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The diagnosis blindsided me but it explains why I feel the need to shout to be heard over background noiseYes, I frequently asked people to repeat themselves. Yes, I had trouble hearing dialogue on TV. And I often wondered if people were aware that they mumbled. That wasn't the impetus to get my hearing checked though. What got me to the doctor was that I was having trouble eavesdropping at work. I was sure there had been a time when I could hear conversations that didn't concern me.Even though I had made the appointment, I figured it was sinus trouble or perhaps my ears needed syringing. But my GP said my ears were clear and didn't even mention my sinuses. Instead she did a simple hearing test that involved rustling some paper in one ear while whispering in another. She asked me to repeat what she had whispered and I think I replied: Did you say something?" I left with a referral to an audiologist.Rachael Groessler is a freelance content and copywriter from Brisbane Continue reading...

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talking to reporters after a summit with European leaders in London, sought to move the conversation forward from his difficult meeting with Donald Trump and signalled Ukraine's readiness to sign a minerals deal. Zelenskyy said he did not think the US would stop its assistance to Ukraine, because as 'leaders of the civilised world' they would not want to help Vladimir Putin, the Russian president. 'As regards to salvaging the relationship, I think our relationship will continue,' he told reporters via a translator after the London meeting

Emergency unfolds amid warnings throughout south-east over dry and windy conditions that exacerbate wildfiresFire officials on Sunday were battling to contain the blazes ravaging North and South Carolina, which have forced evacuations in some areas.The emergency unfolded amid warnings throughout the south-east over dry and windy conditions that exacerbate wildfires. Continue reading...

Israeli media reports Israeli American Trump donor will fly Eli Sharabi to Washington DC to meet president this weekFreed Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi has been invited to Washington to meet Donald Trump this week, his brother told Israeli media on Sunday.Sharabi, who was released from Gaza after 16 months in captivity, expects to meet Trump with other freed hostages on Tuesday, after the US president watched him describe the severe hunger and violence he endured on Israeli television. Continue reading...

That is a fluid situation,' Howard Lutnick says in first indication that administration may not impose full tariffsDonald Trump's commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said on Sunday that US tariffs on Canada and Mexico will go into effect on Tuesday, but the president would determine whether to stick with the planned 25% level.That is a fluid situation," Lutnick told the Fox News program Sunday Morning Futures. Continue reading...

Sanjeev Kumar accused of abusing four women, medical fraud and reusing unsanitary devices arrested in MemphisA gynecologist who is accused of sexually abusing four women in Memphis, Tennessee, and reused unsanitary medical devices in unnecessary procedures was arrested on Friday.Sanjeev Kumar, 44, was charged with sexual abuse, medical fraud and illicitly reusing unsanitary medical devices after he enticed four women to travel across state lines to his clinic, where he subjected them to sexual abuse under the guise of medical procedures. Continue reading...

Donald Trump's threats to global tax reform have backfired, leaving the US isolated as nations push ahead with a new UN tax conventionDonald Trump's Oval Office tirade on Friday laid bare his instinct to harangue and bully those - even supposed allies such as Ukraine, fighting for its survival- who dare to disagree. Countries pushing global tax reform at the UN will be watching as US demands for subjugation play out in plain sight. His day-one threat to punish nations taxing US firms is an all-out attack on global fiscal cooperation. If multilateralism in taxation was already on shaky ground, Mr Trump's return could bury it for good.Under discussion is a new UN tax convention that may permit states to tax economic activity where it actually occurs, rather than allowing multinationals to shift profits to tax havens. The Tax Justice Network (TJN) said last year that nations lose $492bn (390bn) annually due to corporate tax abuse. The global south bears the greatest losses, which undermine public services like health and education. If enacted, the convention would create a legally binding framework requiring multinationals to pay tax where they employ staff and do real business - not where they stash profits. This would replace the outdated arm's-length principle with unitary taxation, ensuring fair profit allocation. It would mean an end to Amazon, Google and Apple putting billions through lower-tax jurisdictions while extracting wealth from higher-tax ones. Continue reading...

Senator responds to Republicans' pro-resignation remarks after Ukrainian president's heated meeting with TrumpIndependent US senator Bernie Sanders has dismissed as horrific" claims that Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy may have to resign after a diplomatic meltdown in the Oval Office with Donald Trump.Sanders' comments, in an interview with NBC's Meet The Press on Sunday morning, served as a retort to pro-resignation remarks from his fellow US senator Lindsey Graham, which in turn had been affirmed by the Republican House speaker Mike Johnson. Continue reading...

They faced violence and racism as they fought on the frontlines for justice and equality. Now Trump is reversing the progress they toiled forCarolyn McKinstry knows about the dangers of extremism in America. She lived it.McKinstry was the Sunday school secretary at the 16th Street Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, when the church was bombed by white supremacists on 16 September 1963, killing four Black girls - Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Roberts, all 14, and 11-year-old Cynthia Wesley. Continue reading...

Supporters of Ukraine protested against the Trump administration across the US on Saturday, condemning the treatment of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, in a combative White House meeting the previous day

The US president has no interest in countering aggressors. His short-termist game plan will cost America dearThe White House meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be remembered as far more than just a diplomatic disaster. It marked the end of international politics as we know it, and was a harbinger for the sunset of Pax Americana. Zelenskyy, reeling from the meeting, arrived in London on Saturday to attend a defence summit with other European leaders. Thanks to Trump's performance, those leaders now have clarity on where the US government stands on the war in Ukraine - and, more broadly, on how US foreign policy may look in future.It is hard to overstate what a departure this is. Since the end of the second world war, the US has been the primary architect and guarantor of an intricate network of global institutions anchored by Nato, the World Trade Organization, and the International Monetary Fund. Together, these partners crafted a security umbrella whose benefits far outweighed its expense. It produced political stability and provided US and European companies with unrivalled access to markets and resources. The US was all too happy to share the gains of this order with its allies, and, to a lesser extent, with its rivals and adversaries.Olga Chyzh researches political violence and repressive regimes. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto Continue reading...

Russia's foreign minister also praises Donald Trump for his commonsense' aim to end the war in Ukraine

In Twentynine Palms, California, these business owners have gained more than a job - they've built a sense of identityThe California desert, for 28-year-old Madie Chapman, was a shock to the system.Chapman became a desert resident last summer, when her husband, a field radio operator, was stationed at the Twentynine Palms combat center, the largest US Marine Corps training base in the world. Within just a few months of receiving orders, the couple moved with their three young children to the secluded outpost near Joshua Tree national park, joining the thousands of other active-duty service members and their families who live there. Continue reading...

President of the NAACP New York state chapter fought tirelessly for voting rights, fair housing and educationHazel Dukes, the president of the New York state chapter of the NAACP and lifelong civil rights advocate, died Saturday at the age of 92.Dukes peacefully passed away in her New York City home surrounded by family, her son, Ronald Dukes, said in a statement. Continue reading...

Resistance to any proposals remains speculative until administration lays out its plan for the federal agencyAfter the postmaster general, Louis Dejoy, a former Trump fundraiser and logistics executive appointed during the president's first term, announced last month that he was stepping down, defenders of the US Postal Service (USPS) concerned that the 249-year-old institution could soon experience the slice and slash of Elon Musk's department of government efficiency" scimitar have expressed alarm.Donald Trump is reportedly preparing to dissolve USPS's bipartisan board of governors and place the agency under the control of the commerce department secretary, Howard Lutnick, the Washington Post recently reported. Continue reading...

A Guardian analysis shows that vehicles were allowed to approach Bourbon Street despite safety plans in years leading up to deadly attackLocal government officials in New Orleans, which endured an intentional, deadly truck ramming attack on its most famous street during New Year's Day celebrations, have not shut down vehicular cross traffic on that street during major events nearly 90 times - evidently failing to fully enact public safety plans that they touted ahead of the gatherings, a Guardian investigation has confirmed.In many cases, cars and other vehicles were allowed to cross the street for the entire period that the city's press releases said they would be forbidden from doing so. And during all but a handful of days, officials failed to place any physical barriers that would prevent motorists intending to attack crowds there from turning in either direction on to Bourbon Street, a one-way thoroughfare, leaving pedestrians vulnerable to terrorists for many years. Continue reading...

Trump and others have called for an end to clock changes. But our body clocks are all different - and ignoring them takes a tollIn a week, we will spring forward to daylight saving time. Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy all recently shared their desires to end the biannual flip-flopping of our clocks. The Republican senator Rick Scott recently reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act, which would lock our clocks on daylight saving time. Scientists, meanwhile, urge us to adopt the opposite: permanent standard time.The DST debate is heating back up. But all this chatter is, once again, largely missing the point-an omission particularly glaring for an administration that claims to be seeking greater efficiency. Continue reading...

The great replacement' theory, human sacrifice and torture videos: Tom Homan's talk with Tucker Carlson offered a grab bag of far-right talking points

The president's least favorite biographer again exposes the grotesque pettiness of Trump as he willed his way back to power

Maintaining pace with the US president's wild outbursts and the mind-boggling media reports about him is no laughing matterThe smelly thoughts of Donald Trump bubble up like brown burps in the sort of bombsite pond Chopper bike-riding children were advised to avoid in 1970s public information films. Do they indicate concrete plans, are they designed to provoke, or do they have no meaning, like the gurgles and gasps that can inadvertently escape from a decomposing corpse? My job here is to try to anticipate if anything Trump says or does is likely to be of any lasting significance and to satirise it accordingly, in the small window of time allowed, for money. And it isn't getting any easier. Yes, Ukraine is suffering, but I am the real victim here.For example, last Saturday Trump opined: We were the richest... think of this, from 1870 to 1913... because we collected tariffs... We had so much wealth. Wouldn't it be nice today? Of course, now, we give it away to transgender this, to transgender that. Everybody gets a transgender operation. It's wonderful. We give it away to crazy things. But in those days, it was different. It was a different world. It was a different country."Stewart Lee tours Stewart Lee vs the Man-Wulf this year, with a Royal Festival Hall run in July Continue reading...

The US continues to roll back trans, gay and abortion rights, and the UK is not immune to any of itI type this through nervous laughter but, haha, should we all be learning how to perform abortions? Just in case? Should we all perhaps, have a little stash of mifepristone in our makeup bags, a secret number in our phone? Something is happening in the US that requires our attention. Hard-earned rights are being erased and the speed at which history is being rewritten there does not bode well for our freedoms here. We are already seeing dark reflections in the glass. This month the Observer reported how British anti-abortion campaigners are echoing US vice-president JD Vance. He claimed our new buffer zone laws, preventing protests outside abortion clinics, were an attack on the liberties of religious Britons", shifting focus away from the reason they were implemented to a debate about freedom of speech.Buffer zones (intended to protect staff and women using the clinics) are being targeted in a careful campaign by conservative Christian groups such as the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a group that wants to ban abortion, opposes same-sex marriage and, in the US, has helped at least 23 states pass legislation barring trans athletes from girls' and women's events as well as drafting legislation restricting gender-affirming treatment for minors. With only 1.4% of adolescents in the US identifying as transgender, LGBTQ+ rights groups accused the ADF of whipping up a panic" over decisions better left to doctors, teachers and parents. Continue reading...

At such a juncture of history, Hollywood must deliver its best: melodrama, conspiracy, dreams - not to mention the filmsThere is a common complaint among film buffs that cinema, dominated by superhero fantasies and blockbuster franchises, isn't what it used to be. They look back misty-eyed to the 1940s heyday of the studio system or to the 1970s rise of the counterculture auteurs as celluloid golden ages that are destined never to be repeated.It is, then, a rebuke to the naysayers that the 97th Academy Awards boasts a full array of compelling genres: steamy melodrama, political conspiracy thriller, science-fiction action and disaster epic. Continue reading...

On the streets of Windsor even some who don't like the US president say the UK can't afford to fall out with America'The pageantry of a state occasion is something Joanna Chin usually enjoys. She stood on Thames Street in Windsor, outside the castle, to celebrate the Queen's 90th birthday and Harry and Megan's wedding. Will she come out for PresidentTrump?I can't stand the man," she said. It's difficult to even believe it's happening - that somebody like that can be president of the United States. He's dangerous." Continue reading...

Playing music that is as smart as it is successful, Brit winners made articulate calls for artist development - while host Jack Whitehall was brilliantly riskyThe Brits has long been in the business of underlining success; upsets and shock wins aren't really the point. If they seemed moderately more exciting in 2025 than in years past, that's partly because Jack Whitehall is a better, riskier, funnier host than anyone else offered the job in recent years - he mocked Stormzy for his promotion of McDonald's, made a joke about amyl nitrate and called Coldplay the musical missionary position" - and because 2024 was a vintage year for mainstream pop, dominated by music that was characterful and hugely successful.If Charli xcx - and producer AG Cook - hadn't been lavishly rewarded for her agenda-setting album Brat, you would have wondered what had gone wrong: likewise Chappell Roan, whose ardent emotion both in and out of the recording studio makes her one of pop's most cheering recent developments: she responded to her two awards with acceptance speeches that called upon the music industry to offer more long-term development support to artists - a theme also picked up on by Myles Smith, winner of the rising star award - and shouted out the trans community and sex workers. Continue reading...

Case is seen as early test of scope of presidential authority as Trump seeks to rein in federal agencies' independenceA US judge on Saturday declared president Donald Trump's firing of the head of a federal watchdog agency illegal in an early test of the scope of presidential power likely to be decided at the US supreme court.US district judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington had previously ruled that Hampton Dellinger, head of the Office of Special Counsel who is responsible for protecting whistleblowers, could remain in his post pending a ruling. Continue reading...

Protesters took to the streets in New York, Los Angeles and Boston, with hundreds gathering to express support for Ukraine and its president- key US politics stories from Saturday at a glanceThe disastrous meeting between US president Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday has catalysed a series of pro-Ukraine protests across the US.Protesters took to the streets in New York, Los Angeles and Boston, with hundreds gathering to express support for Ukraine and Zelenskyy. Continue reading...

Demonstrators surge in Vermont, New York City and Boston after Oval Office debacle with US president and vice-presidentProtests against the Trump administration erupted across the US on Saturday following an unprecedented Oval Office clash, wherein Donald Trump and JD Vance escalated tensions with Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.Hundreds of protesters gathered in Waitsfield, Vermont, on Saturday morning to oppose the vice-president's visit to the state for a ski trip with his family. Continue reading...

Latest federal lawsuit so far applies only to 10 men detained in the US and facing transfer to the naval base in CubaCivil rights attorneys sued the Trump administration Saturday to prevent it from transferring 10 undocumented immigrants detained in the US to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, their second legal challenge in less than a month over plans to hold up to 30,000 people there for deportation.The latest federal lawsuit so far applies only to 10 men facing transfer to the naval base in Cuba, and their attorneys said the administration will not notify them of who would be transferred or when. As with a lawsuit the same attorneys filed earlier this month for access to people already detained there, the latest case was filed in Washington and is backed by the American Civil Liberties Union. Continue reading...

Officials say minerals deal would serve as commitment to US security guarantee and Ukraine leader shouldn't have pressed issueInside the Trump White House, officials blamed the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for the meltdown in the Oval Office on Friday, and expressed frustration that he pushed for security guarantees even though the US had made clear they wanted to negotiate that later, according to people familiar with the matter.The officials had told their Ukrainian counterparts in advance of the meeting that Trump wanted to sign an economic partnership this week at a ministerial level, as aides worked on the details about security guarantees. Continue reading...

Democrat resigned as governor three years ago after being accused of sexual harassment and Covid mismanagementFormer New York state governor Andrew Cuomo on Saturday announced a run for mayor of New York City, an attempt to come back from a sexual harassment scandal that forced him to resign more than three years earlier.Cuomo, 77, served as governor from 2011 to 2021, guiding the state through the worst, deadliest months of the Covid-19 crisis. But he was forced to resign in August of his final year as governor when an investigation commissioned by the New York attorney general, Letitia James, found he had sexually harassed at least 11 women during his time in office. Continue reading...

With or without the US, Europe must learn to defend itself, and Ukraine, against Russian aggressionThe treatment of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, by the US president, Donald Trump, during what appears to have been a staged confrontation in the White House in front of the world's press, marks one of the most profoundly shocking moments in US diplomacy in decades.In this crass and deeply disturbing performance, the wartime leader of a democratic European country that is fighting against an illegal invasion by Russia, which has seen its citizens killed and cities bombed indiscriminately, was subjected to a vicious, ignorant and mendacious attack that was designed to humiliate. Continue reading...

Drop the pretence: instead of parading a love of highbrow literature, just enjoy the books you want to readToughen up. It's the end of the line for soft, middle-class authors. Lefty-baiting headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh has declared that gentle parenting" advice books by middle-class writers are sabotaging families by insisting adults become friends with their children.She's probably got a point - most mums and dads have watched with a cocked eyebrow as a Boden-clad parent has tranquilly informed little Johnny that punching another child in the face while playing in the sandpit might not be what they like" - but I say Birbalsingh is not going far enough. Why stop with theparenting books? Why not fillet the whole damn bookcase of toxically middle-class ideas? Visionaries such as Chairman Mao have tried it before - with, admittedly, mixed results - but this time we'll do it right. Continue reading...

Cargo aircraft caught fire after striking bird shortly after departure from Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday morningA FedEx cargo airplane caught on fire after striking a bird shortly after the plane's departure from Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday morning, according to officials.There were no injuries reported onboard, and the plane made an emergency return to Newark Liberty international airport. Continue reading...

Trump and Vance, I think, never really intended to have a conversation with Zelenskky. Instead, they wanted to look tough on TVThe last time Donald Trump did this, it was in secret, and he got impeached over it. In 2019, Donald Trump, on a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, demanded that the Ukrainian president produce - or fabricate - evidence of wrongdoing by Hunter Biden, the son of Trump's eventual opponent in the 2020 election, in exchange for continued US military aide.At the time, Russia had already seized control of the Ukrainian region of Crimea, and was funding violent insurgent groups in the country's east; it was increasingly clear that a full-scale Russian invasion was coming, as it finally did in 2022. Since the end of second world war, it has been America that checks Russian expansionist ambitions in Europe - America that provided the backstop to the Nato alliance, America that secured the independence of eastern Europe. Trump wanted to condition that longstanding role on Zelenskyy doing him a personal political favor. The international order could be ended, he suggested, if those who depended on him didn't do enough to indulge his vanity, self-interest and impulsive whims.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

The showdown between the US president and the Ukrainian leader dumbfounded various outlets and politicosOne television star turned president visits another far more powerful one on a stage set and attempts to introduce a plot twist of sorts. What could go wrong?The high-stakes White House showdown that unfolded on Friday after the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, demanded US security guarantees was deemed a damaging setback to Donald Trump's goal of forging a peace deal - and a win for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin - by some US political commentators. Continue reading...

The USA manager probably wasn't thrilled with the Americans losing the SheBelieves Cup, but there were significantly more positives than negativesThe United States women's national team did not win the 2025 SheBelieves Cup, but this was the first time that failure to lift the trophy didn't make for a disappointing tournament. While Emma Hayes probably wasn't thrilled with her team's performance in a 2-1 defeat to Japan, there were significantly more positives to take away from the competition than negatives.Central midfield was the area of the pitch where Hayes likely learned the most about her players, and came away with the most optimism for the future. That's where 17-year-old Lily Yohannes and 19-year-old Claire Hutton both turned in excellent performances. And just as important as their individual level, they looked as if they could form a perfect partnership in the future.[Yui] Hasegawa in the middle of the park is probably the best pivot in the world at both the domestic and international level, and our pivot is 17 years of age and has played in three caps. So we have to be patient too, in our expectations. Continue reading...

In a fast-moving crisis, the EU hasn't been nimble enough. The onus must fall on coalitions of the willing' to stop a US-Putin carve-upAt moments of great crisis, national leaders and governments generally put their countries' (and their own) interests first. Transnational geopolitical, economic and security alliances are all very well. But if such organisations do not or cannot rise to the urgent challenges of the day, they risk being bypassed, ignored or shunted aside. This is the predicament now facing the European Union.After Donald Trump's appalling treatment of Volodymyr Zelenskyy in full view of the watching world on Friday night, all agree that the US president's betrayal of Ukraine, sickening embrace of Russia and his blunt demand that Europe henceforth defend itself represent just such an extraordinary challenge, and one that must be swiftly addressed. Continue reading...

Program is apparently being closed according to email from former Tesla engineer installed in GSAAn Elon Musk ally installed in the US government said in a late night email going into Saturday that the office behind a popular free online tax filing option would be shuttered - and its employees would be let go.The 18F office within the General Services Administration (GSA) created the IRS Direct File program that allows for free online tax filings. It has been a frequent target of Musk, and one of the billionaire businessman's close associates who holds a key position in the GSA informed staffers that the agency would close 18F in an email to staffers that arrived around 1am on Saturday morning. Continue reading...

As his goons root through the innards of the US government, Tesla sales are plummeting, the cars are being defaced and owners are ashamedExtreme wealth has always played a role in democracies. Money has always talked, especially in the US. Years ago, Lawrence Lessig, the great legal scholar, calculated that most of the campaign funding for members of Congress and aspiring politicians came from one-twentieth of the richest 1% of Americans - about 150,000 people. This is about the same number as those who are named Lester" and explains the title of his book: The USA Is Lesterland.But that particular corruption of American politics only involved billionaires like the Koch brothers playing organ-grinders to congressional monkeys. The obscene wealth generated by the tech industry has catapulted a new organ-grinder into the heart of the machine. He was able to pay his way in with a spare quarter of a billion dollars that he happened to have lying around. And now the wretched citizens of the US find themselves living in Muskland. Continue reading...

Asking federal staff to bullet point their achievements would be easier to scorn, were my own to-do tallying not so compulsiveWatching Keir Starmer with President Trump in Washington last week was a bit like watching an indulgent grandparent deal with a miscreant child. When the prime minister produced his invitation from King Charles - This is unprecedented!" he said delightedly, of what will be Don's second state visit to the UK - I half expected him to follow up with a Lego model of the White House, or a special Trump Pez dispenser and a year's supply of cola-flavoured sweets for it.Alas, I'm unable to be equally scornful of Elon Musk's edict to federal employees that they tell him in an email of five things they accomplished in the last week. Oh yes, it's silly. Who'll look through these, and how will they check the enclosed bullet points aren't the work of the office satirist? But as a compulsive list-maker myself, my outrage is on the muted side. Sheepishly, I shuffle my notebooks, their closely written pages so replete with determination, wild ambition and pathos, I come off like some tragic hybrid of Adrian Mole and Martha Stewart. Continue reading...