The double Oscar-winner responded to the president's criticism of his New York Times op-ed last summer urging Joe Biden to step down for re-election, saying it was his civic duty'George Clooney has said he is unconcerned about the persistent verbal abuse levelled at him by Donald Trump, after the president labelled him a fake movie actor" on Truth Social.Speaking to Gayle King on CBS Mornings, Clooney said: I don't care. I've known Donald Trump for a long time. My job is not to please the president of the United States. My job is to try and tell the truth when I can and when I have the opportunity. I am well aware of the idea that people will not like that." Continue reading...
University fights back against threats to cut about $9bn in funding for school after it refused to comply with demandsHarvard University has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging it is trying to gain control of academic decision-making at Harvard".The university is fighting back against the administration's threat to review about $9bn in federal funding after Harvard officials refused to comply with a list of demands that included appointing an outside overseer to ensure that the viewpoints being taught at the university were diverse". Harvard is specifically looking to halt a freeze on $2.2bn in grants. Continue reading...
The US administration's reassuring' words, after deporting two German teens, have made it plain that the border authorities will have a problem with anyone who doesn't echo their politics
Demonstrations rarely lead to immediate policy change. But they are essential to building community and long-term resistanceOpinions about the protests this month keep oscillating between two extremes. Optimists point to the larger-than-expected numbers (larger than expected by many police departments for sure); they enthusiastically recall a famous social scientific finding according to which a non-violent mobilization of 3.5% of a population can bring down a regime. Pessimists, by contrast, see protests as largely performative. Both views are simplistic: it is true that protests almost never lead to immediate policy changes - yet they are crucial for building morale and long-term movement power.Earlier this year, observers had rushed to declare resistance cringe" and a form of pointless hyperpolitics", a vibe shift" (most felt by rightwing pundits, coincidentally) supposedly gave Donald Trump a clear mandate, even if he had won the election only narrowly. Meanwhile, Democrats were flailing in the face of a rapid succession of outrageous executive orders - many of which were effectively memos to underlings, rather than laws. But taken at face value, they reinforced an impression of irresistible Trumpist power. Continue reading...
The US health and human services secretary dismissed autistic people in recent comments. It's not hard to disprove his theoriesWhen Tarik El-Abour was in middle school, his teacher asked him and his classmates a simple question. What do you want to be when you grow up? When it was time for him to answer, El-Abour gave a reply that thousands of children have said before. He wanted to be a baseball player. But his teacher shot back with something less than encouraging: You'd better have a Plan B." El-Abour, who was diagnosed with autism at the age of three, remained undeterred. Rather than listening to his pessimistic instructor, he distanced himself from her.He thought that if he continued to talk to her, she might convince him he was unable to achieve his goal. In the end, he was right, and the teacher was wrong. El-Abour grew up to become a baseball player after receiving a degree in business administration from Bristol University in California. He first played professionally in the Empire League, where he was named rookie of the year in 2016 and was an All-Star in 2017. Then, in 2018, he signed a deal with the Kansas City Royals, a franchise just three years removed from winning the World Series. He played outfield in the minor leagues during the 2018 season, flourishing under the mentorship of JD Nichols of World Wide Baseball Prospects and Reggie Sanders of the Royals, becoming the first recorded autistic player in MLB history. Continue reading...
The draft makes for brilliant television and maintains interest in the league even during the offseason. But it's worth considering other optionsThere is something funky about the draft being one of the NFL's marquee events. At root, it's a man stepping to the podium, being booed and reading names. The NFL still dominates Sundays ... and Mondays ... and Thursdays ... and playoff Saturdays during the season; the draft allows the league to gobble up the offseason months too. But as interest continues to grow, there has been relatively little pushback from those who make the draft work: the prospects, particularly those slated to go at the top of the first round.Think about it. Your reward for being one of the best college athletes in the country is to wind up on one of the worst rosters in the NFL, typically one beset by mismanagement at the top, iffy coaching or a third-rate roster. Quarterbacks can win with teams that draft them No 1 overall - Peyton Manning and Troy Aikman are a couple of examples - but more often than not, the top quarterbacks end up in a spot where they're likely to fail. There is a reason that Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield found success after they were let go by the teams that selected them in the top three. Environment is king - having no say over where they start their career puts the best prospects at the whims of blundering franchises. Is there a system that can maintain the interest and parity the league craves, while handing some agency to players over their careers - or at least not reward floundering franchises? Continue reading...
Harvard president issues damning statement accusing Trump administration of harming health research - key US politics stories from 21 AprilHarvard University has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in a bid to halt a freeze of $2.2m in funding, as a battle between Trump and the Ivy League institution escalates.In a damning legal complaint filed with the Massachusetts district court, Harvard's president, Alan M Garber, accused the Trump administration of trying to gain control of academic decision making at Harvard", adding that no government should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue". Continue reading...
Palestinian activist, held in Louisiana detention facility, only allowed to call in as wife delivered their first childNoor Abdalla, the wife of detained Columbia university graduate and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, has announced the birth of their son.In a statement released on Monday evening, Abdalla wrote: I welcomed our son into the world earlier today without Mahmoud by my side. Despite our request for ICE to allow Mahmoud to attend the birth, they denied his temporary release to meet our son. This was a purposeful decision by ICE to make me, Mahmoud, and our son suffer." Continue reading...
Passport, driver's license and keys also reportedly taken but not clear if theft was random or if Trump ally was targetedA purse belonging to Donald Trump's Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, that contained $3,000 in cash, her passport, driver's license and her apartment keys was stolen while she ate dinner at a restaurant in downtown Washington on Sunday night.The secretary revealed the theft to reporters at the White House Easter egg roll on Monday. Noem said the incident remained unresolved. Continue reading...
President amps up attacks against Jerome Powell, pushing him to lower interest rates to offset impact of tariffsUS stock markets fell again on Monday as Donald Trump continued attacks against the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, who the US president called a major loser" for not lowering interest rates.There can be a slowing of the economy unless Mr. Too Late, a major loser, lowers interest rates, NOW," Trump wrote on social media. Continue reading...
by Joseph Gedeon in Washington and agencies on (#6WRSJ)
At issue is constitutionality of taskforce that decides which services insurers must cover without cost to patientsThe US supreme court on Monday heard arguments in a case that could threaten Americans' access to free preventive healthcare services under the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.At issue is the constitutionality of the US preventive services taskforce, which plays a critical role in determining which preventive services health insurers must cover without cost to patients. The 16-member panel of medical experts, appointed by the health secretary without Senate confirmation, has designated dozens of life-saving screenings and treatments as essential preventive care. Continue reading...
Flight headed for Atlanta, Georgia, had left gate when flames began to rise, forcing people to clear jet via slidesA Delta aircraft caught on fire on the tarmac at the Orlando international airport on Monday morning, forcing frightened passengers to evacuate the jet via slides.The Delta flight, which was headed for Atlanta, Georgia, had left its gate at about 11.15am ET when one of the aircraft's engines caught fire, according to a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Continue reading...
The Argentine pontiff was a vital progressive influence on issues such as migration, and fought for a more merciful, less rigid Catholic churchDefying doctors' orders to rest following his battle with double pneumonia, a weak Pope Francis last week visited Rome's Regina Coeli prison, where he blew kisses towards inmates and spent half an hour in discussion with some of those incarcerated. Sadly, this Maundy Thursday encounter turned out to be one of the last acts of a supremely hardworking papacy. Inretrospect, its location was entirely appropriate.Throughout his 12 years in Saint Peter's chair, Francis sought admirably to refocus the Catholic church's energies on the marginalised, while challenging the power of entrenched interests. Coming, as he put it, from the ends of the earth", the first non-European pontiff of modern times was an outsider pope and a radical one. Within the church, the Argentine was a sometimes spikily direct reformer; outside it, he was asignificant, high-profile ally of progressive causes.Do 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...
Shooter Patrick Crusius was sentenced to life in prison without parole for 2019 massacre near US-Mexico borderThe gunman who killed 23 people in a racist attack at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas - one of the deadliest mass shootings in US history - pleaded guilty on Monday to capital murder in a state district court.Patrick Crusius was automatically sentenced to life in prison without parole for the massacre near the US-Mexico border. The change of plea comes after local prosecutors took the death penalty off the table. Continue reading...
Coaching has brought me into close and uncomfortable contact with aspects of my own character that had been hitherto concealed - much like parentingKarma may not be instant, but it is invariably ironic. So it is that, after four decades of remaining steadfastly opposed to competitive sport, I now spend early mornings, late afternoons, occasional evenings and every weekend driving my children to an ever-expanding range of sporting activities.The sharpest twist of the irony blade is that, having spent my own childhood as the player no wise coach would want on his team, I am now the coach of four separate floorball teams. (Yes, I know you haven't heard of floorball, look it up.) To coach one team may be regarded as an accident; four looks like a weird addiction. But here I am.Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads Continue reading...
A study shows that toxic flame retardants used in mattresses can seep into air and be absorbed by childrenAlarming levels of highly toxic phthalates, flame retardants and UV filters in the air in small children's bedrooms likely stems from kids' mattresses off-gassing the chemicals, new research suggests.The peer-reviewed study measured air in the rooms of children under four years old, and the highest volumes were detected around the kids' beds. An accompanying study checked for the same chemicals in 16 common kids mattress brands, and found them at concerning levels in each. Continue reading...
Price hikes worry restaurants and online markets as uncertainty stymies their ability to plan for the futureChang Chang, a Sichuan restaurant in Washington DC, was already noticing that some of its business had dropped off after tens of thousands of federal workers living in the area lost their jobs. But the recent tariff rate hikes mark an even greater blow for the restaurant.Sichuan peppercorns, which create the signature numbing spice of the regional Chinese cuisine, along with other ingredients, face an at least 145% tariff after last week's tit-for-tat trade battle between China and the United States. The steep rate is an existential threat for restaurants across the country that rely on specialty ingredients imported from China to craft the authentic flavors of their dishes, said operators who were blindsided. Continue reading...
by Ramon Antonio Vargas in New Orleans on (#6WRK7)
Barry Davis says Joseph Fitzgerald Hall molested him in the 90s, yet Hall kept working for the church nearly unimpededA US man serving in various administrative roles for the Jehovah's Witnesses sexually molested a child whom he met while working for the Christian religious sect in New Orleans - then continued his career virtually unimpeded and moved to North Carolina after completing a disciplinary suspension of less than a year, he has admitted in writing and in a sworn deposition.The stunning revelations about Joseph Fitzgerald Hall and how he has been managed by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York that runs the Jehovah's Witnesses are contained in a lawsuit that the abuse survivor has been pursuing against both the group and the administrator. Continue reading...
At least 11 state colleges enroll in program that trains officers for limited' involvement in immigration operationsFears of a new wave of deportations and student visa cancellations are rising at a number of Florida's most diverse universities after administrators signed agreements recasting campus police as federal immigration agents.Miami's Florida International University (FIU) is one of at least 11 state colleges to enroll in the top tier of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) 287(g) program that trains local police departments for limited" involvement in immigration operations. Continue reading...
What Did I Miss? features a smarmy host quizzing sequestered contestants on the headlines. But politics is not funny any moreThe classic television gameshow is one of the simplest pleasures available to the sedentary, socially maladjusted people we used to call couch potatoes". An average Joe is required to perform a task - ranging from answering a trivia question or spinning a large, colorful wheel to keeping a hand on a Toyota Land Cruiser for as long as possible - in exchange for the possibility of winning a cash prize (or a truck). For the viewer, there is the satisfaction of believing, perhaps falsely, that you could win the prize if you were in the contestant's place. Maybe you identify with that contestant and actively root for their success. Or perhaps you just want to see some poor bastard shot out of a cannon, like on TBS's dearly departed series Wipeout. Whatever your pleasure might be, it's not an uncommon or esoteric one.We watch gameshows because they are basic human drama distilled into an easily repeatable format. TV development executives have tried to modernize it with the fancy graphics of something like NBC's The Wall or the gratuitous flesh-baring of the 2000s disasterpiece Are You Hot, in which a panel of celebrity" judges such as Lorenzo Lamas critiqued people on the number of visible abs on their bodies. The simpler a gameshow premise - guessing the cost of basic household items, answering multiple choice questions in a spooky room, or doing menial tasks for a man who combs his hair forward - the better. Perhaps this is why my initial reaction to the press release for the forthcoming mini-series Greg Gutfeld's What Did I Miss?, on the Fox Nation streaming service, was so immediately negative. Continue reading...
Concerns raised address would be inappropriate because of president's comments about UK, Nato and UkraineA number of MPs and peers have called for Donald Trump to be blocked from addressing parliament when he visits the UK.The US president has suggested Buckingham Palace is setting a date for September" for him to come to Britain. Continue reading...
Faced with fading empires' petulance, the global south must draw a red line under its relationship with them and forge new ties based on mutual respectAs Donald Trump rains chaos down upon the US - dismantling the rule of law trading in rage-fuelled nationalism and bullying the rest of the world - his ideology is now being eagerly imitated not just by the expected rogues of global politics, but by supposed bastions of democracy.These democracies now wear only a mask of civility over that old colonial impulses: control, divide, exploit. Continue reading...
With estimated $55m price set to balloon by 125%, 737 Max returns to Seattle production hub still wearing the colours of Xiamen AirlinesA Boeing jet intended for a Chinese airline landed back at the planemaker's US production hub on Sunday, a victim of the tit-for-tat bilateral tariffs launched by Donald Trump.The 737 MAX, which was meant for China's Xiamen Airlines, landed at Seattle's Boeing Field at 6.11pm, according to a Reuters witness. It was painted with Xiamen livery. Continue reading...
A perverse information ecosystem is being mined by big tech for profit, fooling the unwary and sending algorithms crazyThere are two parallel image channels that dominate our daily visual consumption. In one, there are real pictures and footage of the world as it is: politics, sport, news and entertainment. In the other is AI slop, low-quality content with minimal human input. Some of it is banal and pointless - cartoonish images of celebrities, fantasy landscapes, anthropomorphised animals. And some is a sort of pornified display of women just simply ... being, like a virtual girlfriend you cannot truly interact with. The range and scale of the content is staggering, and infiltrates everything from social media timelines to messages circulated on WhatsApp. The result is not just a blurring of reality, but a distortion of it.A new genre of AI slop is rightwing political fantasy. There are entire YouTube videos of made-up scenarios in which Trump officials prevail against liberal forces. The White House account on X jumped on a trend of creating images in Studio Ghibli style and posted an image of a Dominican woman in tears as she is arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). AI political memefare has, in fact, gone global. Chinese AI videos mocking overweight US workers on assembly lines after the tariff announcement raised a question for, and response from, the White House spokesperson last week. The videos, she said, were made by those who do not see the potential of the American worker". And to prove how pervasive AI slop is, I had to triple-check that even that response was not itself quickly cobbled-together AI content fabricating another dunk on Trump's enemies. Continue reading...
The EU, the world's biggest single market, can reposition itself and become less reliant on exporting goods to the US and ChinaThis is why America first doesn't have to mean Europe last.Europeans have had plenty to mope about since Donald Trump entered the White House not quite three months ago. The US president has said that the EU was created to screw the United States" and slapped punitive tariffs on European goods. He has cast doubt on the US commitment to defend Nato allies. He has cosied up to Vladimir Putin, insulted Volodymyr Zelenskyy and tried to settle Russia's war in Ukraine on terms that would undermine European security. His vice-president has denigrated European democratic values, and his national security team has spewed venom in a Signal chat at pathetic" Europe.Finally complete the European capital markets union and banking union to unleash the cross-border investment power of some 3tn in European savingsStrike trade deals with countries and regions around the world, seeking a reliable partner committed to cutting tariffs rather than weaponising themJointly develop common defence capabilities to strengthen the European wing of Nato and be able to defend European interests if the US withdraws or steps asideProvide Ukraine with greater military assistance, including medium-range missiles to fill the US gap and strengthen its position before any negotiationBuild international coalitions to defend liberal democracy, and uphold a rules-based order with like-minded partners from Canada to Japan, India and AustraliaExpand economic partnerships with middle- and low-income countries in Asia, Africa and South America that consider the EU a more reliable partner than a protectionist US or a predatory Russia, and a valuable hedge against excessive dependence on ChinaOffer a special visa programme to attract US scientists and tech workers fleeing Trump's university crackdownPaul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre Continue reading...
Defence secretary reportedly sent the group flight schedules for strikes on Houthis; draft order calls for drastic restructure of state department - key US politics stories from 20 AprilDefence secretary Pete Hegseth is in the spotlight for a communications blunder in which he reportedly created his own Signal group chat that included his wife and brother, in which he shared confidential details of a US strike on Yemen this March.The chat on Signal, a commercially available app not authorized as a means to communicate sensitive or classified national defense information, allegedly included more than a dozen people. Continue reading...
US defense secretary texted strike information to his family in group chat he created, sources tell the New York TimesBefore the US launched military strikes on Yemen in March, Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, sent detailed information about the planned attacks to a private Signal group chat that he created himself, which included his wife, his brother and about a dozen other people, the New York Times reported on Sunday.The Guardian has independently confirmed the existence of Hegseth's own private group chat. Continue reading...
Senator warns of US getting closer to a constitutional crisis' as Samuel Alito's dissent signals deference to TrumpMinnesota senator Amy Klobuchar warned on Sunday that the US is getting closer and closer to a constitutional crisis", but the courts, growing Republican disquiet at Trump administration policies, and public protest were holding it off.I believe as long as these courts hold, and the constituents hold, and the congress starts standing up, our democracy will hold," Klobuchar told CNN's State of the Union, adding but Donald Trump is trying to pull us down into the sewer of a crisis." Continue reading...
Tessa Janecke scored the winning goal in overtime as the United States beat Canada to win goldCanada 0-0 USA, 14:25 left, 1st period: It's all Canada at the moment. They've taken the shots lead 6-3. So far, nothing has troubled Frankel too much, but let them shoot a lot" is never a good game plan.Social media alert: USA Hockey and Hockey Canada are both on BlueSky, but neither organization has posted. That's no fun. Continue reading...
If enacted changes would be one of the biggest reorganizations of department since its founding in 1789A draft Trump administration executive order reported to be circulating among US diplomats proposes a radical restructuring of the US state department, including drastic reductions to sub-Saharan operations, envoys and bureaus relating to climate, refugees, human rights, democracy and gender equality.The changes, if enacted, would be one of the biggest reorganizations of the department since its founding in 1789, according to Bloomberg, which had seen a copy of the 16-page draft. The New York Times first reported on the draft. Continue reading...
US vice-president spends few minutes with pontiff whom he has publicly disagreed with over migrationPope Francis and JD Vance, who have disagreed very publicly over the Trump administration's attitude to immigration and its migrant deportation plans, met briefly in Rome on Sunday to exchange Easter greetings.The meeting came a day after the US vice-president, who converted to Roman Catholicism in 2019, sat down with senior Vatican officials and had an exchange of opinions" over international conflicts and immigration. Continue reading...
The idea that autism is some aberration that can be cured is typical of a movement that celebrates simplistic thinking and loathes human differenceIn the recent past, Robert F Kennedy Jr has said that Donald Trump is a terrible human being" and probably a sociopath". But in the US's new age of irrationalism and chaos, these two men are now of one voice, pursuing a strand of Trumpist politics that sometimes feels strangely overlooked. With Trump once again in the White House and Kennedy ensconced as his health and human services secretary, what they are jointly leading is becoming clearer by the day: a war on science and knowledge that aims to replace them with the modern superstitions of conspiracy theory.Nearly 2,000 members of the US's National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine have warned of slashing funding for scientific agencies, terminating grants to scientists, defunding their laboratories, and hampering international scientific collaboration". Even work on cancer is now under threat. But if you want to really understand the Trump regime's monstrousness, consider where Kennedy and a gang of acolytes are heading on an issue that goes to the heart of millions of lives: autism. Continue reading...
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