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The move will test whether the former Democrat can build a centrist base – and also risks splitting votesThe Arizona US senator Kyrsten Sinema is preparing for an independent re-election campaign in a move that will not only test whether the former Democrat can build a centrist base apart from her former party – but may also risk splitting votes among Democratic supporters.Earlier this week, Sinema gathered her team in Phoenix and discussed re-election strategies, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing anonymous sources. Part of the meetings involved Sinema and her team reviewing slideshows that laid out a timeline of her potential run, as well as timing details, according to the Journal which reviewed the slides. Continue reading...

American came close to giving up the game after difficult recovery from knee injury but is in relentless form at AugustaTwelve months ago Brooks Koepka finished the Masters by trying to put his fist through a car window round the back of Augusta National’s caddie hut. He had just signed for a score of 75, which meant he missed the cut and finished in a tie for 59th. “I don’t even know if I should be saying this,” he admitted on Friday, “but I tried to break the back window with my fist.”First time it bounced right off again. So then he tried again, and it still did not break. “Yeah,” he said with a chuckle, “I guess Mercedes makes a pretty good window.” Continue reading...

Conservative justice says he was told ‘personal hospitality’ from mega-donor did not have to be reported, as impeachment calls growThe US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas said on Friday he was advised the “personal hospitality” extended to him for more than 25 years by the Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow, detailed in an explosive report by ProPublica, did not have to be reported under ethics rules.“I have endeavoured to follow that counsel throughout my tenure,” Thomas said in a rare statement, “and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines.” Continue reading...

Proposed rules require any decisions to restrict trans people from competing to involve important educational objectivesThe Biden administration has released a proposal that would forbid schools and colleges across the US from enacting outright bans on transgender athletes competing in sports.But teams could create some limits in certain cases – for example, to ensure fairness, according to the proposal, which did not go into extensive detail about the term. Continue reading...

Nicholas Tartaglione faces life imprisonment after killing of four men over perceived money debtA former New York police officer who shared a jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein at the time of the sex trafficker’s suicide executed four men and then buried them in a mass grave over what he perceived to be a debt of money, federal jurors determined on Thursday.Nicholas Tartaglione faces life imprisonment after being found guilty of the killings of Martin Luna, Urbano Santiago, Miguel Luna and Hector Gutierrez, according to a statement from US justice department prosecutors. Continue reading...

Glossip, who is scheduled to be executed 18 May, was convicted of the 1997 murder-for-hire killing of his bossThe conviction and death sentence for the Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip should be thrown out and a new trial ordered, the state’s new attorney general said on Thursday, as support has grown even among death penalty supporters who say Glossip is innocent.In a filing with the Oklahoma court of criminal appeals, the attorney general, Gentner Drummond, said that although the state is not suggesting Glossip is innocent, the key witness against Glossip lied to the jury about his psychiatric treatment and reasons for taking the mood-stabilizing drug lithium. Continue reading...

Seven people share their views on the former president being charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the hush money caseDonald Trump on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges of falsifying business records in what prosecutors alleged was a conspiracy to influence the 2016 presidential election.It is the first time a former president has faced criminal charges in the US. Later, at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, he addressed friends, family and supporters, listing his grievances against investigators, prosecutors and rival politicians. Continue reading...

Allegations that ex-Barclays boss aided sex trafficking operations run by Jeffrey Epstein labelled ‘baseless but serious’Lawyers working for Jes Staley have accused JP Morgan of “slanderous” attacks against the ex-Barclays boss, saying allegations that he aided sex trafficking operations run by the late billionaire Jeffrey Epstein were “baseless but serious”.Staley’s lawyer made the comments in a Manhattan district court filing as he urged a judge to give his client more time to review thousands of documents related to JP Morgan’s lawsuit against him, and sever that case from two lawsuits lodged against the US bank over its alleged role in aiding Epstein’s crimes. Continue reading...

In an extraordinary act of political retaliation, Tennessee Republicans expelled two Democratic lawmakers, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, from the state legislature for their role in a protest calling for more gun control after a deadly school shooting in Nashville.Banishment is a power the chamber has used only a handful times since the civil war. Most state legislatures are able to expel members, but it is generally reserved as a punishment for lawmakers accused of serious misconduct, not as a weapon against political opponents

Rebekah Jones says 13-year-old, charged over apparent threats to middle school in February, targeted for political reasonsThe arrest of a Florida teenager for allegedly threatening a school shooting has reignited a bitter feud between a former health department analyst fired after she accused the state of covering up Covid data, and Republican governor Ron DeSantis.The 13-year-old is the son of Rebekah Jones, the founder of Florida’s pandemic database, who clashed frequently with DeSantis after her dismissal on grounds of insubordination. Continue reading...

Until we address gerrymandering nationwide, the good news from Wisconsin could be a temporary victoryIt’s been a long time since Wisconsin could feel anything close to hope.More than a dozen years ago – when the first Harry Potter movie still played in theaters, and Katy Perry’s Firework and Bruno Mars’s Grenade topped the pop charts – Republican operatives and lawmakers locked themselves in a Madison, Wisconsin, law office and then locked themselves into power.David Daley is the author of Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count and Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy. He is a senior fellow at FairVote Continue reading...

Joe Biden and Barack Obama condemn expulsion of Justin Jones and Justin Pearson from Republican-controlled state houseTwo Democratic lawmakers have been expelled from Tennessee’s GOP-dominated House, an extraordinary act of political retaliation for their role in a gun control demonstration after the killings at a Nashville elementary school last week.Thousands of protesters have flocked to the Tennessee state capitol to support three Democratic members who were facing removal. Only two of the three were ultimately forced out. Continue reading...

Joe Biden and Barack Obama condemn expulsion of Justin Jones and Justin Pearson from Republican-controlled state house. Plus, why do so many of Forbes 30 under 30 alum face jail?Good morning.Two Democratic lawmakers have been expelled from Tennessee’s GOP-dominated House, an extraordinary act of political retaliation for their role in a gun control demonstration after the killings at a Nashville elementary school last week.What has Barack Obama said about the expulsion? The former president joined in the condemnation, tweeting: “This nation was built on peaceful protest. No elected official should lose their job simply for raising their voice – especially when they’re doing it on behalf of our children.”What have Democrats said? The progressive New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: “This is beyond party or partisanship. This degree of corruption is shocking – almost cartoonish. Thomas must be impeached. Barring some dramatic change, this is what the [chief justice John] Roberts court will be known for: rank corruption, erosion of democracy, and the stripping of human rights.” Continue reading...

Grammy-winning rapper was found dead six months ago at friend’s home in Los AngelesGrammy-winning rapper Coolio died from a fentanyl overdose, his manager said on Thursday, six months after the musician was found dead at a friend’s home in Los Angeles at the age 59.Born Artis Leon Ivey Jr, Coolio was best known for his 1995 single Gangsta’s Paradise, from an album of the same name. Continue reading...

The closure would lead to hundreds of job losses in a community of just under 3,000 people in FennimoreWorkers and union leaders are calling for a boycott of Energizer – the battery maker famous for its “Energizer bunny” adverts – over its plans to shut down plants in Wisconsin and move jobs offshore to Singapore, the UK, and a non-union plant in North Carolina.Using the hashtag #BadBunny the Teamsters union called this week for a protest boycott. “The name of their company is a joke. The only thing they are ‘energizing’ is another economy in another country,” said Teamsters general president Sean O’Brien. Continue reading...

Young players are entering the NBA with more money, fame and playing time than ever before. But they also have less guidance from established veteransShortly before Memphis Grizzles star Ja Morant flashed a handgun inside a strip club on Instagram Live in early March, his team held a players-only meeting. Steven Adams, the 10-year NBA veteran who at 29 is by far the oldest member of the Grizzlies, urged his younger teammates to conduct themselves more professionally on the road after starting the season 12-20 away from home.But the message did not resonate with Memphis’ franchise player. Morant went to the strip club, acted recklessly, and was given a suspension for his actions. Continue reading...

Ex-CEO Charlie Javice, 31, is just the latest from the magazine’s list to see criminal chargesJust a few years ago, Charlie Javice was riding high. In 2019 the tech CEO landed a spot on Forbes’s 30 Under 30 list for her work on a startup called Frank, which she described as “Amazon for higher education”. What does that catchy but completely empty phrase mean? It means Frank helped students navigate the financial aid process. It was apparently so successfully at doing this that JPMorgan Chase acquired the company for $175m in 2021 and Javice was made a managing partner at the bank. The entrepreneur shared the news on LinkedIn, boasting that in just four years Frank had grown to serve “over 5 million students at over 6,000 colleges”.Turns out those numbers might have been just a teeny bit exaggerated. On Tuesday Javice, 31, was charged by the justice department with “falsely and dramatically inflating the number of customers of her company” in order to get JPMorgan Chase to buy it. According to the lawsuit, Frank only had about 300,000 clients and fabricated data to show a larger customer base. She enlisted a data scientist to make up a few million customers, basically, and JPMorgan, which has about 240,000 employees and pays its CEO $34.5m for his expertise, didn’t seem to spot this in its due diligence. Continue reading...

We can all learn from an episode in which one MP allegedly called another a ‘crybaby’ and parliamentary TV caught the reactionsIt has been described as “everyone’s worst nightmare” and a “wrong group-chat horror”, which you might think a bit melodramatic – only if you’ve never experienced it yourself.As it is, political scandals are rarely so relatable. New Zealand’s Green party is in highly public turmoil after one politician sent a message seeming to criticise a colleague to a group of their other colleagues, apparently by mistake. Continue reading...

The adult film star sat down with Piers Morgan for 1.5 hours, saying the former president should be ‘held accountable’In her first major interview since Donald Trump’s indictment, Stormy Daniels has said that while she wants the former president to be “held accountable” she doesn’t believe he should go to prison.“I don’t think that his crimes against me are worthy of incarceration. I feel like the other things that he has done, if he is found guilty, absolutely,” Daniels, 44, said in an interview with Fox Nation’s Piers Morgan released on Thursday. Continue reading...

Jon Rahm four-putted the first but recovered to shoot 65, sharing the lead with Brooks Koepka and Viktor Hovland after day oneAs if making two holes-in-one on consecutive holes in yesterday’s par-three contest wasn’t achievement enough, Seamus Power nearly emulates Louis Oosthuizen’s 2012 albatross on 2. He creams his second downhill from 239 yards to five feet, and tidies up for the first eagle of the week. He’ll be given some lovely crystal by the committee for that; more importantly, having started with a bogey, he’s also now got a share of the lead at -1.Meanwhile, apropos the aforementioned CBS theme, here’s Dan O: “Just making sure you’re aware of this. It’s pretty awful but also kind of cool? I only just heard it last year and still can’t really believe there’s a version with lyrics.” It is difficult to believe, yes. Nevertheless, all together everyone, you know the words: ♬ It’s the legions of Arnie’s Army and the Golden Bear’s throngs / and the wooden-shafted legend of Bobby Jones♯ Continue reading...

The five-times champion had some good moments in his first round, but too many mistakes led to a two-over-par finishIt’s an odd truth that if you’ve got to ask someone who it is you’re watching at Augusta National then you already know the answer. At a quarter-to-ten, half an hour before Tiger Woods was even due on the 1st tee, the crowd was packed four or five deep down the length of the fairway, and three times as thick again up by the clubhouse. So anyone who arrived hoping to see him afterwards needed to be awfully comfortable up on their tip-toes, or else try to find a vacant pine tree root to perch on so they could peer over everyone else’s heads.After all these years, Woods is still the only man in the field here who draws a gallery like that. Catching a glimpse of him has become as much of a Masters tradition as buying a pimento cheese sandwich or posing for a photo out round the back of the clubhouse. It’s one of the things every daytripper wants to cross off their list. They don’t much mind whether they’ve caught him playing a particularly good shot or not, his five-foot pars earn the same sort of roars as other people’s ten-foot birdies. Continue reading...

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemns ‘shocking corruption’ after ProPublica report details luxury items from top Republican donorClarence Thomas, the most conservative justice on the US supreme court, is facing renewed calls for impeachment after it was reported that for two decades he has accepted undisclosed luxury gifts from a Republican mega-donor.Thomas may have violated financial disclosure rules when he failed to disclose travel on yachts and jets and other gifts funded by the property billionaire Harlan Crow and uncovered by ProPublica. Continue reading...

Threatening calls, emails and letters to Juan Merchan and his family come following arrest of ex-president in hush money caseThe New York judge who presided over the arraignment of Donald Trump and the judge’s family have reportedly received multiple threats following the historic arrest of the former president.In court in Manhattan on Tuesday, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts related to his hush money payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels. Continue reading...

For too long, the plant world has laughed at our puffy faces and runny noses. Finally there’s a plan to stop themWe should all realise by now that nature hates us. Plants use their roots to whisper among themselves, according to the latest research, conspiring underground, plotting our destruction. They “prompt their neighbours to grow more aggressively, presumably to avoid being left in the shade”. That sounds like a rather charitable presumption to me. We underestimate their capacity for nefarious scheming at our peril. And they save their nastiest trick for this time of year.We fall for it every time. “See how pretty we are!”, they say. “Wonder at our divine colours, marvel at our sublime textures; how delicate is our beauty! Love us.” It is an act of the damnedest subterfuge, for this is the time of year they also just happen to start bellowing out their Powder of Deep Suffering, which they would rather we call pollen. And we’re supposed to believe this is some kind of coincidence?Peter Ormerod is a journalist with a particular interest in religion, culture and gender Continue reading...

Jane Rosenberg was one of three permitted sketch artists during the hearing involving the ex-president on TuesdayThe next cover of the New Yorker will feature a drawing of Donald Trump at his arraignment on felony charges this week – the first time a courtroom sketch has graced the cover of the famous magazine.Jane Rosenberg was one of three permitted sketch artists during the hearing involving the former president at the Manhattan criminal courthouse on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Senator Ted Cruz among those backing repeal of law criminalising homosexual conduct was ruled unconstitutional in 2003Texas lawmakers are edging closer to repealing the state’s sodomy ban, two decades after the law was ruled unconstitutional.A state house committee voted unanimously on Wednesday to pass a bill that would repeal the 1973 law criminalising homosexual conduct, which has been unenforceable since it was deemed unconstitutional by the US supreme court in 2003. Continue reading...

Pretending wellness is a matter of personal choice is a convenient way for society to uphold systems of oppression

Nephew of JFK and son of former attorney general launches long-shot challenge to Biden for Democratic nominationRobert F Kennedy Jr, an anti-vaccine activist and scion of one of the most famous American political families, is running for president.Kennedy, 69, filed a statement of candidacy on Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission. Continue reading...

‘Abortion trafficking’ law mandates up to five years in prison for acting without parental consent even when child has been rapedThe Republican governor of Idaho, Brad Little, signed a bill into law on Wednesday that makes it illegal for an adult to help a minor get an abortion without parental consent.The law is the first of its kind in the US, creating a new crime of “abortion trafficking”, barring adults from obtaining abortion pills for a minor or “recruiting, harboring or transporting the pregnant minor” without the consent of the minor’s parent or guardian. Continue reading...

Georgia representative calls city ‘a terrible place’ after visit to support Donald Trump at court appearanceThe far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene risked stoking the wrath of New Yorkers for a second time this week, calling their city “disgusting”, “filthy”, “repulsive” and a “terrible place”.“I compared it to what I called Gotham City,” the Georgia Republican told Fox News. “The streets are filthy, they’re covered with people basically lying, on drugs. They can’t even stand up. They’re falling over. There’s so much crime in the city. I can’t comprehend how people live there.” Continue reading...

US firm reportedly seeks to buy more than 30% of FGS in deal that would give it enterprise value of about $1.4bnThe US private equity investor KKR is in talks to buy a stake in the public relations company FGS Global that would give it an enterprise value of about $1.4bn.KKR was in talks to buy more than 30% of FGS, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, although a person with knowledge of the talks said the final proportion may be lower. Continue reading...

Hours after his court appearance, it was clear ex-president’s political calculus remained unchanged. Plus, can ChatGPT make me a healthier, happier, more productive person?

As a historian, I see how the voices of enslaved people have been excluded from history. Now we must listen and respond to their descendantsOn 27 March 2007, nearly 450 years after Elizabeth I sponsored John Hawkins’ slaving expeditions to west Africa, Elizabeth II attended a service in Westminster Abbey to commemorate the bicentenary of Britain’s abolition of the slave trade. Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, delivered a sermon focused on slavery’s “hideously persistent” legacies. “We, who are the heirs of the slave-owning and slave-trading nations of the past, have to face the fact that our historic prosperity was built in large part on this atrocity,” he said.Moments later a Black protester dashed in front of the altar, disrupting the service with shouts of “This is an insult to us!” Her face impassive, Queen Elizabeth watched as security guards struggled with the protester, Toyin Agbetu, founder of the pan-African human rights organisation Ligali. As he was forcibly ejected, Agbetu pointed at the queen and yelled: “You, the queen, should be ashamed! You should say sorry!” In keeping with her own protocol and that of her namesake, Elizabeth I, whose motto was video et taceo (I see and keep silent), Queen Elizabeth said nothing. Continue reading...

Groups had stopped work funding out-of-state travel for abortions due to threats from Republican attorney general Ken PaxtonWhen the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade last June, Kamyon Conner sat at her desk and sobbed.As executive director of the Texas Equal Access Fund – a nonprofit based in north Texas that helps patients pay for their abortions – Conner was forced to shut off the group’s hotline for the first time in its nearly 20-year history. That meant cutting off a critical avenue for hundreds of largely low-income people of color to afford essential out-of-state care. Continue reading...

From tailing helicopters to photographers perched on ladders, the ex-president enjoyed a disproportionate amount of footage – againDonald Trump’s dramatic arrest and arraignment in New York City on Tuesday posed a conundrum for the media.Should they follow the case closely, knowing how Trump-drama boosted viewership, readership, and revenue during his presidency? Or cut off the free airtime and exposure Trump craves, and limit the potential for the former president to twist the arrest to his own benefit? Continue reading...

The ‘catch and kill’ practice at the heart of the New York indictment shows how the former president used the mediaAs a reality TV star, as a would-be business mogul, as a political candidate and as president, Donald Trump always counted on the news media to do his bidding.When he said “jump”, he expected reporters to respond: “how high?” Continue reading...

Cristal, 31, was one of many to speak up against sexual violence in federal prison, but at the end of her sentence was taken by IceIn early 2022, Cristal came forward about the horrific sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of multiple guards at the federal prison in Dublin, California – one of dozens of victims to speak up about misconduct.Today, rather than being reunited with her family after completing her sentence, she’s in immigration detention, awaiting deportation to Mexico – a country she left as a baby. Continue reading...

A watchdog complaint filed with the IRS presents an accounting of the money paid to Leonard Leo’s for-profit businessesLeonard Leo, a rightwing legal activist, has raked in more than $73m over six years from nonprofit groups that may be diverting money illegally to his businesses, according to a watchdog complaint seen by the Guardian.Leo is a hugely influential figure said to have been the chief curator of supreme court nominees when Donald Trump was US president. The devout Catholic is a staunch opponent of abortion rights. Continue reading...

The goalkeeper didn’t play football seriously until he was 14. He reflects on his time at the World Cup, Arsenal’s title challenge and family visitorsMatt Turner’s football journey is not what you might call traditional. He didn’t start playing the game until he was 14 – and that was because he wanted to stay in shape for basketball and baseball. Even then, he only played in goal when another player went down with an injury. From there he has progressed from MLS standout to Arsenal to USA’s starting keeper at last year’s World Cup. But he always wants more, something that is clear when he looks back at the team’s performance in Qatar.“There’s a hunger,” Turner says, reflecting on the US loss to the Netherlands in the round of 16. In the group stages, they had impressed with their style of play and went toe-to-toe with England in a 0-0 draw. The Americans had also achieved the main objectives born in the wreckage of the disastrous qualification campaign for the 2018 World Cup: make it to Qatar and reach the knockout stages. Continue reading...

Players on both sides of golf’s divide appear to be attempting to bury the hatchet for the duration of competition at AugustaNothing around Augusta National is exactly what it seems. You’ve maybe read, here and elsewhere, all the old stories about the place. Those bird noises you hear on the TV coverage? They say they’re dubbed in by the broadcaster. That azure water in the ponds? The groundskeepers are supposed to dye it just the right hue of blue. And all that immaculate grass? The whisper is they spray paint the bare patches. The club have always refused to confirm or deny any of it. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain, just enjoy the azaleas and have another cup of iced tea.This year, though, the atmosphere here feels even more unreal than usual. For this week, at least, someone seems to have called off the uncivil war that’s split the sport between the rival tours. Seems those famous southern manners are infectious. Continue reading...

The risks inherent in the technology, plus the speed of its take-up, demonstrate why it’s so vital that we keep track of it

The old showman was angry, dull and mired in grievances when he went to court. His supporters had to supply the funIt is a mark of Donald Trump’s enduring grip on our nightmares that in the run-up to his court appearance on Tuesday the dominant conversational tone in New York wasn’t one of schadenfreude, but anger – and not exclusively towards Trump. On public radio that morning, pundits speculated that publicity around the case had re-energised Trump’s base.I found myself muttering that this whole thing was a mistake. Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, had brought charges that were too thin, too obscure, too trivial in comparison with the real harm done by Trump. By summoning the circus back into town, Bragg had, effectively, said Beetlejuice three times, and now we would all have to suffer the consequences. Continue reading...

Meg O’Neil pushed 21-year-old to safety but was pinned beneath falling ice blocks from frozen waterfall on SundayA woman has died after pushing her fellow ice climber to safety as they tried to climb a frozen waterfall in Utah, according to authorities.In a statement released on Tuesday, the Duchesne county sheriff’s office said that it received reports on Sunday of an ice column falling as a group of three ice climbers tried to climb Raven Falls, a frozen waterfall near Indian Canyon in central eastern Utah. Continue reading...

China has said it would take ‘resolute’ measures to defend sovereignty, after denouncing Tsai’s meeting in California with McCarthy