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Entrepreneur alleged to have duped Hewlett-Packard into overpaying for software firm in $11bn dealThe tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch has been extradited to the US to face criminal fraud charges, where a court has ordered him to pay a $100m (£79m) bond and called in 24-hour armed guards to ensure he does not flee the country.Lynch, a billionaire founder once lauded as Britain’s answer to Bill Gates, is facing allegations that he duped the US firm Hewlett-Packard into overpaying when it struck an $11bn deal for his software firm Autonomy in 2011. He denies any wrongdoing. Continue reading...

Mass shootings can be contagious, one inspiring another – but do news coverage and social media contribute to the death toll?News coverage of high-profile mass shootings on American cable news has adopted near clockwork patterns: first comes shock and the scramble for information, followed by calls from communities and legislators for new gun restrictions, then reporting and speculation about the motives of the shooter (“Is evil or mental illness to blame?”). The remainder of the time is spent toggling between analysis of why the US sees these shootings so regularly, how the shooter got their gun and which signs of violence could have been noticed earlier.Rinse and repeat. Continue reading...

‘Border is not open,’ warns secretary of homeland security after thousands of migrants cross on to US soil, hoping to be processed before midnight. Plus, five ways AI will change work• Don’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.The US has ended Covid-19 border restrictions that blocked many migrants at the border with Mexico, immediately replacing the Title 42 restrictions with sweeping new asylum rules meant to deter illegal crossings.What is Title 42? In March 2020, under Donald Trump, the CDC issued an order limiting migration into the US, saying it was necessary to reduce the spread of Covid. The order made use of little-used laws dating back more than a century that authorized border officials to immediately remove migrants, including people seeking asylum, overriding their normal rights. Migrant and human rights advocates condemned Title 42 as a ploy to stop immigration. The Biden administration said it wanted to end Title 42 – but in fact tightened restrictions further.What’s next for migrants to the US? Starting on 12 May, asylum seekers will be allowed to request asylum again at the border and will be interviewed by immigration officers. Those who are found to have a “credible fear” of being persecuted in their home countries can stay in the US and go through the immigration court system until a final determination is made. That can take years.What else has happened since? Writer E Jean Carroll is considering suing Donald Trump for defamation again after the former US president made disparaging remarks about her during a televised CNN town hall a day after he was found liable in a civil case for sexually assaulting her.What has CNN said about the town hall? Addressing staff anger over the decision to host the New Hampshire event, Licht saluted what he called a “masterful performance” by Collins, who attempted to cope with Trump’s lies and abusive comments in front of a raucous Republican audience. On an internal call, Licht reportedly told staffers: “You do not have to like the former president’s answers, but you can’t say that we didn’t get them. Kaitlan pressed him again and again and made news … Made a lot of news, [and] that is our job.” Continue reading...

Elizabeth Holmes’ bizarre New York Times interview kicks off the comedown from royal festivitiesIt is not a bank holiday in the US but for those of us who observed the coronation on Saturday, Monday is still very much a day of recovery, not least because in our time zones it all started before dawn. Like the British reluctance to watch US commentary for football matches, no one’s first choice for the coronation was the American networks. Savannah Guthrie in London for NBC News wore a lace-effect top that – nothing like a royal event to flush out one’s most unacceptable opinions – I thought was frankly inappropriate, and the NBC correspondents ran around with huge grins (also inappropriate). Needs must, however, and as it became clear that the BBC, tugging its forelock practically out by the roots, was going to skimp on shots of Prince Harry, it was necessary to switch channels. Continue reading...

Ask the public: do you want more jobs and higher wages, or huge companies making fatter profits by raising prices?The economic goal should be more jobs at higher wages. Right?Yet the Federal Reserve, corporate economists and the Republican party have turned the goal upside down – into fewer jobs and lower wages. Otherwise, they say, we’ll face more inflation.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

Durham, North Carolina, is one of the US’s fastest-growing cities. As house prices boom, can the city prevent the displacement of lower-income residents?

The young New Yorker, who lived with severe mental illness, was known to hospitals, police and social services. Why did the city fail him?Ten years before he was killed on the New York subway, Jordan Neely had a stable routine.Every morning, he would walk across the Washington Bridge connecting the Bronx to Upper Manhattan. In his red Michael Jackson jacket, he was easy to see coming. When he got to the corner store near 181st Street, he’d meet Jony Espinal, a local resident who befriended Neely after recognizing him from online videos. Continue reading...

National Labor Relations Board details slew of complaints and rulings against coffee chain waging fierce anti-union campaignSenator Bernie Sanders accused Starbucks of running “the most aggressive and illegal union-busting campaign in the modern history of our country” when the coffee chain’s founder and former CEO, Howard Schultz, testified in front of a Senate committee in March.The latest figures from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) show just how aggressive that campaign has become as the board has continued issuing complaints and rulings against Starbucks’ response to unionization efforts. Continue reading...

Even where the technicalities of the apparent malfeasance are different, the Republican spirit is the sameWhen news broke on Tuesday afternoon that the justice department was indicting George Santos – the disgraced Republican Long Island congressman whose election to the House of Representatives in 2022 was enabled by a series of lies about his background and elaborate, inventive frauds – it was at first hard to think of just what he was being indicted for. George Santos, after all, is alleged to have been so prolifically criminal in his 34 years that one imagines law enforcement would have a hard time narrowing things down.Would Santos be charged over the fake pet charity he seems to have invented, collecting money for things like surgery for the beloved dog of a veteran, which was never turned over to the animal’s owner? Or would he face charges stemming from his lies about his professional background, like the claim he made during his most recent congressional campaign, wholly false, that he used to work for Goldman Sachs, or his bizarre story, also a fabrication, about having been a college volleyball star?Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

As a child, Mike Africa Jr was a regular at 6221 Osage Avenue in Philadelphia. As the property’s new owner, he’s fulfiling his great-aunt’s dying wishThe last time Mike Africa Jr stepped across the threshold of 6221 Osage Avenue in Philadelphia was almost four decades ago, when he was six years old and went bouncing into the house to greet friends and extended family, eager to play.This time, it was not so easy. On a recent afternoon, he gingerly unlocked the front door using keys he had just acquired and cautiously pushed it open. Continue reading...

Few saw Tennessee as fertile ground for an MLS club but the team has built a loyal fanbase by focusing on authenticityIan Ayre, Nashville SC’s CEO, had never given much thought to working in the US, let alone Tennessee. In fact, after his 2017 departure from the same role at Liverpool, he wasn’t really thinking about soccer very much at all: a decade at his boyhood club had proved as grueling as it was exhilarating. A visit to Nashville and a meeting with the club’s owners changed his mind. Back then, the club was a concept rather than a reality. For Ayre, it was a chance he knew he had to take. “How often,” he asked himself, “do you get a chance to work with a blank canvas?”In December 2017, MLS confirmed Nashville would be awarded an expansion team, who would join the league in 2020 (Ayre joined the team in May 2018). The club’s birth would have seemed almost fanciful a decade prior. But the ambition, and investment, spearheaded by owner John Ingram, an avuncular local industrialist was crucial. Continue reading...

As the US lifts Covid-era immigration restrictions, thousands of migrants have gathered at its Mexican border. Known as Title 42, the policy has blocked those fleeing political and economic crises from the right to claim asylum in the US since the start of the pandemic. It lifted at midnight on Thursday. 'It's going to be chaotic for a while,' said US president Joe Biden earlier this week

Secretary of homeland security warns ‘the border is not open’ after thousands of migrants had crossed onto US soil, hoping to be processed before midnightThe US has ended Covid-19 border restrictions that blocked many migrants at the border with Mexico, immediately replacing the so-called Title 42 restrictions with sweeping new asylum rules meant to deter illegal crossings.Secretary of homeland security Alejandro N. Mayorkas said on Thursday evening that 24,000 border patrol agents and officers had been sent to the border to enforce US laws, adding “the border is not open”. Continue reading...

Border officials expect increase of people trying to cross into US as measure ostensibly to curb Covid-19 lapsesAs the US was set to lift tough restrictions at the US-Mexico border, known as Title 42, on Thursday night, migrants raced to enter the US before pandemic-related asylum limitations are lifted in a shift that threatens to put a historic strain on the nation’s beleaguered immigration system.The major policy shift comes as tens of thousands are stuck in harsh conditions in northern Mexico or risk life and liberty to enter America unlawfully, straining local communities and intensifying political divisions. Continue reading...

High-level meeting in Vienna was ‘candid’, says White House, amid signs tensions could be easingThe White House national security adviser met with China’s top diplomat in Vienna as both sides recognised the need to move beyond the spy balloon incident that caused a rupture in relations between the superpowers, a senior US official has said.The meeting between Jake Sullivan and Wang Yi was not publicised by Washington or Beijing ahead of the talks on Wednesday and Thursday in the Austrian capital. The White House described the wide-ranging discussions, in which the two leaders spent more than eight hours together, as “candid” and “constructive”. Continue reading...

New York congressman was subject of a criminal charge for using two stolen checks to buy items worth $1,350 at a store in NiteroiA day after New York representative George Santos pleaded not guilty to charges in the US, he signed an agreement Thursday with public prosecutors in Brazil to avoid prosecution for forging two stolen checks in 2008.“What would have been the start of a case was ended today,” Santos’ lawyer in Brazil, Jonymar Vasconcelos, told the Associated Press in a text message. “As such, my client is no longer the subject of any case in Brazil.” Continue reading...

The disparaging comments came just a day after the ex-president was found liable for sexually abusing the writerWriter E Jean Carroll is considering suing Donald Trump for defamation again after the former US president made disparaging remarks about her during a televised CNN town hall just a day after he was found liable in a civil case for sexually assaulting her.“Everything’s on the table, obviously, and we have to give serious consideration to it,” Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan told the New York Times about the prospect of a defamation lawsuit. “We have to weigh the various pros and cons and we’ll come to a decision in the next day or so, probably.” Continue reading...

The US homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, has warned people gathered at the US-Mexico border against crossing over in a White House press briefing on Thursday. His speech came as the deadline for the Title 42 immigration order was set to expire. Title 42 was a tough immigration regulation ostensibly intended to mitigate the spread of Covid-19. Addressing reporters he said: 'People who cross our border unlawfully and without a legal basis to remain will be promptly processed and removed.'His statement came as hundreds of people crowded around US border entry points. Mayorkas added that immigration authorities expect 'to see large numbers of encounters' and 'are already seeing high numbers of encounters in certain sectors'

Gay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships can donate without abstaining from sex under updated FDA guidelinesGay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships can give blood in the US without abstaining from sex under updated federal health guidelines that focus on donors’ behavior, not their sexual orientation.The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines finalized on Thursday ease decades-old restrictions designed to protect the blood supply from HIV. Continue reading...

Senate majority leader speaks after Tommy Tuberville of Alabama appeared to defend white nationalists in US militaryThe Democratic US Senate leader, Chuck Schumer, condemned as “utterly revolting” remarks in which the Alabama Republican Tommy Tuberville appeared to defend white nationalists in the US military.In an interview with the Alabama station WBHM, published on Monday, Tuberville was asked: “Do you believe they should allow white nationalists in the military?” Continue reading...

The arcane rule that allows officials to expel migrants at US land borders is due to expire at midnight – what happens now?This week marks the end of a coronavirus-related restriction on claiming asylum that has allowed the US to quickly expel migrants at US-Mexico border since 2020.The rule is known as Title 42, part of an arcane public health law that allows curbs on migration aimed at protecting Americans from disease. Continue reading...

Nina Jankowicz, head of short-lived DHS board, alleges Fox News hosts spread lies about her work and compromised her safetyThe former head of a disinformation group created by the US Department of Homeland Security has sued Fox News for defamation, saying its attacks threatened her safety.In the lawsuit filed on Wednesday, Nina Jankowicz alleged that multiple Fox News hosts spread lies about her work, fueling an internet campaign against her that ultimately led to her resignation and the disbandment of the group. Continue reading...

Chris Licht boasts that network ‘made a lot of news’ in call to angry staff but CNN reporter laments Trump’s ‘firehose of disinformation’CNN bosses have defended their decision to host a primetime town hall with Donald Trump, after triggering widespread outrage by allowing the former president to spout lies and disinformation on subjects from sexual assault to his attempt to overturn the 2020 election.Addressing staff anger over the decision to host the New Hampshire event, the CNN chief executive, Chris Licht, saluted what he called a “masterful performance” by Kaitlan Collins, the anchor who attempted to cope with Trump’s lies and abusive comments in front of a raucous Republican audience. Continue reading...

Recall includes about 2.2m of the Peloton Bikes Model PL01, sold from January 2018 though May 2023 for about $1,400Peloton is recalling more than 2m of its exercise bikes because the bike’s seat post assembly can break during use, posing fall and injury hazards.Shares of Peloton Interactive fell more than 7% in Thursday morning trading. The company’s shares have fallen 39% over the past 12 months, and are about 95% off their highs in late 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading...

The country could finally tear off the straitjacket it has worn for years. But its president is a tiger caught by the tail – what will he do if he loses?This weekend, my country will choose. If the unlikely unity coalition of opposition parties beats the goliath that is President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey will be able to tear off the straitjacket that it has worn for years. If the regime wins, however, we will be mourning a country that once was, that could have been.This is a clash between the forces of autocracy and democracy, between cruelty and basic morals. There is a real chance that Erdoğan will lose because six opposition parties have formed a united coalition, led by the secularist Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Not since the huge anti-government Gezi park protests in 2013 have the people of Turkey put their eternal conflicts to the side like this in order to take on Erdoğan’s palace, which effectively runs everything from the economy to the judiciary. Continue reading...

While the bar for boy birds is high, the bar for boy humans seems pretty low – as seen in a trend on TikTok where men are praised by women for doing … very littleA few nights ago I watched the Netflix nature documentary Dancing with the Birds, about, you guessed it, Abraham Lincoln. Just kidding, it’s about dancing birds! This is why I get the big bucks.While watching the cute profiles of various bird species that all incorporate dance into their mating schemes, I cleverly noticed a running theme. In each case, when it came to the effort of courting and relationships, it was exclusively the male birds that had to put in the work. Continue reading...

Driver, dressed as a Bud Light beer can, was pulled over for suspected drunk driving near Topeka, KansasA man wearing a beer can costume was arrested for alleged drunk driving.Oh, the non-irony. Continue reading...

The days of anarchic, festive demonstrations seem to be over in the face of draconian laws, threatening letters and pre-emptive arrestsLast Saturday morning, it felt strange setting out to take part in the republican protest in London while knowing that its organiser had already been arrested. A queasy mixture of mild shock, anxiety and defiance sat in my stomach all the way to Trafalgar Square. Demonstrators in longstanding authoritarian countries must be used to such sensations, but as someone who since the 80s has done most of their protesting in Britain, this sense that peaceful street politics was no longer necessarily tolerated by the authorities was new and unsettling.When I got to the square, it was reassuring to see that there was still a demonstration, but less so to realise that it was smaller than expected – a few hundred people – and that much of it was squashed into a narrow space between the National Gallery and a huge temporary wall, running almost right across the square, which appeared to have been built that morning specifically to make the protest as invisible as possible. Police ringed the demonstrators, while a constant stream of coronation-goers squeezed past. The usual atmosphere of the square on protest days, as one of Britain’s freest public spaces, was almost completely absent. Instead, the possibility of a crowd crush, more arrests or a confrontation never seemed far away. Continue reading...

Virgil Wheeler, who died in April, verbally agreed deal but made U-turn after learning he would have to register as sex offenderA US Roman Catholic cleric who admitted in criminal court to sexually abusing a child before his ordination backed out of a seven-figure settlement agreement with his victim after learning he would have to register as a sex offender, the Guardian has confirmed.The deacon in question – attorney Virgil Maxey “VM” Wheeler III – died earlier this year after writing a will expressing his desire to donate much of his money to prominent institutions, mostly in the Louisiana community in which he worked. His victim is now calling on the beneficiaries to reject those gifts from his abuser.In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International Continue reading...

Police officers in Oklahoma responding to what they thought was a man in need of aid instead found a very upset goatPolice officers in Oklahoma responding to what they thought was a man crying for help got a surprise on reaching the scene: the anguished cries they heard on a farm near Enid were actually those of a goat.In bodycam footage released by the Enid police department, officer David Sneed told his colleague, Neal Storey: “That’s a person.” Continue reading...

As the star kicks off her Renaissance dates, fans are battening down the hatches and avoiding coverage until she hits their city. Why have gigs become the equivalent of a Marvel plotline?Before I went to bed last night, I already knew that Beyoncé had crawled inside a robotic vagina on the opening night of the Renaissance tour in Stockholm. I knew that she had flown on a bedazzled horse called Reneigh, dressed as a cyber bee in a nod to the BeyHive, opened with a surprising string of ballads, and perturbed fans by apparently not dancing as much as they’d hoped – or was it that she had a leg injury? I was 1,400 miles away and I didn’t even go looking for this information; it just came to me ambiently as I clicked around my regular diet of culture sites. Vulture, Rolling Stone and Pitchfork were among the outlets liveblogging the show through the medium of embedded TikToks and tweets from those at the Friends Arena. My lucky friend Jeff was one of them, posting from the front row: when I watched his Instagram Stories, I too was close enough to almost get a strand of Beyoncé’s wind machine-blown hair in my mouth during Break My Soul.I don’t mind knowing the ins and outs of the Renaissance tour before it hits London later this month. (Admittedly it’s kind of my job to know.) But for many Beyoncé stans, these dispatches are tantamount to spoilers: as if her hair flicks and song segues were plot points out of the latest Marvel film or episode of Succession. Online, many fans are declaring that they’re muting hashtags and any accounts liable to give the game away before they get their own chance to see her in the flesh; our reviewer, in his five-star rave, spoke to one man who had travelled from Brazil in order to get the freshest possible perspective: “I want everything to be a surprise,” he said. Continue reading...

The former US president consistently spread falsehoods, lies and misinformation throughout his town hall hosted by CNN on Wednesday night in front of a crowd of mostly Republican voters in New Hampshire. Trump made false and misleading claims about the 2020 election, the January 6 insurrection, immigration, his border wall, abortion, his sexual abuse trial, the investigation into his handling of classified documents and other subjects. The host, Kaitlan Collins, attempted to interject and fact-check his claims in real time, though many falsehoods got through, as Trump followed his long history of touting baseless conspiracy theories amid his mounting legal troubles

Lies, ridicule and applause from a pliable audience – the ex-president gave the audience what they came for, much to the discredit of CNNOn Wednesday night, Donald Trump demonstrated why he leads the 2024 Republican field. The audience was his from “hello”. The town hall was a prime-time infomercial. Kaitlan Collins, the moderator, was no match. For good measure, he called her a “nasty person” and questioned her intelligence.Lloyd Green is an attorney in New York and served in the US Department of JusticeMoira Donegan is a Guardian US columnistMoustafa Bayoumi is a Guardian US contributing writerBhaskar Sunkara is the president of the Nation, the founding editor Jacobin, and the author of The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in An Era of Extreme Inequalities Continue reading...

A third-grader was found with a loaded gun this week, the fourth time this year the district has uncovered a student with a gunA second Michigan school district has banned backpacks on school premises due to concerns about gun violence, after a third-grade student was found with a loaded gun.Grand Rapids public schools said on Wednesday the weapon was discovered that morning at Stocking elementary school. Continue reading...

At stake in E Jean Carroll’s lawsuit was not whether she would be believed but whether it would matter. Finally, it didIt’s been nearly seven years since the nation heard Donald Trump bragging on tape to Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush about his habit for sexually assaulting women. It’s been seven years since the Republican presidential candidate shrugged off the remark as “locker room talk” – classifying sexual abuse as private, unserious, a prerogative of what he still claimed, then at 70 years old, was his boyish playfulness. It’s been seven years since he won the presidency anyway – a historic humiliation of women that affirmed powerful men’s impunity for sexual abuse, and portrayed Trump’s boorish hostility to women’s dignity as compatible with the solemnity of presidential power. It’s been just over six years since those women poured into the streets in defiant declaration of their own citizenship at the Women’s March, and six years since a wave of anger at the rampant and habitual sexual abuse of women by men exploded into the #MeToo movement.But it took a New York jury less than three hours to unanimously agree that Donald Trump sexually abused the writer E Jean Carroll in a dressing room at a Manhattan department store in the mid-90s, and then defamed her when he said she was lying about it. When the verdict came down, it felt like letting out a breath you didn’t know you were holding.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnistInformation and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html. Continue reading...

Billionaire Sam Zell is the largest mobile home landlord in the US, but his tenants say they reckon with disrepair, neglect, flooding and rising rents. Some have had enough

Residents of the congressman’s New York district say they’re fed up with a system that enables his behavior“It’s like we’re living in madness,” said Danielle Gentile at a Brazilian restaurant in Long Island’s Westbury, one of a cluster of towns close to the eastern border of the fabulist Republican congressman George Santos’s third congressional district.“I know politicians lie all the time, but you’ve got to at least try to keep up,” Gentile added. “But what’s he going to say? I didn’t mean to lie? He’s like the Brian Williams of politics.” Continue reading...

Group tell of determination to fulfil American dream after compatriots were killed when SUV driver drove into bus stopAfter a tragic start to the week and a night of thunderstorms, a group of migrants in south Texas woke up newly determined to fulfill their American dream.Equipping themselves with soapy water, buckets, rags and a lot of spirit, about 30 Venezuelan men on Tuesday began operating a donation-based car washing service in a gas station right next to the border that divides Brownsville, Texas, from Matamoros, Mexico. Continue reading...

Ex-president and frontrunner for Republican nomination fielded questions from voters offering his thoughts on a range of topics. Plus, why the climate crisis is leading to a rise in pirate attacks

We must never stop speaking up on the damage it is doing to Britain’s economy, society, culture and standing in the worldNelson Mandela said: “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” It’s one of many political quotes that I have on my office wall. Sadly, the Brexiters had it on their walls too. They showed how change once thought unthinkable can become the status quo. With the populist virus still rife in the Tory party, with Labour insisting it will “make Brexit work” and the Lib Dems also largely silent on it, it would appear to be the settled will of our politics that the Brexit decision cannot be revisited.But if converting the country to a bad Brexit was possible, so is restoring it to good sense. People by and large accepted the result. They gave the government the chance to show it could work. However, bit by bit, despite the welter of gaslighting propaganda, more and more have learned through direct experience that Brexit is damaging lives and livelihoods. Continue reading...

Aaron Rodgers is hopeful of winning a Super Bowl with the New York Jets. But he has entered a conference packed with stars under centerAaron Rodgers has joined the New York Jets with high hopes of winning a Super Bowl. But by swapping the NFC for the AFC, he has given himself a tough task. Not since the merger has one conference had such a concentration of quarterback talent as the AFC does heading into the 2023 season. And the conference could add another couple of stars if rookies CJ Stroud and Anthony Richardson prove to be hits.Let’s hop around the AFC and sort the quarterbacks into tiers (the rookies are excluded: we’ll wait to see them in the league before passing judgment). Continue reading...

Despite eye-bleedingly steep gym fees, I am actioning my spring fitness plan. It is very much a work in progressIt’s spring in New York, and the trees are vibrantly green – which can mean only one thing: time for my annual week-long obsession with exercise.My history in this area is completely consistent, in that it is reliably unimpressive and rooted in delusion. Over the past 10 years, I have leaned heavily on the phrase “structural exercise” to prop up my belief that I’m in good shape. I run around all day (for which read: back and forth between school drop-off and pickup, with a solid eight hours in a chair in between) and occasionally lift weights in a desultory fashion. Beyond that, I’m prone and staring at my phone.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Penny Mordaunt did a magnificent job at the coronation but that’s no reason to make her leader of the Conservative partyLet’s be honest, the coronation wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But on one matter there was consensus: Penny Mordaunt was simply magnificent. Praise came from the left of politics as well as the right, from the young and the old, from fashionistas and arbiters of good taste everywhere. Even before the newly crowned king and queen had reboarded their carriage, acclaim for the lord president of the privy council was frenzied, feeding off itself. Odds on her becoming the next leader of the Conservatives were slashed; learned articles were penned marking this as the moment we knew she was destined for greatness.Now, if you search her name on Google, the first offering is “Penny Mordaunt sword”. Appropriately enough, given there’s a blade involved, there has been proper cut-through. She has carved a swathe through the whole wide world. Even my Croatian teacher, speaking from Zagreb, asked me about it. She says it’s a sociološki fenomen. She is right. Theses beg to be written.Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Truth didn’t stand a chance as the former president talked too fast to be factchecked and too shamelessly to be interruptedThe nausea came gradually, then suddenly, and with disconcerting familiarity. We had been flung back in time to the political hellscape of 2016. Only the second time around, it was somehow worse.Donald Trump, the former US president appearing on CNN for the first time since that fateful election year, lied and lied and lied. He was a leviathan of lying, a juggernaut of junk, an ocean liner of mendacity that left little boats of truth spinning and overturning in its wake. Continue reading...

Ex-president and frontrunner for Republican nomination fielded questions from voters offering his thoughts on a range of topicsDonald Trump appeared at a CNN town hall on Wednesday night to unleash a litany of lies about the 2020 election and E Jean Carroll’s lawsuit, just one day after a New York jury found the former president liable for sexual abuse and defamation.Trump took questions from a friendly crowd of Republican and undeclared voters in New Hampshire, who often greeted the former president’s divisive comments and gestures toward moderator Kaitlan Collins with laughter and applause. Continue reading...