's little hope for the rest of usIf you have tears - that is, any not used up on MPs struggling to get by, parents forced to choose between skiing and private schools, second homeowners who feel unwelcome, Etonians shut out of Oxbridge, and people cut adrift with unusable city wood burners - prepare to shed them on the latest affluent but afflicted minority: Range Rover owners unable afford their car insurance.Thanks in large part to the Daily Mail, which has been prioritising their plight, a series of distressing cases has recently come to light. One owner, it reports, gave up after being quoted 14,000 to insure his 100,000 Range Rover Sport, and instead bought himself a new Mercedes GLE". Insurers, who say the vehicles are too likely to be stolen, seem to be deaf to the suffering of owners whose only fault was to buy an obese status symbol coveted by many hard-working criminals, as well as by Prince Andrew.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

The story of Jewish suffering means there is a moral necessity to fight oppression everywhereWilliam Zuckerman was born in 1885 in the Pale of Settlement, that part of the Russian empire to which Jews were largely confined, a place of poverty and pogroms. His family managed to escape, emigrating to America in1900.During the First World War, Zuckerman returned to Europe to work with a charity aiding American Jewish soldiers. Later, he settled in London, establishing the European bureau of Der Morgen zshurnal, an influential American Yiddish newspaper. In 1948, having returned to America, he founded the Jewish Newsletter, just as the new state of Israel was born. Zuckerman's columns were syndicated in dozens of Jewish newspapers and he became the New York correspondent of the British Jewish Chronicle.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

A survey says we have lost our appetite, but maybe we're choosing quality over quantityAh, Valentine's Day, that annual orgy of uncomfortable lingerie, scentless roses and meal deal pairings as questionable as any Tinder match. If its imminence has you either bewailing your singleness or wondering where on earth you're going to find the time and energy to fit both romance and sex into one midweek evening, you can take solace from findings that last week sent our Gallic cousins reeling.As it turns out, all is far from well in the land of l'amour, where the response to Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?" is increasingly likely to be non!" - and that's when the question is asked at all. Continue reading...

Mariah Thomas of Kansas City was charged with endangering the welfare of a child on Friday after child pronounced dead at sceneAn infant in Missouri died when her mother mistakenly put her down for a nap in an oven, a prosecutor said Saturday.Mariah Thomas of Kansas City was charged with endangering the welfare of a child. Court records do not yet show whether Thomas has an attorney, and no phone listing for her could immediately be found. Continue reading...

Wisconsin congressman Mike Gallagher says Congress is no place to grow old' and backlash over vote played no role in decisionA Republican congressman who broke with his party colleagues and refused to vote to impeach Democratic homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is retiring from his elected office, he announced Saturday.The announcement from Wisconsin representative Mike Gallagher that he won't run for a fifth term means his time spearheading the US House's pushback against the Chinese government will come to an end in early 2025.The Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...

Candidate's ailing campaign will use mobile billboard in her home state to highlight her opponents' many verbal gaffesNikki Haley's Republican presidential nomination campaign in South Carolina is set to parade a mobile billboard drawing attention to rival Donald Trump's age on Saturday, as ageing and mental acuity issues continue to dominate the United States' political discourse.The stunt, which was scheduled to pass through Myrtle Beach, comes as Trump begins campaigning in Haley's home state before the primary there on 24 February. It is scheduled to make stops outside a rally for the former president, according to the Hill, and show both Trump as well as Democratic incumbent Joe Biden appearing to fall into moments of confusion during public remarks. Continue reading...

Chiefs quarterback has already won two NFL titles and at 28 is on the road to establishing himself as an all-time greatTwo weeks ago, after dispatching the Baltimore Ravens on the road in the AFC Championship, the Kansas City Chiefs packed into the visitors' locker room at M&T Bank Stadium to celebrate a return trip to the Super Bowl. In the middle of the din, was a shirtless Patrick Mahomes, still looking forward. Like I been saying, we ain't done yet," he roared.But when footage of his rallying cry made it to social media, the focus quickly shifted away from his encouraging words to his much less defined torso. Before long his #dadbod had made its way on to the NFL's X (formerly Twitter) feed and had commenters passing judgment on his fuller frame, some calling him bloated," fat", and accusing him of having a beer gut". Continue reading...

Bombardier Challenger 600, carrying five people, pulverized' a car and slammed into a wall, scattering pieces of it across interstateTwo people have died after a small private jet plane attempted to make an emergency landing on Interstate 75 in south-west Florida on Friday afternoon, colliding with two vehicles and bringing traffic to a halt as a plume of black smoke rose into the air.The crash landing happened near the Pine Ridge Road exit in Collier county, just north of where the interstate heads east toward Fort Lauderdale along what is known as Alligator Alley. Continue reading...

Like the singer, the Chiefs football player is at the top of his field, while his support of BLM and vaccines align with her progressive politicsTravis Kelce's star power has long been known to sports fans. But the rest of the world has caught up since the start of his relationship with the pop icon Taylor Swift.And this pairing actually makes perfect sense - so much so that the Guardian has broken down a couple of big reasons why. Continue reading...

Cake depicts Swift wearing a sweatshirt of the Kansas City Chiefs - her boyfriend Travis Kelce's teamA baker who has created a lifesize Taylor Swift cake for Sunday's Super Bowl said it was the perfect opportunity" to finally get around to making it.The cake sculpture by Lara Mason, from Walsall in the West Midlands, has racked up more than 3m views on TikTok. Continue reading...

As Biden was hit by a brutal special counsel report, Trump seemed set for victory at the supreme court and his only serious Republican rival suffered humiliationFor those campaigning to bring Donald Trump back to the White House, the past week has seen much to celebrate. For those concerned for the health of American democracy, it felt like a disaster.Joe Biden was hit by a brutal special counsel report that painted him as elderly with a failing memory, fans of Trump eager to see him on the 2024 ballot appeared set for victory at the US supreme court, and Trump's only remaining serious challenger in the Republican primary race suffered humiliation at the polls. Continue reading...

The pro-Kennedy American Values 2024 Pac, which the DNC says is in violation of federal finance laws, is tied to Trump donorsThe Democrats' national controlling committee complained on Friday that Robert F Kennedy Jr's third-party presidential campaign and a fund supporting him are colluding against campaign rules to get the dynastic political candidate on election ballots.Kennedy and his Team Kennedy campaign are accused by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) of accepting $10m to $15m in in-kind contributions from American Values 2024, a political action committee - or Pac - that supports Kennedy. Continue reading...

The Super Bowl is a celebration of the NFL and its hold on the national zeitgeist, but recent lawsuits could loosen its gripA month before the NFL's Las Vegas Super Bowl, a different sort of high-stakes football contest unfolded in the Supreme Court of Nevada. That's where the league was called to defend itself in a lawsuit from Jon Gruden - the disgraced NFL coach who stepped down from the Raiders after being exposed for sending racist, sexist and homophobic emails for nearly a decade while in the employ of ESPN. The revelation cost Gruden more than half the balance of his $100m Raiders contract, the league's highest coaching salary at the time, and it's long been the coach's contention that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell conspired to make him a pariah in the sport.The Super Bowl is as much a celebration of the NFL as it is a stamp of its hold on the national zeitgeist and expanding influence abroad. (On Friday the league announced it will play its first ever regular-season game in Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.) But a flurry of recent lawsuits threaten to pierce the league's aura of invincibility. Doubtless for some, the litigation is evidence of a successful enterprise (from Microsoft to Trump Inc), part and parcel of a larger money game. On top of that, the NFL product has proven effective in distracting fans from alleged transgressions. Before they realize what hit them, the league's nuclear-grade legal team has either swept the matter under the rug or worn down the opposition. It's a playbook that's carried the league for more than 50 years. And yet one can't help but wonder if this Goliath isn't a stone's throw away from buckling. Continue reading...

Pre-dawn operations in residential areas resulted in a woman forced out of her home with no shirt and a man dragged by his hairPolice in Georgia, together with federal agencies, are conducting a crackdown on activists involved in a continuing campaign against a controversial police and fire department training center known as Cop City" that has included acts of arson and sabotage against equipment being used on the project.This week alone saw Atlanta-area raids by law enforcement that took a woman out of her house with no shirt, left a naked photo of another woman on display after ransacking a room and dragged a man by his hair - while arresting none of them. Continue reading...

The state fired teachers and brought in a former army ranger as superintendent, who brought questionable lessons with himIn the fashion of American democracy, when someone believes there's a problem with their local school, they may decide to make a call or send an email to their elected school board members, whom they almost always have to look up first.Parents might take these minor elected officials by the figurative shirt collar and gently shake them, saying: I want this thing to change." They may then gather their surly neighbors and gang up on the school board to not-so-gently threaten their re-election until someone is thrown out of office or everyone else gives up. Continue reading...

Fifteen-year-old Venezuelan allegedly shot at security guard and wounded Brazilian tourist before firing at pursuing officerA 15-year-old accused of shooting a Brazilian tourist in the leg in Times Square on Thursday night, then firing at a police officer while fleeing, was arrested just outside New York City on Friday, police officials said.Police arrested the teenager at a residential house that investigators believe may be linked to a family member in Yonkers nearly 24 hours after the shooting. The violence began in a sporting goods store and spilled out on to the bustling streets of midtown Manhattan and one of the world's most popular tourist locales. Continue reading...

While there is no denying the former House speaker has broken numerous gendered barriers, she increasingly seems like an out-of-touch reactionaryDoes the fact that over 11,500 children have been slaughtered in the past four months in Gaza bother you at all? Are you in any way disturbed that 100,000 Palestinians are, according to the World Health Organization, either dead, injured or missing and presumed dead"? Are you desperate for the bloodshed and misery to end? Continue reading...

Human rights groups also want to see executive order used to stop US groups from donating millions of dollars each year to settlersThere are growing calls for Joe Biden to use his new executive order sanctioning violent Israeli settlers to also target political leaders, including government ministers, responsible for driving attacks against Palestinians.Pro-Israel groups and others in the US say the order is potentially a severe blow to the settlement movement in the West Bank, in part because financial sanctions could block even Israeli banks from doing business in parts of the occupied territories. Continue reading...

Innovation is outpacing our ability to handle misinformation, experts say. That makes falsehoods easy to weaponizeAs the United States' fractured political system prepares for a tense election, social media companies may not be prepared for an onslaught of viral rumors and lies that could disrupt the voting process - an ongoing feature of elections in the misinformation age.A handful of major issues face these tech companies at a time when trust in elections, and in the information people find on social media, is low. The potential for politicians and their supporters to weaponize social media to spread misinformation, meanwhile, is high. Continue reading...

Some in Northern Ireland see themselves as British through and through - but on the mainland, we find we're just Irish'The polarisation and politicisation of identity in Northern Ireland, particularly within unionism today, is giving rise to the misperception that you can only be Irish or British - not both. Northern Ireland was constructed as a Protestant state for Protestant people, with an inbuilt Protestant majority to maintain its place in the UK. Loyal Ulster", as it became known, was proudly British. But many of the citizens who had spent considerable time on the so-called mainland would find their perception of British identity challenged, at odds with Britishness within the wider UK. As one woman who was born and grew up in Northern Ireland told me: I moved to England, and everyone thought I was Irish."I recently interviewed a number of people about the question of shifting identities in Northern Ireland. Mark McKechnie, a 48-year-old IT specialist from Bangor, said he would have considered himself very strongly Protestant, even loyalist" into his 20s. That changed when he moved to England. I went and told English people that I was British, and I found a very different reaction," he said. Today, he associates British identity with the island [of] Britain". Continue reading...

Ex-Maryland governor who Republicans hope can win in blue state told podcast last year sitting in Senate would be really frustrating'Larry Hogan, the former Republican governor of Maryland who on Friday announced a surprise US Senate run, told an interviewer last year he did not have a burning desire to be a senator", would find sitting in the Senate really frustrating", thought being a senator was not where my skill set lies", and said that though he could win a seat, the problem was I would win and I would have to go be a senator".Hogan made the stark remarks, which may now come to haunt him, in an interview last May with Johanna Maska, host of the Press Advance podcast and a former White House aide to Barack Obama. Continue reading...

Strong shaking' could be felt all the way in Honolulu on the island of Oahu, about 200 miles to the northA magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck Mauna Loa, the world's largest active volcano, on the Big Island of Hawaii on Friday morning, the US Geological Survey said.No tsunami was expected, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The earthquake, which the USGS initially reported as magnitude 6.3 before downgrading it, was centered on Mauna Loa's southern flank, 1.3 miles (2km) south-west of Pahala. Shaking could be felt as far as Honolulu, about 200 miles to the north on the island of Oahu. Continue reading...

Louisiana police papers say Sharon Stewart went into Dr Katie Tran's office and attacked her and others with a three-inch bladeA young Louisiana dentist is facing the likely loss of one of her eyes after a former patient went into her office and stabbed her.The attack which targeted Dr Katherine Katie' Tran and two of her colleagues - while leading to the arrest of Sharon Stewart - is the latest chilling reminder that US healthcare professionals are suffering more workplace violence injuries than those in any other industry, including law enforcement, as the Associated Press reported last year. Continue reading...

San Francisco's unlikely starting quarterback has grown from an unknown quantity to the verge of history with hard work, consistency and risk takingWhen teams selected the NFL stars of the future in the 2022 draft, no one wanted to go anywhere near Brock Purdy - and it was hard to blame them. He had a good college career at Iowa State but the scouting reports hardly screamed The Next Tom Brady: throwing is more of a chore than a talent", lacks quickness", a scrappy runner but not dynamic", shies away from tight throws". At least Purdy was consistent: by the sport's exacting standards, he appeared to be bad at everything.But the San Francisco 49ers' Kyle Shanahan, known as one of the finest offensive-minded head coaches in the NFL, had been impressed by Purdy's tape from college and selected him with the 262nd - and final - pick of the draft, a position that each year earns one player the nickname Mr Irrelevant" and plenty of derision on social media. Continue reading...

Democrats launch aggressive push back and defend president against Robert Hur's description in reportDemocrats and the White House on Friday launched an aggressive push back against a special counsel report that pushed Joe Biden's age and memory to the front and center of the presidential election campaign and spurred a series of Republican attacks on the US president.The special counsel Robert Hur's report on Biden's handling of confidential documents on Thursday said the US president would not face criminal charges in the case but in a series of remarks characterized Biden as elderly and with a failing memory - triggering a political bombshell on an issue seen as a core weakness of Biden's re-election campaign. Continue reading...

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Breaking 5,000 is unlikely to slow the index's rise, experts say as reports highlight resilient US economyUS stock markets hit another historic high on Friday, with the S&P 500 closing above 5,000 for the first time.The broad-based index of the largest and best-known listed companies has been driven higher by a series of reports underlining the US's resilient economy and retreating inflation. Continue reading...

Trump faces less scrutiny over his age than his contemporary does. Biden's challenge is to change thatThe special counsel Robert Hur's contention that Joe Biden suffers from memory problems caused by advanced age prompted delight among the president's Republican opponents - and pushback from Democrats pointing out how often Donald Trump has his own lapses, and how dangerous they are to the country.Speaking on MSNBC amid shockwaves from the release of Hur's report on Biden's retention of classified information after his time as a senator and as vice-president, Jen Psaki, Biden's first White House press secretary, emphasised: The choice in all likelihood here is going to be between two men who are three years apart." Continue reading...

Kamala Harris slams claims of Biden's failing mental acuity in classified documents report as inaccurate and inappropriate'Democrats and their allies were shaping a damage control response on Friday to a hastily organized White House press call the night before that appeared to fall short in its mission to reassure voters about Joe Biden's mental acuity after it was harshly questioned in a prosecutor's report about his having kept classified documents at the end of his vice-presidency.Biden already said that his interview with the special counsel Robert Hur last October - in which he was reported to have forgotten the year his son Beau died and precisely when he had been vice-president - came in the days straight after Hamas attacked southern Israel, when Biden was preoccupied with the US response. Continue reading...

The US representative Al Green arrived in hospital clothes to halt an impeachment, joining in a remarkable traditionThe US House of Representatives was on edge on Tuesday night: would the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, be impeached? The Republicans' mission looked likely to succeed, just barely, when a lone Democrat in a wheelchair and a hospital outfit emerged and put a stop to it.That man was Al Green - not that Al Green, but a representative from Texas who'd taken an Uber from the hospital to make his views known. In a line perfectly tailored to a scene the New York Times compared to a political thriller, Green told the paper: I came because it was personal." He had undergone emergency abdominal surgery days before and was back in his hospital bed when he spoke to the reporter, Kayla Guo. Continue reading...

Volodymyr Zelenskiy's sacking of his commander in chief has highlighted disagreements that had remained mutedPolitics doesn't end in wartime, even when it has been subsumed by more immediate, existential matters. With the passage of time, Winston Churchill's wartime leadership can appear as if it were unassailable - yet in reality, criticism grew loud enough that the House of Commons held two votes of confidence in 1942.Though some have compared Volodymyr Zelenskiy to Churchill, the Ukrainian president will be grateful that he has not faced anything approaching that kind of challenge. The rally round the flag" effect, along with his charisma, effective diplomacy and personal courage as Russia invaded, created a remarkably enduring mood of national unity. Even those criticising the decisions or conduct of those around the president shrank from questioning his. But by last autumn, it was clear that the country was seeing the return of politics. It is still far from business as usual. But Mr Zelenskiy'sdecision to fire Ukraine's admired commander-in-chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, onThursdayhas turned up the volume. Continue reading...

It's long overdue that society recognises a new gaming culture has emerged from a more social, diverse gaming communityIt's possible to play [video] games with no ulterior motive, but I do think they provide a place where we can actually be vulnerable and more open to the full spectrum of human emotions," the author GabrielleZevin told the Guardian ahead of the launch of her 2023bestseller. Zevin's absorbing novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow examines how video games can ease suffering, challenge assumptions andforge human connections through alternate realities, eschewing the common misconceptions of them as childish or violent.Gaming allows players to immerse themselves in experiences that they have not had or would not have otherwise. While those virtual experiences have their limits in conveying the reality that they are simulating, gaming - being more social than ever before - has developed a more participatory, even empathic culture, as Zevin understands. This should be better understood as video games increasingly influence our reality. Continue reading...