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Gosling's charm and Gerwig's mixed messages mean the real winner is Mattel's male CEO, and dude-dominated capitalism in generalIt's a shame about the weather but, in the eyes of many, the summer of 2023 is at least furnishing a triumph of feminism, and it's been cinema's privilege to host it. Supposedly, Greta Gerwig's fantasy comedy Barbie is ushering womankind on to the true path to sisterly empowerment. Really?It sounds plausible, at least at first. She's everything. He's just Ken," reads the film's tagline. Gerwig proclaims Barbie to be most certainly a feminist film", and it has frightened some male pundits out of their wits. Toby Young has accused it of unapologetic misandry", while the Critical Drinker considered it 114 minutes of spiteful, bitter, mean-spirited, borderline unhinged hatred of men". And, briefly summarised, the film does indeed sound like an almost ridiculously over-the-top feminist homily. Continue reading...

Humanitarian workers say buoys near Eagle Pass in Texas are an atrocity but have not stopped people trying to cross into the USThe deaths of two people near a floating barrier installed by Texas officials on the Rio Grande will do nothing to stop people attempting to make the illegal crossing into the US, according to migrants and activists along the border.

When it comes to creative expression, adults could learn from the playfulness, humour and imagination of childrenI'll admit I felt quite vindicated when I read of a new study this week that found that babies like Van Gogh. It seems he's as popular with the under-ones as he is with adults, or, more accurately: the adult preference for his work is mirrored in babies, suggesting certain biases in what we choose to look at are already present in infancy and carry over into adulthood. When choosing art for the baby's room, I looked at work created for that purpose, and almost all of it was saccharine and of poor quality. So I decided on fine art instead. I thought for a long time about which images to choose, wanting something that reflected what I thought he would enjoy, rather than my own specific taste. In the end I opted for The Starry Night, feeling instinctively that he would appreciate its mesmeric swirls as he drifts off to sleep.The other two I chose were the brightest Jackson Pollock that I could find, and a pleasingly exuberant landscape by David Hockney. (It hardly needs explaining that these are posters that I am talking about. Were they actual originals, I would be writing this from my villa in the Luberon.) Before you pull me up on the lack of representation of female artists, I keep meaning to move the Lee Krasner in the hall in there, and I felt Georgia O'Keeffe was too vaginal, though I suppose babies should sometimes be reminded of where they are from (She always rejected that interpretation of her work," I said to my husband, when he remarked upon the print in the bathroom. Be real," he said, It's a vag"). And so the only female artist represented is my mother, Anna, with her beautiful painting of the bay at Naoussa, Paros. It turns out that this was a good choice, too, as the study found that infants gaze longer at stretches of sky. Continue reading...

Police have issued 44 tickets in a crackdown on food sharing after the mayor vowed to retake' the downtown public libraryVolunteers with a group that has been feeding Houston's unhoused population since 1994 are facing a potential $80,000 in fines after a crackdown by local police.Food Not Bombs is currently disputing 44 tickets issued by Houston police department for giving food to homeless individuals outside of the Houston Public Library. If a jury finds them guilty, they can be fined the maximum penalty of $2,000 per fine, with the group noting they could owe over $80,000 in fines at this point. Continue reading...

Former president claims being arrested is a great honor'. Plus, meet the bands with no original members left

Thomas Klingenstein has become one of the largest donors to the party and has increasingly used his resources to pursue a hard-edged version of rightwing politicsNewly released tax and election records show that since 2020 controversial financier Thomas Klingenstein has become one of the largest individual donors to national Republicans, contributing more than $11.6m to candidates and Pac, after decades as the far-right Claremont Institute's biggest donor and board chairman.The spending spree dwarfs the total $666,000 Klingenstein spent between 1992 and 2016, and in the last election cycle put Klingenstein in the top 40 contributors to national Republican candidates and committees. Continue reading...

Republicans and rightwing commentators line up to condemn prosecution - though Pence dissents and DeSantis avoids using Donald Trump's nameIt's the third time Donald Trump has been arraigned this year, even as he is the only former US president in history to face criminal charges. Each time, Trump and his supporters, as well as detractors, have moved to gain from his time in court.Trump pleaded not guilty on Thursday in a Washington federal court to three counts of conspiracy and one count of obstruction in a plot to subvert the results of the 2020 election. He similarly denied his guilt in March over hush money payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels, and then in June for illegally hoarding classified documents at his Florida resort. Continue reading...

Yevgeny Prigozhin seems largely unscathed, while faith in the Russian president's invincibility has taken a batteringIn late June, thousands of Wagner group paramilitary forces launched a mutiny in Russia. It seemed to constitute a significant challenge to Putin - the first from within his own country since the invasion - and yet it was over within 48 hours. What can its aftermath tell us about Putin's position? And does the group still pose a threat?The mutiny began after the country's defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, ordered the mercenary soldiers to sign new contracts directly with his ministry. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the mutiny's leader and Wagner's longtime contractor and fixer, called for the ousting of both Shoigu and the chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov. A vociferous critic of how the war in Ukraine was being waged, Prigozhin also said that Vladimir Putin's justifications for invading Ukraine were falsehoods. Continue reading...

Trump has always loved beating his chest, but away from the TV cameras, the former president appeared meek and shrunkenThe shock of blond-grey hair was familiar. So was the blue suit, white shirt and red tie. So was the conspicuously assertive tug of the suit jacket.But the Donald Trump who walked into courtroom 22 on Thursday was a Trump that the public never sees - meek, shrunken, stripped of bravado and any sense of control. And, quite possibly, scared. Continue reading...

Antarctica's sea ice levels are plummeting as extreme weather events happen faster than scientists predictedAntarctica is currently experiencing dramatic changes at unprecedented rates, marked by repeated extreme events. These include circum-Antarctic summer heatwaves and an autumn heatwave last year, with temperatures soaring up to 40C above the average. Moreover, both last summer and this winter, sea ice extent has reached record lows. These changes have happened even faster than scientists predicted.These changes coincide with a broader global pattern of extreme air and sea surface temperatures, wildfires, floods, disease and other events deeply impacting ecosystems and society. Scientists have warned society about global climate change and its impacts since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's first report in the early 1990s. The Antarctic community has done so repeatedly too. These warnings are now being realised. Continue reading...

Ex-president arraigned on four felony counts related to criminal scheme' to remain in office as Trump laments sad day for America'

Preoccupation with sexual orientation - as seen at a recent World Cup press event - is not just dangerous for many players, it evades the larger issue of the sexual harassment they faceWhen I heard a BBC reporter ask the Moroccan captain, Ghizlane Chebbak, if there were any gay players on her squad, I was disappointed but not surprised. The reporter was aware that Morocco criminalises queer sexualities, yet asked the question anyway. A Fifa official stepped in and answered deftly: Sorry, this is a very political question."The question - for which the BBC has since apologised - is illustrative of the prurient and potentially dangerous curiosity that many female athletes face about their sexuality. Continue reading...

Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, who were expelled for taking part in a gun control protest on House floor, will reclaim positionsThe Tennessee representatives Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, who became Democratic heroes as members of the Tennessee Three," reclaimed their legislative seats Thursday after they were expelled for involvement in a gun control protest on the house floor.The young Black lawmakers were both reinstated by local officials, but only on an interim basis. They advanced Thursday through a special election to fully reclaim their positions. Both faced opponents in districts that heavily favor Democrats. Continue reading...

The White House had argued that the policy was integral to its efforts to maintain order along the US-Mexico borderA Biden administration rule restricting asylum at the southern border can stay in place for now, an appeals court ruled on Thursday in a decision that is a win for the White House.The new rule makes it extremely difficult for people to be granted asylum unless they first seek protection in a country they're traveling through on their way to the US or apply online. It includes room for exceptions and does not apply to children traveling alone. The Biden administration had argued the policy was integral to its efforts to maintain order along the US-Mexico border. Continue reading...

Road closures and a huge police presence meant Trump slipped into court out of public view - but onlookers made their voices heard

Ron DeSantis's government has banned instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, effectively also banning the classFlorida has told school superintendents that the Advanced Placement psychology course offered to high school students violates the state's new law prohibiting instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, effectively banning the class, the non-profit that develops the courses said on Thursday.The move is the latest by the administration of Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor, to limit instruction about LGBTQ+ issues and race in the state. DeSantis is challenging Donald Trump for the Republican nomination for president in 2024 and has made battles over cultural issues a centerpiece of his campaign. Continue reading...

American Academy of Pediatrics reaffirms support for transgender children in face of growing push for restrictions across USThe American Academy of Pediatrics has reaffirmed its support for gender-affirming medical care for transgender children, even as the treatments face a growing push for bans and restrictions from Republican lawmakers across the US.The board of directors for the group, which represents 67,000 pediatricians, unanimously voted to reaffirm its 2018 position on the treatments. The board also voted to provide additional documents to support pediatricians, including clinical and technical reports, and to conduct an external review of research regarding the care. Continue reading...

The ex-president was hit with four felony counts over efforts to overturn the election, and another hearing is due this monthDonald Trump's third arraignment took place in a Washington courthouse on Thursday, the usual throng of media and smattering of protestors outside.But as routine as a Trump indictment may seem to the public eye, this was the first time the former president has faced accountability for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.Conspiracy to defraud the United States.Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.Obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding.Conspiracy against rights. Continue reading...

Goon Squad' burst into a home on 24 January without a warrant and brutalized the two men, shooting one in the mouthSix white former law enforcement officers in Mississippi who called themselves the Goon Squad" have pleaded guilty to a racist assault on two Black men who were brutalized during a home raid that ended with an officer shooting one man in the mouth, federal prosecutors say.The civil rights charges were unsealed Thursday as the officers - five former Rankin county sheriff's deputies and an ex-Richland police officer - appeared in federal court and pleaded guilty. Continue reading...

As rightwing media and the mayor target a Queens neighborhood, sex workers say they're just trying to surviveIn 2000, Cecilia Gentili worked late nights as a sex worker on Roosevelt Avenue, a dusty corridor linking Queens' most diverse communities, under the shadow of the clattering 7 train. It was the only way she could survive as a new immigrant. After coming out as trans, she had been shut out by employers in her native Argentina, and in New York, I really thought that things would be different," she says. But in a way, it was a double level of discrimination: being trans and being undocumented. So again, I found myself engaged in street sex work."She rented a $150-a-month room in a shared apartment in Jackson Heights, a neighborhood full of other immigrants and queer and trans sex workers trying to help each other scrape by. When I needed a place to live, it was not the city of New York that facilitated it, it was another sex worker. When I needed to eat, it was another trans person," she says. If she felt unsafe on the street, she'd walk to a late-night street vendor and stand in their lamp's warm glow. Continue reading...

Jinchao Wei, 22, and Wenheng Zhao, 26, accused in separate cases of violating commitments they made to protect the United States'Two US navy sailors have been arrested on charges of handing over sensitive national security material to China, US officials said on Thursday.Jinchao Wei, a 22-year-old sailor assigned to the San Diego-based USS Essex, was arrested on Wednesday on a charge related to espionage involving conspiracy to sending national defense information to Chinese officials. In a separate case, the justice department charged Wenheng Zhao, 26, for allegedly collecting bribes in exchange for giving sensitive US military photos and videos to a Chinese intelligence officer. Continue reading...

Former president's arraignment comes two days after special counsel Jack Smith issued an indictment for four felony counts

The experiences of cities in California and Colorado suggest that growth caps don't work to make cost of living more affordable - but other mechanisms canIn 2017, Stephanie Deveaux noticed her city and neighborhood were changing. Lying on Denver's western outskirts, Lakewood was known for its spacious single-family homes, good public schools, pristine parks and Rocky Mountain views. But many of the things that made Lakewood so livable seemed under threat.All these multiunit dwellings [were] starting to be developed," she said, referring to the boxy, ultramodern and monotone buildings now scattered across Lakewood. And then lands that I thought had been earmarked for open space, those started to get filled up." Continue reading...

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Actor who plays Kang the Conqueror in Marvel films is charged with misdemeanors including assaultActor Jonathan Majors' domestic violence trial was postponed until at least 6 September after New York City prosecutors asked Thursday for more time to prepare.Majors, 33, appeared in court for what was to have been the start of his trial on charges stemming from a March confrontation with a woman who says he twisted her arm behind her back, struck her on the head and pushed her into a vehicle. The woman was treated at a hospital for minor neck and head injuries, including a cut to her ear. Continue reading...

A 2014 appointee of Barack Obama, the federal judge was randomly assigned to oversee the case - and has ruled on a Trump case beforeA federal judge who has emerged as one of the toughest authorities against rioters who participated in the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol will soon meet her most high-profile defendant: Donald Trump.Tanya Chutkan, a 2014 appointee of former president Barack Obama, was randomly assigned to oversee the case on Tuesday after a federal grand jury indicted the former president on four counts related to his attempt to subvert the 2020 presidential election, including conspiracy and obstruction of official proceedings. Continue reading...

It remains an open question whether the derailment that shattered life in East Palestine will become a catalyst for actionCongress responded to the fiery train derailment in eastern Ohio earlier this year with bipartisan alarm, holding a flurry of hearings about the potential for railroad crashes to trigger even larger disasters. Both parties agreed that a legislative response was needed.Yet six months after life was upended in East Palestine, little has changed. Continue reading...

Survey finds 53% of Americans think addressing climate crisis should be given priority but 72% of Republicans say otherwiseAlmost three-quarters of US Republican voters think the economy should be given priority in domestic policy, even at the risk of ignoring the climate crisis, a new poll found.The survey, from NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist, found that a majority of Americans (53%) think addressing the climate crisis should be given priority. Continue reading...

Oversight district, created after a row between DeSantis and Disney, calls diversity programs illegal and simply un-American'A Ron DeSantis-appointed Walt Disney World governing district has abolished all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, it said this week, in a move that continues the Florida governor's war on diversity-promoting programs in the state.In a statement the Central Florida tourism oversight district said any DEI job duties" would also be eliminated. Continue reading...

Abuse of power exists wherever toxic working environments indulge it. Pretending that all women are nice is not the answerBeing an icon, the rapper-singer-songwriter Lizzo once said, is not about how long you've had your platform. Instead it's about what you do with that platform", as she told a cheering crowd at last year's People's Choice awards in the US, before inviting a string of female activists who she suggested were more deserving of recognition to join her on stage.Few seemingly embodied inclusive feminism better than Lizzo, who built her brand on an uplifting, joyful, thrillingly body-positive form of female empowerment while glorying in her sexuality as a self-styled big grrrl". Of course it's her bouncy, summery track Pink that plays over the opening scenes of the new Barbie film. Who better than Lizzo to sell the idea of a dreamworld ruled by women for women, where men are just Kens and benign rule by Barbies frees all their sisters to be whatever they want to be?Gaby Hinsliff 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...

Anheuser-Busch InBev revenue fell 10.5% in last three months following controversy over partnership with trans influencerThe scale of the conservative backlash against Bud Light was revealed on Thursday when owner Anheuser-Busch InBev reported a sharp drop in US revenue over the last three months.The world's largest brewer saw its second-quarter revenue in the US - its largest market - drop 10.5% after a rightwing backlash over a partnership with a transgender influencer led to a sales drop. Operating profits dropped nearly 30%. Continue reading...

Former vice-president speaks about how he was pressured, after he was shown to be a crucial figure in Trump's latest indictment

Many elite women's football players are effectively amateurs. Increased payments should help many of them reach their potentialA month before this year's Women's World Cup, Jamaica's players posted statements to their social media accounts saying they had not been paid. They also said they had been subjected to subpar planning". So dire was the situation that online fundraisers were started to help the team - one by the mother of Jamaica midfielder Havana Solaun.Despite that uncertainty, the Caribbean nation with a population of less than 3 million didn't concede a goal in their first three games at this World Cup, including a pair of scoreless draws against world powers France and Brazil, to advance to the knockout stage for the first time. Continue reading...

Dialogue around coercive control' in relation to financial abuse is gaining steam in the US, with California passing laws to protect victims from collectorsThe bankruptcy lawyer spread all of Jean's debts across the table. She pored over each document, trying to swallow her shame. The papers documented more than $140,000 that Jean and her ex-partner owed creditors.It was June 2021. Jean, who the Guardian is identifying by her middle name to protect her identity during ongoing divorce litigation, had separated from her husband two years earlier. She had already been granted a domestic violence restraining order in Alameda county, California, after experiencing what she describes as physical, emotional, mental and sexual abuse. But in the meantime, shared loans and expenses between Jean and her ex-partner had been piling up. Since Jean was the account holder on most of their credit cards, she was beholden to the bank. Declaring bankruptcy seemed like her only hope for a fresh start. Continue reading...

The Argentinian faced Inter's Florida rivals on Wednesday and there were clear signs that MLS's power balance is shiftingThe seasonal south Florida lightning brings a perpetual threat of power surges, but a soccer power shift is also brewing in the Sunshine State.After a huge rain storm paused Inter Miami's unveiling of Lionel Messi last month, the heavens opened again on Wednesday to hold up the club's highly anticipated Florida derby against Orlando City in the Leagues Cup last 32. Continue reading...

Over 85,000 workers hold pickets at 50 facilities across US as union contracts set to expire on 30 SeptemberUnions representing more than 85,000 healthcare workers have held pickets at 50 facilities across California, Washington, Oregon and Colorado amid new contract negotiations as their current union contracts are set to expire on 30 September.The negotiations at Kaiser Permanente are the third largest set of contract negotiations in the US in 2023, behind the 340,000 workers at UPS who will be voting on a tentative agreement this month that was reached days before planned strike action, and 150,000 autoworkers at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis whose contracts are set to expire on 14 September. Continue reading...

Vivek Ramaswamy and Doug Burgum have qualified for the GOP debate after each contributed over $10m to their own campaignsTwo wealthy Republicans running long-shot campaigns for president have qualified for the first GOP debate - even as they remain their own top donors.The candidates, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Doug Burgum, the governor of North Dakota and former software company executive, have each contributed more than $10m to their own campaigns. Continue reading...

The man who has indicted the former president over alleged election subversion is an experienced and independent lawyer

Team continuing a pattern of falling short under Vlatko Andonovski but go into last-16 Sweden tie with a point to prove

Former president scheduled to surrender to federal authorities in Washington and enter not guilty plea. Plus, inside the wellness-to-fascism pipeline

ACLU and NAACP among organizations condemning homeland security department over domestic violent extremist' labelProminent civil rights and civil liberties organizations have called on the US homeland security department to investigate the agency's intelligence-gathering on protesters against Cop City', the police and fire department training center planned for a forest south-east of Atlanta.The organizations draw attention to the dozens of environmental protesters arrested and charged with domestic terrorism in a letter to the department director, Alejandro Mayorkas. The charges have caused outrage among many observers who accuse Georgia law enforcement of a heavy-handed crackdown on the protest movement. Continue reading...

Fifty-six of the 57 death row prisoners ask governor, who is coming to the end of his term, to act on his anti-death penalty convictionsAll but one of Louisiana's death row inmates are racing against the clock to persuade the state's Democratic governor and the clemency board to commute their sentences to life in prison, ahead of a possible transfer of political power that could see the state aggressively resume executions in 2024.Fifty-six of the 57 prisoners sentenced to death in Louisiana have joined forces to make a rare mass petition for mercy. They are asking John Bel Edwards, the governor who is coming to the end of his term, to act on his anti-death penalty convictions and order the pardons board to consider their pleas. Continue reading...

Pundits lined up to compare Trump charges to criminalizing thoughts' and the dropping of fifteen dozen' atomic bombsAfter he was indicted for the third time, Donald Trump reacted with his now-standard, twin-pronged approach: first, expressing outrage and denying the charges, and second, asking his many loyal supporters for money.But the former US president, who faces four charges over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, also found defenders among rightwing media in America which has often fervently defended him, sometimes flying in the face of reality to do so. Continue reading...

These thefts are crimes of poverty. Ministers' threats to send culprits to prison will never solve themIs an ever fiercer crackdown on the misdemeanours of the poor really justice? When a government minister suggests building new prisons to lock up shoplifters, Tory priorities are revealed in technicolour: that war should be waged on the symptoms, rather than the causes, of poverty. This is a tradition as British as drinking tea or Morris dancing. When the economy tanked after the 1720 South Sea bubble" collapse, the so-called Black Act was passed, imposing the death penalty on the overwhelmingly poor Britons driven by hunger who poached animals in private parks in order to survive. Today's justice system spares offenders the gallows, but it's driven by the same class vengeance that defined it back then: witness how you're 23 times more likely to be prosecuted for benefit fraud than tax fraud, even though the latter costs the economy nine times more.The Tories' plan to cling on to power is now abundantly clear: appeal to the worst instincts of the electorate. Proffering mandatory prison sentences as a solution to persistent shoplifting is part of that grim package. In practice, that means scooping up more largely poor, often traumatised citizens, and locking them up in institutions so overcrowded that their staff's trade union describes them as a powder keg waiting to blow". That shoplifting is indelibly linked to poverty is beyond debate. Last year, even the new chief inspector of constabulary declared that officers should use discretion" in prosecuting those who steal so they can eat, adding that whenever you see an increase in the cost of living or whenever you see more people dropping into poverty, I think you'll invariably see a rise in crime." He was correct: shoplifting has more than doubled in the last six years, reaching a staggering 8m incidents last year.Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Leagues like the IFL are minuscule in comparison to the behemoth that is the NFL. But they are often popular in the smaller markets they serveDespite being one of the game's most well-known features, indoor football's condensed dimensions are still shocking to fans accustomed to gridiron's traditional, significantly more popular outdoor form. At 50 yards long and 28 yards wide, an indoor football field offers players roughly one-quarter the area of an NFL field.To accommodate for this, indoor football permits fewer on-field players than its outdoor equivalent (eight and 11, respectively). You'll notice, however, that the number of players isn't reduced by nearly the same extent as the playing area. As a result, indoor football fields are crowded and, with so many players crammed into so small an area, the games are action-packed - and that's even before accounting for the padded walls. Continue reading...