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Designer Martin Grasser listened to birdsong as he created the cheery, rotund symbol, now unnervingly replaced by an XThere was something almost poignant in the Twitter thread last week from one of the original designers of the site's blue bird logo, soon to be extinct. Martin Grasser recalled how, in 2012, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey had commissioned him, in terms familiar to creatives everywhere: There was essentially no brief," Grasser suggested, other than we want a new bird, and it should be as good as the Apple and Nike logo'. Twitter had made some sort of flying goose - but Jack wanted something simpler."Grasser went away and started sketching different real birds, watching them in flight, listening to birdsong as he worked. His eventual design, after thousands of iterations, was based on a hovering hummingbird with a truncated beak and puffed-up chest. Grasser's thread showed how he had superimposed 15 overlapping circles on the logo to give the bird its optimum friendly" rotundity (the exact opposite of Elon Musk's unnerving new black X branding, which puts a cross next to just about every feeling of alienation). Grasser's valedictory thread was a brief masterclass in how graphic design can tap into human emotion. His bird, meanwhile, will inevitably become exhibit A in the various museums of lost logos that can be found in dustier corners of the internet, alongside the blue globe of Pan Am and the torn ticket stub of Blockbuster Video. Continue reading...

John James of Michigan says presidential contender has gone too far' as outrage grows over Florida teaching of historyFlorida governor and presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis has gone too far" in defending his state's new educational standards which require public schools to teach that enslaved Black Americans benefited from their forced labor by learning useful skills, Republican congressman John James has said.James - who is Black - made his remarks in a post on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter. Continue reading...

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said Washington's security cooperation with Niger was in jeopardy as a result of the overthrow this week of the country's president, Mohamed Bazoum. Addressing reporters during a visit to Australia, Blinken said: 'Our economic and security partnership with Niger - which is significant, hundreds of millions of dollars - depends on the continuation of the democratic governance and constitutional order that has been disrupted by the actions in the last few days.'Gen Abdourahamane Tchiani, the head of the presidential guard since 2011, said on state television on Friday that he was the leader of the group of soldiers behind the coup. Bazoum was elected two years ago in Niger's first peaceful democratic transfer of power since it declared independence from France in 1960

Dawit Kelete, 30, pleads guilty to multiple charges after hitting two protesters, one fatally, during 2020 protest in SeattleA man who hit two Black Lives Matter protesters with his car, killing one of them, during a 2020 demonstration in Seattle has pleaded guilty to multiple felonies.Dawit Kelete, 30, pleaded guilty Thursday to vehicular homicide in the death of 24-year-old Summer Taylor, the Seattle Times reported. He also pleaded guilty to vehicular assault and reckless driving charges. Continue reading...

No winner of Friday's $940m prize, meaning only fifth time in history of Mega Millions grand prize has reached into the billionsThe Mega Millions jackpot climbed to an estimated $1.05bn Friday night, only the fifth time in the history of that particular lottery that the grand prize has reached into the billions.It has been less than two weeks since someone in Los Angeles won a $1.08bn Powerball prize that ranked as the sixth-largest in US lottery history. The winner of that Powerball prize still has not come forward. Continue reading...

Jordan Steinke convicted on misdemeanour charges but found not guilty of more serious charges over 2022 crash in ColoradoA Colorado police officer who put a handcuffed woman in a parked police vehicle that was hit by a freight train was found guilty of reckless endangerment and assault but was acquitted of a third charge of criminal attempt to commit manslaughter during a trial Friday.Jordan Steinke was the first of two officers to go to trial over the 16 September 2022 crash that left Yareni Rios-Gonzalez seriously injured. Continue reading...

There's a word for this sort of oligarchical rule by the elderly, of course: gerontocracyWhen hell freezes over, there will be three things left: Chuck Grassley, Mitch McConnell and cockroaches," the Republican senator John Kennedy recently told NBC News. Continue reading...

A whistleblower has accused the US of a vast cover-up - and claims of non-human' life suggest the unexplained aerial phenomena issue is not going awayAs the world heard tales of recovered alien bodies, crashed extraterrestrial spaceships, and an apparently violent plot to conceal both, not everyone was immediately willing to believe.The Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, inadvertently swept up in this week's remarkable UFO congressional hearing in Washington through her role on the House of Representatives oversight committee, seemed determined to not get too carried away by a surge of interest in UFOs that is transfixing much of the US. Continue reading...

Trevala Jara remembers her stepsister Becky Vance as a caring and loving person' who thought she was saving' her son and sister Christine VanceAbandoning human civilization for a life of adventure in the mountains is a fascination for many, but for one Colorado Springs family the dangers of living off the grid were made brutally apparent. Last week, the remains of Rebecca Becky" Vance, 42, her sister Christine Vance, 41, and Becky's 14-year-old were found at a remote campsite a year after setting off for a new life in the Rocky Mountains.I'd had a feeling around March that something had happened to them and wanted to go to the mountains to see if they were up there," Becky and Christine's stepsister Trevala Jara, 39, said. But those mountains are huge. Where would you start?" Continue reading...

As bans on gender-affirming care for youth proliferate, Republicans impose harsh restrictions on adult care tooWhen Angelique Cedeno, 42, decided to explore medically transitioning last May, she struggled to find a provider she trusted to guide her through the process. She met with physicians who told her they didn't provide gender-affirming care, or asked her - unprompted - if she was suicidal.Then she found Spektrum Health, a nurse practitioner-led clinic for the LGBTQ+ community based in Orlando, Florida. Cedeno liked that at Spektrum, all her primary care needs could be met in one place, including therapy, regular checkups and hormone prescriptions. Most importantly, she could walk into the clinic knowing that every person on staff was knowledgable about serving trans patients and proud to provide them with competent and respectful care. Continue reading...

Several red states are rejecting the authority of not just the federal government - but also the conservative supreme courtThe message was blunt: Texas will see you in court, Mr President."The words of defiance came from Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, making clear that he would not comply with a justice department request to remove floating barriers in the Rio Grande. And Abbott is not the only Republican governor in open revolt against Washington. Continue reading...

Michigan attorney alleges organization, named an extremist group by Southern Poverty Law Center, in violation of non-profit statusA Michigan attorney has confirmed she filed an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) complaint against Moms for Liberty, the parental rights group with positions against racially inclusive and LGBTQ+ education in schools. The complaint, which is private but was obtained by the Guardian, alleges that the rightwing organization is in violation of its 501(c)4 non-profit status.Experts in tax law say an IRS investigation into the Moms for Liberty, named an extremist group by Southern Poverty Law Center, would take at least two years. If their non-profit status is revoked, it would most likely cause the group to re-characterize as a private organization, further decreasing transparency about how money is flowing into it. Continue reading...

One London restaurant has a minimum spend for solo diners. Doesn't it understand the pleasure of taking yourself to dinner?In March this year my appetite left me for the first time in my life. My characteristic failing has always been a helpless, freewheeling, incontinent appetite for more or less everything: - food, men, booze - whatever is to hand, really. The problem has been moderating or neutralising it.The idea of appetite disappearing was unthinkable, a fantasy to envision when I had overconsumed. Imagine not wanting anything; imagine food losing its complex, charged appeal without any effort or restraint. It's the dream of women with eating issues, the ones who have squandered years anxiously scrutinising calorie charts and glycaemic indexes and BMI scales. Which is to say, many of us.Megan Nolan is an Irish writer based in London Continue reading...

It might not have the mainstream sizzle of Mayweather-Pacquiao, but Saturday's long-awaited superfight between unbeaten welterweight masters could deliver greater thrillsIt took more than five years for the eagerly awaited summit meeting between the undefeated American welterweights Errol Spence and Terence Crawford to finally come together. Now that it's here, all signs indicate Saturday night's delicious matchup for the undisputed championship in boxing's glamour division will have been worth the wait.Crawford, a former champion at 135lbs and 140lbs from Omaha, has campaigned in the same weight class as Spence since 2018, when he moved up to capture the WBO's version of the title at 147lbs. By that point Spence, a 2012 US Olympian from the Dallas suburb of DeSoto, was already the IBF's welterweight champion following his clinical dismantling of Kell Brook at Bramall Lane one year earlier, and has since added the WBC and WBA straps. Continue reading...

The next step toward equity in sports will require women to think in terms of investments and the creation of intellectual property. It's a space where the USWNT can be trailblazersThe 2023 Women's World Cup will rocket 23 American players into unprecedented visibility, presenting windows for iconic, legacy-making moments - like Brandi Chastain's shirtless celebration after her winning penalty kick in 1999, and Megan Rapinoe's victory pose after a goal in 2019. Perhaps the soaring awareness of these women will also catalyze a long-overdue reckoning with the wealth disparities between male and female athletes.The increased spotlight on the USWNT team is already apparent. On the morning of 21 June, head coach Vlatko Andonovski called each of his 23 squad members to officially tell them they'd been selected for the roster. An AT&T-sponsored crew filmed Andonovski's calls and footage circulated quickly. US president Joe Biden and his wife Jill joined in the amplification of the national team roster. For nearly 40 years the US women's national team has optimized what it means to be champions," Biden said. From lifting trophies to fighting for gender equity."Samantha Kerr, Australia: $513,000 annual salary, with an estimated net worth of $4.5mAlex Morgan, USA: $450,000 annual salary, with an estimated net worth of $3mMegan Rapinoe, USA: $447,000 annual salary, with an estimated net worth of more than $5.7mKylian Mbappe, France: $72m annual salary, plus an estimated $18m annually in endorsements from Nike, Oakley, Dior, et al; his net worth at 24 years old is estimated at $180mLionel Messi, Argentina: earned more than $130m for the 2022/23 season, with an estimated net worth of more than $660m; reportedly turned down a $1.6bn dollar offer to play for a Saudi Arabian team and just signed a deal with Inter Miami for $60m annually that includes a sign-on bonus and partial team ownershipCristiano Ronaldo, Portugal: $60m annual salary, plus an estimated $45m in endorsements, with an estimated net worth of $500m Continue reading...

Most of the party's 13 candidates for the presidential nomination in the early voting state attend the 2023 Lincoln Dinner fundraiserCNN managed to track down Republican speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy at the Capitol to ask him if he was concerned about the new charges against Donald Trump.The short version of the speaker's answer, as you will see from the clip below, is that he is not: Continue reading...

Thirteen candidates appeared at the Republican party's 2023 Lincoln Dinner fundraiser to address donorsNearly every major Republican presidential candidate shared the stage in the early voting state of Iowa on Friday night, as Donald Trump continues to dominate in the polls despite his numerous legal liabilities.Thirteen candidates appeared at the Iowa Republican party's 2023 Lincoln Dinner fundraiser, taking the opportunity to address donors and local party leaders with less than six months left before the state's crucial caucuses. Continue reading...

Four-year-old Navy is the daughter of the US president's son Hunter and was revealed after her mother sued for child supportThe US president, Joe Biden, has for the first time publicly acknowledged his seventh grandchild, a four-year-old girl, Navy, fathered by his son Hunter with Arkansas woman Lunden Roberts in 2018.Our son Hunter and Navy's mother, Lunden, are working together to foster a relationship that is in the best interests of their daughter, preserving her privacy as much as possible going forward," Biden said in a statement that was first reported by People magazine. Continue reading...

Tuna saga started in 2021 after lawsuit prompted chain to defend itself as news media investigated potential fishiness in sandwichesA lawsuit filed by a California woman who claimed that Subway's tuna products don't in fact contain any tuna has been dismissed.The plaintiff, Nilima Amin, and the sandwich chain have come to agreement regarding dismissing the case with prejudice", meaning it cannot be brought again, court records show. Subway, with nearly 37,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries, said it welcomed US district judge Jon Tigar's decision on Thursday to dismiss the case. Continue reading...

Police in California discovered dozens of people forced to work in illicit marijuana business after being brought across borderDozens of human trafficking victims were forced to work on an illegal marijuana operation while living in horrible conditions", California authorities said.The Merced county sheriff's office in the state's Central valley this week found 60 people, including men, women and at least one child, at an operation. The group arrived several days earlier and was promised good-paying jobs and a place to stay, law enforcement said in a statement. Continue reading...

Alabama authorities file criminal charges after Russell says story that she was kidnapped after checking on toddler was hoaxAuthorities in Alabama said on Friday they had filed criminal charges against a woman who confessed to fabricating a story that she was kidnapped after stopping to check on a toddler she saw walking on the side of an interstate highway.Carlee Russell was charged with misdemeanor false reporting to law enforcement and falsely reporting an incident. Continue reading...

Alicia Navarro, who police said had not been harmed and does not face charges, disappeared days before her 15th birthdayWhen Alicia Navarro disappeared in 2019 from her home in a Phoenix suburb, days before her 15th birthday, she left a signed note promising she would return.I will be back, I swear," the note read. I'm sorry." Continue reading...

Bipartisan disapproval for Derrick Van Orden, who yelled and cursed at school-age Senate helpers during late-night Capitol tourA freshman Republican congressman from Wisconsin yelled and cursed at high school-aged Senate pages during a late-night tour of the Capitol this week, eliciting a bipartisan rebuke from Senate leaders.Derrick Van Orden, who represents western Wisconsin's third district, used a profanity to describe the young pages as lazy and another to order them off the floor of the Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday night, according to PunchBowl News. The pages were lying down to take photos, according to the publication. Continue reading...

Questions remain around mental fitness of Republican Senate leader, 81, after health scare in public earlier this weekMitch McConnell, the 81-year-old Republican leader in the US Senate who suffered a public health scare this week, should step down from the role he has filled since 2007, an unnamed GOP senator said.McConnell, from Kentucky, remains intellectually sharp" on a whole host of issues including baseball", the anonymous senator told NBC News.Reuters contributed to this report Continue reading...

School district member files challenge to Arthur's Birthday, 1989 book by Marc Brown, which is among 45 titles pending reviewA title in the Arthur children's book series is facing a potential ban after a conservative activist claimed that it damaged souls".On 12 July, Bruce Friedman, a member of the Clay county school district community in Florida, filed a challenge to Arthur's Birthday, a 1989 children's book by Marc Brown about a fictional brown aardvark whose birthday falls on the same day as another party of a different classmate. Continue reading...

Mass protests by ordinary people against the man who was Trumpian before Trump are part of a worldwide struggleBeware the strongman leader who fears jail. Donald Trump is running for president in part because he sees a return to the White House as a literal get-out-of-jail-free card: reinstalled in the Oval Office, he would be able to pardon himself for the mounting pile of serious federal crimes for which he is indicted. His legal strategy is his political strategy.But the exemplar of the phenomenon is the man who was Trumpian before Trump: the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. It is Netanyahu - and the war he is currently waging against his own country - whom all those who care about the wider future of democracy should be watching. For Israel has become the test case in the global fight against ultranationalist populism.Jonathan Freedland 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...

Florida Rights Restoration Coalition says governor has caused confusion and fear despite amendment that lifted lifetime banA voting rights group in Florida filed a lawsuit against rightwing governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, saying his administration created a maze of bureaucratic and sometimes violent obstacles to discourage formerly incarcerated citizens from exercising their right to vote.Florida voters in 2018 overwhelmingly passed a constitutional referendum, called amendment 4, that lifted the state's lifetime voting ban for people with felony convictions. Continue reading...

De Oliveira was a valet, maintenance worker and more recently a property manager at Trump's resort, Mar-a-LagoCarlos De Oliveira was added as a third defendant in Donald Trump's complicated classified documents indictment on Thursday. He faces charges such as trying to obstruct justice, concealing records and documents, and making false statements to the FBI.The case, which concerns the former president's handling of top secret documents, also includes Waltine Nauta, Trump's personal valet and bodyman". Continue reading...

Peaches Stergo, 36, handed four-year prison term after pleading guilty to charges she swindled 88-year-old man in New YorkA Florida woman who stole nearly $3m from a Holocaust survivor through what authorities described as a romance scam must serve more than four years in prison, a federal judge ruled.Peaches Stergo, 36, received her sentence on Thursday in federal court in Manhattan, after pleading guilty to wire fraud in April. She was arrested in January on charges that she stole $2.8m from an 88-year-old man who, investigators said, fell for a prolonged ruse which ended in 2021. Continue reading...

Ty Cobb, who represented Trump in Mueller investigation, says classified documents case is tight' after new charges filedA former Trump White House lawyer said the evidence against the former president over his handling of classified documents was now overwhelming" and would last an antiquity", after new charges were filed in the case on Thursday.I think this original indictment was engineered to last a thousand years and now this superseding indictment will last an antiquity," Ty Cobb told CNN. This is such a tight case, the evidence is so overwhelming." Continue reading...

Greg Abbott has been accused of pushing a US-Mexico border policy that is racist and inflammatoryRightwing Texas governor Greg Abbott is conducting a border policy that is criminal" and inhumane" by deploying razor wire and a huge floating buoy in the Rio Grande, a top Texas Democrat has told The Guardian.Abbott has earned widespread condemnation from civil rights groups and immigration activists for his actions on the border and been accused of pushing a policy that is racist and inflammatory. The US department of justice has sued over the issue - though Abbott is currently defying the federal government and not changing tack. Continue reading...

As Le Jeux de la Francophonie begin in Kinshasa, questions must be asked about the event's value and France's role in African affairsWith a joyous rumba-filled opening ceremony, the 10 days of Le Jeux de la Francophonie begin on Friday in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Staged every four years since 1989, and aimed at people aged 18 to 35 from French-speaking countries, the games include photography, dance and painting alongside weightlifting, running and cycling. It is presented as a utopian vision of a world where the French language is shared and not imposed - a fiction too many go along with. Continue reading...

Editors like me are accused of brainwashing' children. But I simply strive to bring books into the world that let trans children know they aren't aloneEvery day, there's a new, terrible development from those attempting to restrict trans life. From laws in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia that are denying trans-related healthcare to minors (and in some cases, adults), to federal laws restricting trans inclusion in sports, to a law in Tennessee that's expected to be replicated in other states, which would charge publishers with a class 3 felony for publishing books for children that they deem obscene" (which probably means having queer- and trans-related content, in their eyes), one doesn't have to look far to see the actions of those who would bar trans people from public life, or any kind of life.At the center of a lot of the LGBTQIA+ debates have been books that introduce young people to the ideas of queerness and transness. These books have been banned in some states, taken off library shelves in others, decried by rightwing pundits who think teaching children about natural variations in life such as transness is corrupting" them. Continue reading...

Election workers in rural Spalding county, Georgia required to hand-count each ballot after false claims about voter fraudA rural Georgia elections office run by Republicans who promote falsehoods about the 2020 election approved a motion on Monday to institute automatic hand recounts for all future elections.The decision will require elections staff in Spalding county to hand-count each ballot, then compare those vote totals with totals reached by voting tabulation machines provided by the secretary of state. Hand counts slow certification of election results and are less reliable than tabulations carried out by machines. Continue reading...

Canine officer fired after allegedly ignoring other police not to release dog on man stopped for a missing mudflap on his truckA shocking case of an Ohio police officer who released a police dog on an unarmed Black man who had his hands raised has thrown the use of canines by law enforcement back into the national spotlight in the US.On Wednesday, the Circleville police department announced that the officer, who has been identified as Ryan Speakman, had been terminated effective immediately", New 5 Cleveland reported. Continue reading...

Former president's legal exposure in classified documents case grows. Plus, Singapore executes woman for first time in almost two decades

You're more likely to die taking a selfie than in a shark attack: as oceans warm, we need to get used to close encountersSilly season is upon us and sharks are dominating the headlines again. As a marine conservationist, if I see another headline along the lines of Menacing man-eating shark lurking off the coast of Britain" accompanied by a photo of a basking shark - a species that exclusively consumes plankton - I think I might scream.It seems all a shark needs to do these days is push its dorsal fin above the ocean waves and panic immediately ensues. Just this week, that's exactly what happened off the French coast. A blue shark - a species typically found in the open ocean with an extremely low record of unprovoked attacks on humans - was spotted close to the shoreline. Instant drama ensued, with lifeguards closing the beach and swimmers watching on from the water's edge. What is it about sharks that makes us lose our minds?Hannah Rudd is the author of Britain's Living Seas: Our Coastal Wildlife and How We Save It, a marine scientist at Shark Hub UK, and policy and advocacy manager at the Angling Trust Continue reading...

Brittney Griner's ordeal in a Russian prison highlighted the risks of pursuing a basketball career overseas. A new league hopes to solve the problemCandace Parker spent the prime of her career as most WNBA players do, rushing back and forth across the United States during the league's season while representing her country in international competition and playing club basketball overseas during the offseason, supplementing her domestic income with significantly higher paydays in Russia, China and Turkey.Until she didn't. Parker signed a lucrative TV broadcasting deal with Turner Sports in 2018 as an analyst and commentator for NBA games, allowing her to stop playing overseas and to even take a pay cut to join the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces last offseason. Parker made a reported $7m in off-court earnings alone in 2022 by leveraging her charismatic personality and platform as one of the greatest hoopers of all time. Continue reading...

I've just about mastered the body roll. Very chuffed!

Prosecutors bring additional charges against former president as Mar-a-Lago worker Carlos De Oliveira named as third defendantFederal prosecutors on Thursday expanded the indictment against Donald Trump for retaining national security documents and obstructing the government's efforts to retrieve them, unveiling new charges against him and an employee over an attempt to destroy surveillance footage.The new charges - filed by the special counsel Jack Smith in Florida - were outlined in a superseding indictment that named Mar-a-Lago club maintenance worker Carlos De Oliveira as the third co-defendant in the case. Trump's valet Walt Nauta was previously indicted for obstruction with the former president last month. Continue reading...

Tony Klein, 38, convicted of 21 of 23 federal charges and could face life imprisonmentA former nurse at women's prison in Oregon was found guilty of sexually abusing nine women while they were in custody.Tony Klein, 38, was convicted of 21 of the 23 federal charges, including 17 counts pertaining to sexual assault and four of making false statements under oath in a deposition. Continue reading...

But Jeddah's demands for brokering an Israeli-Palestinian respite are reportedly a non-starter' and a sucker's bet'The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has held talks with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in Jeddah, in what was reported to be part of a bid for an ambitious and far-reaching diplomatic breakthrough in the region.The White House said Sullivan and the prince discussed on Thursday initiatives to advance a common vision for a more peaceful, secure, prosperous and stable Middle East region interconnected with the world". Continue reading...

Spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre says no possibility of president pardoning son, who pleaded not guilty to tax charges WednesdayJoe Biden will not pardon his son Hunter on tax- and gun-related charges, the White House said on Thursday.At a briefing, the press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, was asked: From a presidential perspective, is there any possibility that the president would end up pardoning his son?" Continue reading...

CDC issues warning over alpha-gal syndrome, red-meat allergy primarily associated with lone-star tick salivaUp to 450,000 Americans may have been affected by a potentially life-threatening red meat allergy caused by ticks as many doctors remain unaware of what it is or how to treat it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.In new reports released on Thursday, the CDC found that between 96,000 and 450,000 Americans since 2010 may have been affected by alpha-gal syndrome. The syndrome, also known as a red meat allergy or tick-bite meat allergy, stems from alpha-gal, a sugar molecule not naturally present in humans. Instead, it is found in meat including pork, beef, rabbit, lamb and venison, as well as products made from mammals including gelatin and milk products. Continue reading...

Kristi Maris, who worked at school for 19 years, lost job after going to show in her own time and posting it on social mediaA veteran teacher was fired by a private Christian school in Texas for attending a drag show in her own time and posting about in on social media.Drag performances have become a popular recent target for numerous Republican-controlled states that have proposed or enacted laws restricting or criminalizing such shows. Continue reading...