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Groups have created incubator of policies that would restrict ballot access and amplify election fraud claimsThree of the most prominent rightwing groups which spread election denial lies and advocate for restrictions on voting rights in the US have joined forces in a secret attempt to woo top election officials in Republican-controlled states.Led by the Washington-based conservative thinktank the Heritage Foundation, the groups have created an incubator of policies that would restrict access to the ballot box and amplify false claims that fraud is rampant in American elections. The unstated yet implicit goal is to dampen Democratic turnout and help Republican candidates to victory. Continue reading...

Despite everything, Trump now seems more likely to secure the Republican nomination. He’s still the sun around which the Republican party orbitsReporters were lined up outside overnight, hoping to get one of just a handful of press seats in the courtroom. Protesters arrived, too, both supporting and opposed to the former president, and the cops corralled them into separate pens. By mid-morning, the scene on Centre Street in lower Manhattan had become crowded, chaotic and carnivalesque. Anti-Trump liberal protestors chanted “Lock him up!”, mimicking Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan in a delighted display of sinking to your opponent’s level.Pro-Trump protestors donned aviator sunglasses and their trademark red hats, and led confused cries of, “USA! USA!” Someone had handed out whistles, transforming the scene into a discordant, echoing cacophony. There were cameras outside Trump Tower in Midtown to film when he got into his motorcade to go to the arraignment, and there were cameras there outside the courthouse, to watch him get out of the car and walk inside.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

And it’s just the first of possibly many charges against the ex-president, the only US head of state to be charged with a crimeFormer president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments he made through his allies to hide extramarital affairs in the weeks before the 2016 election.As prosecutors in the New York courtroom reiterated, the issue wasn’t just that Trump directed these payments that put him at fault, but that the timing of them likely changed the course of his campaign and paved the way for Trump to interfere with election results for two cycles. And the criminal charges were only part of the picture when it comes to Trump’s election meddling, and the threats he has posed to US democracy. Continue reading...

Beset by natural disasters, a pandemic and a steep drop in student population, the island’s schools look to the federal government for helpThis story on schools in Puerto Rico was produced by the Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.There was little her family could salvage. Just a few plastic chairs, some photos, her school uniform. Continue reading...

Former president appeared subdued in New York, only to return to his inflammatory ways in Florida. Plus, the campaigners using using dating apps to boost voter turnout

The close ties between Poland’s ruling Law & Justice party and the church appear to be alienating votersThe Catholic church in Poland is close to an existential crisis. For one of the most Catholic countries in the world, and the homeland of Pope John Paul II, this is unprecedented. Poland is not becoming an atheist country overnight, but the trend is indisputably towards secularisation, especially among younger Poles. This will have significant political consequences for the ruling national conservative Law & Justice party (PiS), which has close ties with the church. Meanwhile, the country’s next parliamentary elections are due to take place this autumn.The Catholic faith has long been one of the distinctive pillars of Polishness, and played an important role in the nation-making process. In times of partitions, Nazi occupation and communism, the Catholic church portrayed itself as a bastion of resistance in the long quest for Polish independence. After 1989, it regained the land and property it had lost after the second world war, with a substantial increase, and returned to a primary role in the public sphere. There were often clergymen present at various secular celebrations (such as the opening of McDonald’s restaurants) or to introduce religion classes at schools.Dr Maria Skóra is a research associate at Institut für Europäische Politik, and a policy fellow at the Berlin-based thinktank Das Progressive Zentrum. She writes on politics for Social Europe and POLITYKA Continue reading...

Period poverty is widespread in the US, and Covid worsened the crisis. Yet it remains ‘shrouded in stigma and shame’Lynette Medley wasn’t usually shocked when a client divulged they’d done something illegal. As a sexual health therapist in Philadelphia, she focused on supporting vulnerable low-income people who engaged in risky and even criminal behavior. But she was appalled – and flooded with memories – when a young woman confided that she worked as a sex worker so she could afford to buy basic hygiene products, including tampons.“How is this still happening?” Medley thought to herself. “I had to go through this pain. My daughter had to go through this pain – and nothing seems to have changed.” Continue reading...

Kenneth Faried’s talent earned him a slot on the Team USA roster and a $50m contract. But he found himself on the outside as NBA tactics changedKenneth Faried is around 7,200 feet above sea level. At times, though, the former Team USA starter and Denver Nugget, he has felt much lower. His G League season with the Mexico City Capitanes concluded in late March, the team narrowly missing the playoffs. But Faried played well, averaging 11.3 points, 9.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists on the year. Still, he remains far from his ultimate goal. Many NBA fans probably remember the “Manimal” and his ferocious blocks and dunks. From his rookie year in 2011, Faried defied expectations. At 6ft 8in, he rebounded in traffic like an 8-footer. But now, he’s working to get back to the league after the game changed under his feet. For a player known for his hustle, the question remains, can he chase down another chance? And can he do so ahead of 9 April, the last game of the NBA regular season and the final day to amend rosters? He’s trying. But the road can be unrelenting.“For me, it was the depression,” Faried tells the Guardian, speaking about the ups and downs he’s gone through since leaving the NBA in 2019. “You go into depression. I went into depression. I had to seek therapy.” Continue reading...

While there’s not even a theoretical bar to prosecuting a president once they leave office, Alvin Bragg has bravely taken a standTrump’s prosecution is a triumph. Not a shame. Not a tragedy. A triumph ⁠— one of the great events in American presidential history. The public and the pundits might disagree by the end of Trump’s trial in Manhattan ⁠— perhaps the first of a few ⁠— but the significance of what district attorney Alvin Bragg has managed to do will be wholly unsullied, in substance, by the outcome of his case.One of the major questions in American political and legal thought has been whether presidents may be allowed to commit crimes. As it stands, the position of the Justice Department is that they may ⁠— for half a century, it has held that a president cannot face criminal prosecution while in office. And while there’s not even a theoretical bar to prosecuting a president once they leave office, no one had ever tried it, leaving the question of whether criminal laws functionally apply to presidents at all, as a practical matter, a matter of speculation.Osita Nwanevu is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

The former president appeared subdued in New York, only to return to his campaigning, inflammatory ways hours later in Florida

Many on the right liken the legal battle to an attack on democracy itself and have made threats to the district attorneyTo Republicans across the US, the charges unveiled in a New York courtroom against Donald Trump were not just the start of the latest legal battle in the life of a man who has known no shortage of them, but an attack on democracy itself.“Today is the day of the real insurrection,” tweeted Mark Levin, the conservative radio host whom Trump reportedly dined with after the indictment was announced last week. Continue reading...

Meanwhile, Stormy Daniels sells ‘#TeamStormy’ gear and sellers flood eBay and Etsy with novelty merchOn a day of non-stop news alerts offering minute-by-minute updates on Donald Trump’s arraignment, subscribers to Trump’s mailing list received one more breaking alert: “NEW ITEM, MUGSHOT.”An email sent to Trump supporters showed merchandise in the former president’s official store: a plain white T-shirt featuring a clearly doctored photo of the former president getting booked. A fake chart behind him gave his height as 6ft 5in. Underneath his photo were the words “NOT GUILTY”, printed in big block letters. Continue reading...

Tanner Cook, 21, was reportedly playing joke on man at Virginia mall when victim of prank shot him in abdomenA popular US YouTube creator who prides himself on making videos in which he displays odd behavior to put people off intends to keep at it, even after one of his targets allegedly shot him nearly to death.Tanner Cook – who regularly makes videos of himself pranking strangers for nearly 40,000 subscribers of the channel Classified Goons – was reportedly playing a practical joke on a man at a mall in the Washington suburb of Dulles, Virginia, at about midday on Sunday. A friend was recording him when things took an almost deadly turn, according to authorities as well as an interview Cook gave to the local TV station WUSA. Continue reading...

The problem is not moral decay. It’s the withering away of our living standards, security and wellbeingIf there is such a thing as an onward march of human progress, it has not just halted, but screeched into reverse. Last autumn, a little-discussed report issued by the United Nations noted that human development had declined in 90% of countries for two years in a row, a fall without precedent for more than three decades. The pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine played their role, but so too did “sweeping social and economic shifts, dangerous planetary changes, and massive increases in political and social polarisation”.You may well be familiar with chatter about “the decline of the west”: it has tended to be the preserve of the reactionary right, who blame, variously, moral decay, multiculturalism and a reassessment of European history for our downfall. But it is not minority rights, diversity or acknowledgment of western crimes to blame. The turnaround in our collective fortunes has been dramatic. But it is driven by an economic system that promised personal freedom but instead delivered insecurity on a mass scale, and which has has hurt us in every conceivable way, from our emotional and physical wellbeing to our material circumstances.Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Opponents say memoir The Courage to be Free, published in February, violates law governor signed last yearDemocrats in Florida are attempting to use a state law that censors books in public schools against the governor who signed it, Ron DeSantis, by asking schools to review or ban the Republican governor’s own book, The Courage to be Free.“The very trap he set for others is the one that he set for himself,” Fentrice Driskell, the Democratic minority leader in the Florida state house, told the Daily Beast. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed. You can read our full story on Trump’s arraignment here.After listing off a number of grievances, attacking those involved in the multiple investigations and criminal cases against him, and rambling a number of of-repeated falsehoods about the 2020 elections, he walked off stage.The speech was in many ways a standard performance, but shorter. Continue reading...

Donald Trump has delivered a 25-minute speech after his New York arrest where he listed long-held grievances and complaints about the several investigations he is facing before briefly addressing the indictment. Trump repeated falsehoods about the nature of the accusations he is facing, and personally attacked the prosecutors and investigators leading the cases

The former president’s appearance in a New York court house dominates front pages from Europe to Britain and the US on WednesdayDonald Trump’s historic appearance before a New York court on Tuesday has dominated global media, with the former president’s not guilty plea receiving wall-to-wall coverage across TV, newspapers and online.The Guardian says, “Trump pleads not guilty to 34 charges in hush-money case”, with the paper highlighting the judge’s order that the former president refrain from rhetoric that could cause civil unrest. Continue reading...

Abortion rights, redistricting and election rules were at stake in decision affecting key swing stateIn a historic election, the liberal judge Janet Protasiewicz is projected to win her race for a seat on Wisconsin’s supreme court. Her win will flip the ideological balance of the state’s highest court, which has been controlled by a conservative majority for 15 years.Elections and democracy observers have called this election the most consequential one of the year, with abortion rights, redistricting and election rules at stake. The race pitted Protasiewicz, a Milwaukee circuit court judge and former prosecutor, against Dan Kelly, a former Wisconsin supreme court justice with ties to election deniers and the far right. Continue reading...

Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records before flying to Florida to address his supporters

Former president charged with falsifying business records in what prosecutors allege was a conspiracy to influence 2016 election

The conglomerate was prevented from offloading its liability to a subsidiary that immediately declared bankruptcyJohnson & Johnson has agreed to pay $8.9bn to settle tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging that talc in its iconic Baby Powder and other products caused cancer, the company said. The amount dwarfs J&J’s original offer of $2bn.The agreement follows a January appeals court ruling invalidating J&J’s controversial “Texas two-step” bankruptcy maneuver, in which it sought to offload the talc liability on to a subsidiary that immediately filed for Chapter 11. Continue reading...

State chair, Nikki Fried, and senate minority leader, Lauren Book, were charged with trespassing at the state capitol in TallahasseeThe chair of the Florida Democratic party and a Democratic state lawmaker were charged with trespassing after refusing to leave a protest in the state capital, Tallahassee, against a bill to ban abortions after six weeks.The Democratic party chairperson, Nikki Fried, and the state senate minority leader, Lauren Book, were among a small group of protestors arrested late on Monday near the state capitol building and charged with misdemeanor trespass. Continue reading...

The former presidential nominee was also the only Republican to vote to convict the ex-president in both impeachment trialsMitt Romney, the former presidential nominee, who as a Utah senator was the only Republican to vote to convict Donald Trump in both his impeachment trials, criticized the Manhattan district attorney’s office for its handling of the hush money case in which the former president pleaded not guilty on Tuesday.“I believe President Trump’s character and conduct make him unfit for office,” Romney said in a statement, as Trump was arraigned. Continue reading...

The ex-president has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Below is the full text, along with a statement of facts in the case Continue reading...

Kristi Johnston, 26, is encouraging potential romantic partners to vote in Tuesday’s critical election – is it working?Kristi Johnston, like many young people, spends a good deal of time swiping left and right on various dating apps. But unlike most people looking for love, this is her job.Johnston, 26, is the national press secretary for NextGen, an organization dedicated to getting out the youth vote. Continue reading...

The former president had promised his fans would go wild when he arrived at court – but really, it was all a bit of an anti-climaxReally, it was all a bit of an anti-climax. Hundreds of pro- and anti-Trump protesters had gathered outside the Manhattan criminal court, and the crowds were expected to go wild as the former president arrived and was taken into the custody.But in the event, few knew Donald Trump had arrived until he was already in the building and under arrest. Continue reading...

Donald Trump has left the Manhattan criminal court, about two hours after arriving there to be arrested and arraigned over charges linked to an alleged 2016 hush-money scheme.The former president once again declined to speak to reporters as he left the courthouse, ignoring shouted questions about how he pleaded in the case. Multiple outlets have reported that Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree

Abortion, election rules, legislative maps at stake in most expensive judicial race in US historyVoters in Wisconsin are casting ballots on Tuesday in one of the most important elections of 2023 – a contest that will determine the ideological balance of the state’s supreme court.The court will probably determine the future of abortion in Wisconsin, as a lawsuit challenging the state’s 1849 ban is already winding its way through the courts. It is also poised to play a hugely consequential role in setting election rules for the 2024 presidential election in Wisconsin, a key battleground state. It could also get rid of the state’s legislative maps, which are so distorted in favor of Republicans that it’s nearly impossible for Democrats to ever win a majority. Continue reading...

Manhattan’s district attorney, Alvin Bragg, confirmed that Donald Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records ‘with intent to defraud and intent to conceal another crime’. At a press conference after Trump’s arraignment, Bragg said the scheme to pay hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels to suppress the story of her alleged affair with the former president ran afoul of multiple laws. He argued his office was obligated to pursue the case against Trump regardless of the former president’s reputation and resources

In the prosaic surroundings of Manhattan criminal court, the show that has enthralled America took its latest captivating turnHe hosted The Apprentice. He played The President. Now, at the age of 76, came the role that Donald Trump had spent his life avoiding: The Defendant.On Tuesday, a single photograph showed Trump sitting in a prosaic New York courtroom with two lawyers to his left and two more to his right. Behind him were two uniformed police officers wearing handcuffs on their belts. One had a police radio on his shoulder, the other a Covid-protective mask over her face. Continue reading...

Five-time champion at Augusta National has not given up hope of competing at age of 47 despite major physical limitationsWhy ask a scorpion why it stings, a lion why it eats red meat, or Tiger Woods whether he believes he can win? Woods has been answering that question in the very same way for the last 25 years now. But on Tuesday someone put it to him again. “This time last year, you said you definitely would not be here unless you thought you had a good chance of winning the tournament. Does that still stand?” And this time Woods’ answer was a little different to the one we’ve grown used to. In fact, for the first time in his life, he didn’t really have one.Woods very deliberately preferred to concentrate on the second part of the journalist’s question, about how his physical condition compared to this time last year, when he scored 71, 74, 78, 78, and finished in 47th place. “I think my game is better than it was last year at this particular time. I think my endurance is better. But my leg aches a little bit more than it did last year.” Continue reading...

Republican legislators introduce resolution to remove trio after they supported protest in wake of Nashville school shootingRepublican legislators in Tennessee have begun the process of expelling three Democratic colleagues from the conservative-controlled house over their support for a gun control protest at the state capitol days after a deadly school shooting in Nashville.On Thursday, hundreds gathered at the capitol to protest against the absence of gun control measures after three nine-year-old students and three staff members were killed at the Covenant school last week, according to a report in the Tennessean. Continue reading...

Donald Trump made his way to a Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday to surrender and be arraigned on criminal charges stemming from 2016 hush money payments. Trump left Trump Tower in a motorcade amid a security lockdown to the court a few blocks away, escorted by the Secret Service. The booking and appearance before Judge Juan Merchan should be relatively brief — though hardly routine — as Trump is fingerprinted, learns the charges against him and may plead, as expected, not guilty. Merchan has ruled that TV cameras will not be allowed in the courtroom. Trump, who was impeached twice by the House but was never convicted in the Senate, will become the first former president to face criminal charges

We want to hear from readers in the US as Trump becomes the first former president to face criminal chargesDonald Trump is appearing in court on Tuesday to hear criminal charges over his involvement in a hush-money scheme during a critical election month. He is the first former US president to face criminal charges.We want to hear from people in the US about their views on the historic moment. What did you think when you heard the news of his indictment? How do you think this will affect his popularity? How does it make you feel about the 2024 presidential election? Continue reading...

CEO’s comments are latest round in bitter feud between governor and state’s largest corporate employer over ‘don’t say gay’ lawDisney’s chief executive, Bob Iger, has lambasted the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, as “anti-business and anti-Florida” in the latest round of a bitter public battle between the Sunshine state’s most powerful corporation and its top elected official.DeSantis and his Republican allies in the state legislature have targeted Walt Disney World, the Orlando-area entertainment resort that employs 75,000 people, since the company spoke out against the controversial Florida “don’t say gay” law curtailing classroom discussion of gender identity and sexuality amid mounting pressure from its employees to take a stand. Continue reading...

It’s true that pets are easier to look after than babies – but their owners have some undeniably strange behavioursHere’s an opinion that will get me locked in a crate and pelted with scented cat litter: pets are more socially acceptable than babies because they’re simply easier to love.Last month, Daunt Books published a new anthology called Dog Hearted, in which 14 writers explore, in beautiful, sometimes funny, often melancholy essays, their relationships to dogs. I’m not sure I can imagine a similar title ever being written about babies. Books about parenting (and I include my own) are all called things such as The Most Awful Thing I’ve Ever Done, or Why Did Nobody Tell Me This Was So Utterly Crap? or How the Hell Did This Happen?Nell Frizzell is the author of Holding the Baby: Milk, Sweat and Tears from the Frontline of MotherhoodDo 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...

As prime minister, she was trusted and liked by voters. Then came allegations that she was a ‘party girl’Competent, reasonable, functioning government doesn’t get much spotlight on the world stage, particularly when there are wars and pandemics going on. So when Sanna Marin took office at the end of 2019, it was noted that, at 34, she was Finland’s youngest ever prime minister, and the fourth youngest state leader in the world. But beyond that, she was sorted into the category “progressive, well-intended, needn’t detain us further”. It is a problem for another day that the left is not really interested in its own side, and the right is only interested in the left when it’s in chaos.Various elements of her tenure went mainly unremarked, therefore: her Covid response, her announcement that Finland would apply to join Nato in May 2022, her social and fiscal policies that we might broadly classify as “the business of government”. It was only in the summer of last year, when video footage leaked of her at a party, that she became a talking point. Knowing what we know now about the interplay between tabloid and social media – the way agendas are set by traditional news outlets, then amplified wildly by new media’s insatiable quest for outrage – it felt more like a witch-hunt. She took a drugs test in the middle of August, and tested negative. Obviously, the long game wasn’t to lock her up: it was merely to bring her down. Continue reading...

It’s ever so convenient that at any given moment the thing you care about is never the thing that’s landing them in troubleWhat do “people in the real world” care about? It is a question as old as failing government itself. Yet, crucially, it is something that you – a person, in the real world – are not cleared to answer yourself. Instead, it needs a politician to inform you what you care about – and, much more frequently and much more dismissively, what you don’t care about. Once these permissible areas of giving-a-toss have been delineated, the politicians who told you what they were can get on with the long process of not fixing them, at the end of which they will tell you that those problems are fake/niche/latte-based because, out there in the world where you never go, people aren’t talking about them.Let’s see this in action. At the height of Boris Johnson’s Partygate furore, one of his cabinet ministers ruled witheringly that none of this stuff was a concern “when you get out into the real world and you talk to real people”. Another high-profile Tory soon joined in the real-worlding, instructing people: “There are many things which matter much more in the real world.” People, so people were told, actually didn’t care about the thing they could be heard appearing to care about on phone-ins, vox pops and across their social media.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Workers trapped under collapsed rubble in trench near terminal 7 pronounced dead at the sceneTwo construction workers were killed in a job site accident at New York’s John F Kennedy international airport on Monday, officials said.The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport, said the two workers were trapped under construction rubble at about 11am. A spokesperson for New York City’s fire department said the rubble collapsed in a trench near the airport’s busy terminal 7. Continue reading...

Stephen Smith was found dead on a highway in 2015 but lawyers for mother say no evidence links death to Murdaugh familyA second autopsy was completed this weekend on the exhumed body of a teenager found dead nearly eight years ago on a South Carolina road, according to the family’s lawyer, after the public attention surrounding Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial boosted a mother’s search for answers in the unsolved case.Lawyers for the mother of Stephen Smith have said there is no evidence linking his death to the Murdaugh family, and state investigators have remained tight-lipped since taking the case around the same time police said Murdaugh killed his wife and son. Continue reading...

Roy McGrath was wanted on corruption charges and manhunt had been launched after he failed to appear for trialAn ex-Maryland governor’s former political aide – who was wanted on corruption charges – died on Monday after he was wounded while being confronted by law enforcement agents, his lawyer said, following a manhunt that was launched when the man failed to appear for trial.Roy McGrath’s death was confirmed by the FBI to attorney Joseph Murtha. Murtha added that it was not immediately clear if McGrath’s wound was self-inflicted or came during an exchange of gunfire with agents. Continue reading...

One of the few sure things in an unpredictable March Madness was the Huskies’ ability to rise above the chaos around themNothing – not dirty hotel rooms, dodgy calamari, a bus burglary or one of college basketball’s most vaunted defenses – was going to deny Connecticut. And so a March Madness tournament that started with talk about parity ended with discussions of dynasty as UConn claimed their fifth national men’s title since 1999.Not that the joy was unconfined. “I’m still thinking about some things,” said the Huskies’ insatiable coach, Dan Hurley, ruminating in an interview room while wearing a “Champions” baseball cap back-to-front. Continue reading...

I’ve always been proud of my home city. To keep that alive I need to know Manchester’s full history, not its redacted oneOne of my favourite places to visit as a child was Styal country park. We were National Trust kids and every weekend my parents would cart my sister and I off beyond the outskirts of Greater Manchester to reap the benefits of fresh air in our lungs and mud under our fingernails. Styal, with its leafy forests and sun-dappled paths winding over the River Bollin, had a certain magic.A key feature of the park was the historic Quarry Bank mill. With red bricks, towering chimneys and functioning water wheel, it is one of the best surviving examples of an early textile mill, and it’s open to the public. I used to love running my hands over the polished wood of the machinery, reading placards about the Industrial Revolution, and marvelling at old pictures of cotton spinning. Continue reading...

Election pits Brandon Johnson, who previously supported defund the police, against Paul Vallas, endorsed by the police unionPollsters and meteorologists are predicting a tempestuous election day in Chicago, the third largest city in the US.The election pits two Democrats from the furthest ends of their party’s spectrum against each other on Tuesday. Public safety is the number one issue and Democrats across the country are watching to see if Brandon Johnson, a progressive who has previously supported the defund the police movement, will defeat Paul Vallas, who nabbed the endorsement of Chicago’s police union and once described himself as a Republican. Continue reading...

The extraordinary scene in Manhattan will mark the first time a former US president will face criminal charges. Plus, why so many Americans hate – and love – the AR-15