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Evan Gershkovich's appeal against further pre-trial detention was rejected by a Russian court on Thursday. The Wall Street Journal reporter was arrested in March on espionage charges and is now expected to remain in detention until at least late August.The US ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, was at the hearing. Speaking to reporters after, Tracy said she was 'extremely disappointed' at the denial of his appeal and described the charges as 'baseless'. In a statement Tracy said: 'He is an innocent journalist who was carrying out journalistic activities and has been wrongfully detained'

Onslaught at Louis Tomlinson concert at Red Rocks amphitheater near Denver described as straight out of a horror movie'Dozens of people were injured by hailstones the size of apples that pelted concertgoers in Colorado on Wednesday night, with at least seven needing hospital treatment following the powerful storm.Witnesses described the onslaught, at a concert by former One Direction singer Louis Tomlinson at the Red Rocks amphitheater in Morrison, west of Denver, as straight out of a horror movie". Continue reading...

Former CIA officer and Texas congressman pitches himself as moderate alternative to current crop of primary contendersFormer Texas congressman Will Hurd, a onetime CIA officer and fierce critic of Donald Trump, announced on Thursday that he's running for president, hoping to build momentum as a more moderate alternative to the Republican primary field's early front-runner.Hurd, who made the announcement on CBS Mornings, served three terms in the House through January 2021, becoming the chamber's only Black Republican during his final two years in office. He said in a video launching his White House bid that the soul of our country is under attack," reminiscent of Democrat Joe Biden's slogan about the 2020 race being a battle for the soul of the nation." Continue reading...

Anya Cook and Samantha Casiano were forced to navigate pregnancies with complications in post-Roe AmericaPregnancy has long been riskier than abortion in America. Around 650-750 US women die during pregnancy each year, the highest maternal death rate in the industrialized world.Comparatively, very few women die from abortion or suffer complications: two women died from abortion complications in 2018. So, when Roe v Wade was overturned last summer, there were fears that deaths and complications from pregnancy would shoot up - particularly among women of color. Continue reading...

Severe storms with hurricane-force winds in north-west Texas killed at least four people and caused widespread damageA line of severe storms produced what a meteorologist calls a rare combination of multiple tornadoes, hurricane-force winds and softball-sized hail in north-west Texas, killing at least four people and causing significant damage around the town of Matador. National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Ziebell says the supercell developed about 8pm local time Wednesday near Amarillo before striking Matador, injuring nine people in addition to the four killed and causing widespread destruction. Ziebell says the storm later produced 109 mph winds at Jayton in addition to the four-inch or larger hail.That is certainly rare to see all at the same time, killer tornadoes, hurricane-force winds and softball-sized hail," Zeibell said. Continue reading...

The knock-on effects of those 500 people's arrival transformed Britain, leading to the multiracial society we live in todayAfricans say to know how well you are doing in life you should compare your achievements with those of age-mates, or contemporaries. To assess the impact of the arrival of the Empire Windrush on 22 June 1948, that would mean comparing its impact with other events that unfolded around the same time. Almost a year before, a blood-soaked India slipped out of the orbit of the British empire, gaining its independence. A year after Windrush, in October 1949, the Chinese Communist party won the long civil war, establishing primacy over Chinese affairs. Three-quarters of a century later, these two countries are producing seismic transformations that are slowly, suddenly unravelling the dominant 500-year transatlantic global order.Sandwiched between these two event colossi, Windrush would seem on the surface to measure poorly against its age-mates. But the celebrations beginning on Thursday, Windrush Day, will highlight two aspects of its impact. First, the arrival of a group of 500 people from the Caribbean, which signalled the beginning of mass migration to the UK from the colonies. And second, that migration's knock-on effect of unleashing a multiracial society that, 75 years later, has so transformed these islands that we now have a prime minister of Indian descent by way of Africa, and Scotland's first minister and Labour leader both of Pakistani heritage. Continue reading...

Not only is she queering the female pop ideal as a rare middle-aged woman in the Radio 1 playlist, Kylie Minogue is also resonating at a time when frivolity is returning to cultureJust two days ago, a spokesperson for BBC Radio 1 was explaining why Kylie Minogue's Padam Padam hadn't made its playlist, despite the writhing electropop song being her first Top 10 single in 12 years and now bordering on a national obsession. (Last week, it even made it into Hansard, referenced by Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle in a speech about Pride: And finally Mr Deputy Speaker, in the words of Kylie, padam.") Each track is considered for the playlist based on its musical merit and whether it is right for our target audience, with decisions made on a case-by-case basis," the spokesperson said.Kylie turned 55 last month, leading to accusations of ageism against Radio 1. In response, the station claimed that an artist's age is never a factor" in decision-making. Technically, that bears out - David Guetta is a perpetual figure on the station, currently on the C-list with Baby Don't Hurt Me, and he's also 55. But Guetta is a fairly faceless dance producer. The stakes are evidently different for women whose appearance and physique contribute to an overall performance of pop in which the suggestion of desirability is key. As culture perceives women to become less attractive and sexually viable as they hit middle age, the assumption is clearly that an older female artist is of little relevance to Radio 1's demographic of listeners aged 15-29, even if - or perhaps specifically because - she's singing about a dancefloor infatuation so delirious that she and the song's intended have to go straight home and take off all my clothes". Continue reading...

Search for missing submersible enters fourth day, with more deep-sea vessels sent to site. Plus, the people turning to birth control after the fall of Roe

We hear so much about crime rates, opioids, and gun violence in America, but so little from our elected leaders about the poverty crisisCan you name the top 10 causes of death in America? Without too much trouble, most Americans could likely come up with some of them: cancer, heart disease, stroke, accidents. But it would come as a surprise to many to know that poverty is right up there with these other dreaded scourges - much higher, in fact, than many ills that have inspired investigative committees, major policy investments and sustained attention from the public and private sectors in American life.A recent study by one of our colleagues shows that cumulative poverty over many years is the fourth leading cause of death in this country. Current poverty - just being poor right now - is seventh on that list, and it alone causes 10 times as many deaths as homicide, close to five times as many deaths as gun violence, and 2.5 times as many deaths as drug overdoses. Cumulative poverty that lingers year after year is associated with approximately 60% more deaths than current poverty, putting only heart disease, cancer and smoking-related deaths ahead in the number of Americans it kills.The Rev Dr William J Barber II is founding director of the Yale Center for Public Theology and Public Policy and co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral RevivalGregg Gonsalves is associate professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health Continue reading...

Today's supreme court is extremely powerful, increasingly political and decreasingly trusted. We need reform nowThe US supreme court is an extraordinarily exclusive club. The nine members are unelected and employed for life, or until they step down voluntarily. And, as in many exclusive clubs, the membership likes to keep things just as they have always been.Tradition has its merits, of course, but recent events clearly show that change is urgently needed.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

Community workers say life on frontlines can be increasingly tough due to trauma, unpredictable hours and lack of fundingFor the past 24 years, Jose Gomez has been on call at any hour.Gomez works as a community violence interrupter in Stockton, California, focused on extracting high-risk youth from the cycles of violence in their own neighborhoods. Sometimes he's called to go to a hospital or a crime scene. Sometimes he's in the aftermath of a shooting to guide survivors and their families away from retaliation. Sometimes he mediates conflicts before they turn violent. Sometimes he helps clients find jobs, buy work attire, relocate, enroll in school, get a driver's license or talk through their problems. Continue reading...

Speaking out against Modi government carries risks for US politicians in diaspora constituencies where PM is popularAhead of Narendra Modi's state visit to Washington this week, Pramila Jayapal - a progressive Democrat congresswoman - circulated a letter signed by dozens of congressional lawmakers calling for Joe Biden to acknowledge the erosion of human rights and democracy during the Indian prime minister's nine years in power.A series of independent, credible reports reflect troubling signs in India toward the shrinking of political space, the rise of religious intolerance, the targeting of civil society organizations and journalists, and growing restrictions on press freedoms and internet access," it warned. Continue reading...

These are the faces of the lawmakers and governors who supported abortion bans and laws restricting access to the procedureIt's been one year since the US supreme court ended the constitutional right to abortion. The procedure is now prohibited in 14 states and restricted in six more, leaving large swaths of the midwest and south without access to basic reproductive care.To mark the first anniversary of the Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, the case that overturned Roe v Wade, the Guardian has created a visual directory of state legislators who embraced the opportunity to restrict abortion access. These are the faces of lawmakers and governors whose votes helped pass bans on abortion at conception or after six weeks, before most women know they are pregnant. Continue reading...

The World Cup champions have made enemies, and many more fans. Whether they succeed or fail, they know people will be watchingA seven-a-side match featuring a collection of retired Wrexham pros and guests against a team of mostly retired US women's players isn't particularly newsworthy. But when the score wound up 12-0 in favor of the men, the knives were out.Some outlets, notably Fox News, either ignorantly or deliberately misidentified the American players as the US women's team". Some played up Heather O'Reilly's playful callout of Wrexham's celebrity owner Ryan Reynolds as a hysterical, delusional fit. From newsrooms to their parents' basements, men rejoiced at the supposed humbling of women who dared to demand a place in the sports marketplace.Celebrating wildly upon scoring goals 11, 12 and 13 against an overmatched World Cup opponent? No problem.Morgan pretending to sip tea after a goal against England? A meme-worthy moment, even though many couldn't tell whether it was a dig at the team's tea-crazed opponents, a homage to Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner's Instagram account, or a shoutout to Kermit the Frog. (As it turns out, the correct answer was Turner.)Rose Lavelle diving to get a call at the World Cup? Either we all missed the foul, or hey, the men do it all the time. (Sadly, that's not wrong.) Continue reading...

The MMA star has been the focal point for a number of serious allegations. But his ability to draw in fans means he continues to prosper financiallyConor McGregor - the Notorious' face of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) - has once again found himself mired in controversy as serious allegations of sexual assault cast a shadow over his anticipated return to the sport.Last week, the Irish mixed martial artist was accused of assaulting an unnamed woman at the Kaseya Center in Miami during Game 4 of the NBA finals. In a demand letter, attorney Ariel Mitchell described her client's alleged encounter with McGregor, which took place in the VIP men's bathroom. The letter also claimed that McGregor was aided and abetted by the NBA and Miami Heat Kaseya security." Continue reading...

Britain is like a sailing boat in the middle of the Channel, struggling for direction. It needs a bold new captain and a new crewAs we approach the seventh anniversary of Britain's fateful vote, on 23 June 2016, to leave the EU, the state of UK-EU relations is superficially encouraging and structurally depressing.Britain is like a sailing boat faffing around in the middle of the Channel. Most of its passengers want it to steer closer to the continental coast and even the captain seems willing to make some modest adjustments to his course. But strong winds and currents are pushing the boat further away from the continent. It will require a much more decisive change of course from a new captain, after a different crew comes onboard next year, for the forces of convergence to prevail over those of divergence. Continue reading...

Officials set up treatment area' in Miramar and warn residents the creatures also pose a health risk by carrying a parasiteAn invasion of giant African land snails has alarmed residents in south Florida, where authorities have established a quarantine area to try to deal with the destructive pests.The invasive snails have voracious appetites and consume at least 500 species of plants, according to Florida's department of agriculture, which is fearful for the state's lucrative growing industries of citrus and other fruits and vegetables. Continue reading...

Rising costs have no doubt played a part, but so has natural justice: a sandwich should never be sharp, especially if it's only masquerading as nutritiousDo you know how many things have been invented since Otto Frederick Rohwedder perfected his bread-slicing machine in 1928? Like, loads. There have been at least 10 iPhones since then, plus a machine that can literally harness the power of the stars. Yet when someone wants to hype up a new product today, they don't say, it's the best thing since Bluetooth" or the rocket that took man to the moon" or even the polio vaccine". They say it's the best thing since sliced bread - because, nearly a century on, we still haven't invented anything better.Soft, pillowy white bread that sticks to the roof of your mouth when untoasted - that you squish into a ball and bite into as a kid, that you pack in lunchboxes and on picnics and fry in beaten eggs - is something many of us know is worth dying earlier for. It is a comfort food so comforting that, according to Warburtons chairman Jonathan Warburton, sales rose during Covid and the cost-of-living crisis. The staple white sliced bread is most certainly not dead," said the breadman after consumer behaviour firm Circana found that sales of pre-packed white loaves are up 0.6% compared with this time last year - while sales of all other surveyed bread categories declined.Amelia Tait is a freelance features writer Continue reading...

Docking 75 years ago, they had no idea of the difficulties ahead. This country made nothing easy. It should salute their achievementLook again at that picture taken 75 years ago at Tilbury docks. Look at those people as they posed for the historic photographs. Look at their faces; wearied from a month of travel, etched with joy, hope, bewilderment and lurking stage left, just out of sight, foreboding.As the descendants of that Windrush generation, we get to look at those faces every day in the pictures of our own families that we hang on the walls and in our front rooms. They have the same posed smiles, the demeanour of all adventurers who smile at the outset of an uncertain journey. There were 492 of them and they knew they had to impress and account for themselves. The attire was pin-sharp, whatever could be said of them on arrival, it was not to be that they were slovenly. They knew enough to show that they came in peace. Some sang and exuded bonhomie for Pathe News, but others interviewed on the day sought to echo the self-effacement and deprecation they saw as essentially English. They made the best of it; but they didn't know much at all. They would have to learn much quickly in turbulent decades.Hugh Muir is the Guardian's executive editor, Opinion Continue reading...

The Myrtle Beach Safari owner was accused of illegally buying endangered lion cubs for display and profit at his zooA wild animal trainer featured in the popular Netflix series Tiger King has been convicted of wildlife trafficking in Virginia, the attorney general's office announced Tuesday.Bhagavan Doc" Antle was accused of illegally buying endangered lion cubs in Frederick county, Virginia, for display and profit at his South Carolina zoo, Jason Miyares, the attorney general, said in a news release. A jury convicted Antle on Friday of two felony counts each of wildlife trafficking and conspiring to wildlife traffic. Continue reading...

After decades of complaints from staff and students at Jordan high school, Atlas Metals was hit with 22 felony countsThe owners of a metal recycling plant operating next to a south LA high school campus have been hit with 22 felony charges, after decades of complaints that the facility was contaminating school grounds with lead and other toxic waste.Announcing the charges on Wednesday, the Los Angeles district attorney George Gascon said that staff and students at Jordan high school in Watts, a predominantly Black and Latino neighbourhood, had been potentially exposed to dangerous levels of pollutants on a daily basis". Continue reading...

Air national guard member, 21, enters pleas in Massachusetts federal court days after being indicted by grand juryJack Teixeira, the Massachusetts air national guard member accused of leaking highly classified military documents on a social media platform, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to federal felony charges.Teixeira, 21, entered the pleas during a hearing in Worcester's federal court days after he was indicted by a grand jury on six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information. Each count is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Continue reading...

Invitation raises possibility Yasir al-Rumayyan could be questioned under oath about execution of Jamal KhashoggiThe powerful governor of Saudi Arabia's state-backed investment fund has been invited to testify before a Senate committee in the wake of a proposed merger between the Saudi-backed LIV Tour and the PGA, raising the possibility the executive could be questioned under oath about issues ranging from the future of golf to the execution of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.Yasir al-Rumayyan, governor of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, was invited to testify on 11 July by the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations, whose chairman, the Democratic senator Dick Blumenthal, is one of the toughest critics of Saudi Arabia on Capitol Hill.This article was amended on 21 June 2023 to clarify that Yasir al-Rumayyan is the governor of Saudi Arabia's state-backed investment fund, rather than the chairman. Continue reading...

Approval means US becomes second country in the world, after Singapore, to allow sale of meat grown from animal cellsLab-grown meat will be able to be sold to US consumers for the first time, with the federal government granting permission for two separate businesses to offer their chicken products to people.Both Upside Foods and Good Meat said on Wednesday they had been given permission by the US Department of Agriculture to produce and sell chicken that has been grown from a cluster of sample animal cells in large metal vats. Continue reading...

Rescue operations searching for the Titan submersible have focused their efforts on a remote area of the North Atlantic where a series of underwater noises have been detected. They were detected by Canadian P-3 aircraft on Tuesday and again on Wednesday, US Coast Guard officials said at a press conference.Experts have not yet identified the source of these noises and officials have warned the sounds may not have originated from the missing vessel

Daniel DJ' Rodriguez shouts Trump won!' after being sentenced for attacking Michael Fanone at Capitol in 2021A California man who drove a stun gun into the police officer Michael Fanone's neck during one of the most violent clashes of the January 6 riot was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 12 years in prison.Daniel DJ" Rodriguez yelled, Trump won!" as he was led out of the courtroom where the US district judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced him to 12 years and seven months behind bars for his role in the attack on Congress. Continue reading...

Finding in Gallup poll comes just before first anniversary of supreme court overturning Roe v WadeMore than a quarter of registered US voters say they will only vote for candidates who share their beliefs on abortion, according to a poll released on Wednesday, a total (28%) one point higher than last year.The survey, from Gallup, was released before the first anniversary of Dobbs v Jackson, by which conservatives on the supreme court removed the right to abortion that had been safeguarded since Roe v Wade in 1973. Continue reading...

We should save honours for the unsung and uncelebrated - and take our time checking out the judgment of those bound for the House of LordsIt was once my privilege to play a round at Pyle and Kenfig Golf Club. If you're ever on the M4 in south Wales between Porthcawl and Port Talbot, look over the grassy dunes towards the sea and know that my balls are in there somewhere. I was playing with a friend, a retired butcher from Neath, and a couple of his mates. One of these old boys had been something to do with education; I think he had spent his working life with the local education authority. Nice chap.On our way round we discussed matters various - his career, the weather, where the hell my ball was and so on. At the conclusion of one of our chats, he said he would give me his card. At first I thought he meant his golfing scorecard but it eventually became clear that he was talking about some kind of business card.Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Little Liberty', a bite-sized version of the New York City landmark has moved to the National Building Arts Center in Sauget, IllinoisLittle Liberty, a miniature Statue of Liberty long a beloved feature of the Upper West Side in New York City, has officially moved to the midwest.The bite-sized version of the New York City landmark has moved to the National Building Arts Center in Sauget, Illinois, a 141-person village just outside St Louis, the St Louis Post Dispatch reported. Continue reading...

Our antiquated ideas about what an elite athlete should be are evolving. And the league's foreign stars are showing there is more than one way to winBasketball is not the main thing in my life. And probably never gonna be."Those are not the words you might expect to hear from the Denver Nuggets' point-center Nikola Joki: a bonafide superstar, two-time league MVP, who was, at the time of these comments, about to head into his (and his franchise's) first ever NBA finals (where he would win, handily, for that matter). But Joki is not the type of superstar we've come to expect in the NBA. He has something that has been rare, and even frowned upon, among athletes of his caliber: perspective. So, in a world where work/life balance is a hot button topic, and we've recently lived through a pandemic that flipped our lives upside down, why are his sentiments so polarizing? And are they a true anomaly, or a bellwether? Continue reading...

Federal judge says names of congressman's two guarantors will be made public at 12pm ET on ThursdayThe two people who guaranteed bail for George Santos will have their names publicly revealed, a federal judge ruled, rejecting the indicted Republican congressman's claim that the disclosure could threaten the guarantors' safety.Joanna Seybert, a US district judge in Central Islip, New York, said the names would be made public on Thursday at 12pm ET. Continue reading...

Whoever wins in the confrontation between the former prime minister and the army, both sides are to blame for trying to gag criticism

More people are feeling backed into a corner after the supreme court struck down the nationwide right to abortion last yearThe last thing Jana wanted was to go back on hormonal birth control. But after Roe v Wade was overturned, prompting abortion bans in her state and ones around her, she felt she didn't have a choice.Jana, who asked to go by a pseudonym because she doesn't want her politically conservative family to know her story, started using birth control at 13. For nearly a decade, she tried different kinds of hormonal contraception to find the one that least exacerbated anxiety and depression. Her weight fluctuated, making her eating disorder even worse. After nearly a decade, her therapist suggested she get off birth control altogether. It worked. She felt in touch with her adult body for the first time in her life, and her mental health was finally in a good place. She started using apps to track her menstrual cycle, to tell her when she was ovulating and should avoid sex or use a condom. Continue reading...

The Biden administration will try to strengthen US-India ties while the Indian leader looks to shore up votes for next year's electionThe symbolism of the visit will be hard to avoid. As Narendra Modi arrives in Washington DC on Wednesday - the capital of a country he was once prohibited from visiting for almost 10 years - he will join the ranks of Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and Volodymyr Zelenskiy as one of the few leaders to address a joint session of Congress more than once.Statements from US officials ahead of the visit have been rapturous on the subject of US-India relations, praising the significant defence partnership" and describing it as a unique connection between the world's oldest and largest democracies". Before his departure from India, Modi said: This special invitation is a reflection of the vigour and vitality of the partnership between our democracies." Continue reading...

Underwater noises detected by Canadian aircraft, as oxygen levels reduce to around 24 hours of breathable air. Plus, finding joy in life without children

Far from being persecuted, Trump has been handled with vastly more deference than anyone else would beDonald Trump's indictment earlier this month on 37 counts related to mishandling classified information set off a firestorm on the political right. Conservatives accused Joe Biden of using the justice system to prosecute his main political rival and attempting to steal" the 2024 election. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, promised to hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable". In short, the right wants us to believe that Biden and his administration will stop at nothing to put Trump in jail as quickly as possible.In fact, the exact opposite is true. Worried about just this type of accusation, the justice department under Merrick Garland and the FBI have approached their investigations of Trump much too cautiously. Far from being persecuted because of who he is, Trump's status as a former president and as the unofficial leader of the Republican party have led to him being handled with vastly more deference than anyone else would be. The result has been a series of delays and missteps which may allow Trump to escape accountability once again.Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States at Leiden University. He hosts a podcast called America Explained and writes a newsletter of the same name Continue reading...

Keith Flores says he never heard from Catholic church superiors to whom the priest reported his transgressions in 1999

Support for organized labor is soaring. Yet the biggest US union coalition endorsed Biden without asking anything in returnAt a splashy event in Philadelphia last weekend, the AFL-CIO, America's largest union coalition, announced its endorsement of Joe Biden for president in 2024. You may notice that the election is still 17 months away. This was the earliest endorsement in the AFL-CIO's history, amounting to an all-in bet by organized labor that the interests of the Democratic president are identical to its own. The problem with this is not so much that labor might have decided to endorse a Republican - whoever that party's candidate is, they are sure to despise the concept of working-class empowerment - but rather the fact that the endorsement is an implicit acceptance of the status quo.These union leaders believe that the Biden White House as currently constituted is the best they can hope to get. Indeed, they are overjoyed by what they have gotten already. It is this lack of ambition that is the labor movement's biggest flaw. They have been beaten down for so long that they have lost their ability to believe that the world they deserve will ever be real. This is a sort of trauma, induced by a decades-long decline in union power. By settling for what they have, unfortunately, they have forsaken their leverage to ask for more.Hamilton Nolan is a labor journalist based in New York Continue reading...

Christian Grey types are being supplanted in romance novels by heroes with a sweet, golden retriever energy - and some conservatives aren't happyBuckle up, ladies - it's squishy boi summer. According to a recent piece in Publishers Weekly, the male leads of romance novels aren't quite as hard as they used to be. The hot new industry trend is books featuring squishy-centred men" AKA sweet cinnamon roll heroes" and golden retrievers".Perhaps you're thinking that sounds ... sticky? And sort of slobbery? Look, I don't know all the sordid details but I can assure you that in romance novel lingo a cinnamon roll" means a sweet, supportive hero: a gentleman in the streets, who irons your sheets. That sort of thing. And a golden retriever" is an upbeat love interest with a floppy, friendly energy. The opposite, in other words, of an aggressive, domineering alpha such as Christian Grey from Fifty Shades of Grey.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Pause on loan payments set to end in October as political fight over Biden's forgiveness plan rages on and has been tied up in courtsMany Americans are dreading the return of interest accrual and the restarting of their monthly student loan payments as a huge political fight over Joe Biden's debt forgiveness plan rages on.Americans have $1.635tn in federal student loan debt, held by 43.8 million borrowers. Some 26 million people applied or were automatically accepted for student debt relief under Biden's plan before applications were suspended because of lawsuits launched by Republicans. Continue reading...

US president's comments come just as two countries seek to dial down intense rivalryChina's foreign ministry has accused the US president of political provocation" after Joe Biden called Xi Jinping a dictator".The comments seriously violated China's political dignity", foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Wednesday. Continue reading...

The world must convince autocrats that if they attack their neighbours they will ultimately foot the bill for everythingWe have no doubt that the war with Russia will end with Ukraine's victory. But when the war is over, the big question will be who will pay for its consequences? Who will pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine? Today an international Ukraine recovery conference begins in London. This is how we see it.There is not a snowball's chance in hell that Putin's Russia will pay Ukraine reparations for the destruction.Denys Shmyhal is the prime minister of UkraineDo 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...

The GOP is obsessed with the president's son, but the party's attacks make it difficult to discern legitimate concern from crazy conspiraciesSweetheart deal!" Two-tiered justice!" Mere traffic ticket!"Republicans had their applause lines ready on Tuesday when Joe Biden's son Hunter struck a plea deal over unpaid taxes, and gun possession while being a drug user, that is likely to keep him out of prison. Continue reading...