The retail chain is winding down US operations after years of struggles, having earlier filed for bankruptcy in 2019Forever 21's US operator on Sunday filed for bankruptcy for the second time in six years and said it would wind down operations in the country, hurt by mounting online competition in the fast-fashion sector and weak mall traffic.The company blamed the situation on higher costs and foreign companies taking advantage of duty-free treatment of low-cost packages from China to undermine its pricing power. Continue reading...
State plans to carry out first judicial killing in 15 years on Tuesday using technique critics call inhumaneLouisiana is preparing to carry out its first execution in 15 years using a gassing method that is banned under the state's own laws for euthanizing cats and dogs.Barring a last-minute intervention by the US supreme court, Jessie Hoffman, 46, is scheduled to die by nitrogen gas on Tuesday at Louisiana state penitentiary, commonly known as Angola prison. He was sentenced to death for the 1996 rape and murder of an advertising executive, Mary Elliott. Continue reading...
The California governor is seeking to reposition himself for a possible 2028 presidential run. This isn't the way to do itGavin Newsom's choice of guests - a parade of rightwingers - on his new podcast might seem baffling.After all, the California governor is seen as a mostly progressive Democrat from a very blue state whose reputation is that of a coastal elite. That's the kind of person the American right, and plenty of centrists, love to hate, as we learned once again when Kamala Harris lost the presidential race to Donald Trump. His image is that of a rich, pretty boy who probably thinks jumper cables are just oversized iPhone chargers. Continue reading...
In our rainbow family, there are two dads and a mum - but the law in the Netherlands only recognises two of usOur daughter is very much on board with the idea that, unlike her, many other five-year-olds don't have two fathers and a mum. Only has one dad," she'll remark in a confidential tone of a newly made friend at the trampoline park or the swimming pool.My husband and I live in Amsterdam, a short cycle from our daughter's mum, who is a longstanding mutual friend. Our daughter's time is split between the two households. We are just one of many rainbow families in the Netherlands, where parents (often, a gay male couple and a single woman, or a lesbian couple) choose to have and raise children in constellations of more than two adults. The Dutch have a proud history of championing gay rights - it was back in 2001 that Amsterdam's then-mayor presided over the world's first same-sex marriages - and families such as ours have long been embraced here. And yet, from a legal point of view, we are unseen and, consequently, disadvantaged.Mark Smith is an Amsterdam-based writer Continue reading...
Exiles fleeing Putin's repression in Russia and other post-Soviet states find a harsh welcome when arriving statesideFor most of the four years of Joe Biden was in office, citizens of Russia and other post-Soviet states seeking asylum in the US were generally released into the country while they awaited hearings on their claim in immigration court.But since last summer, many have been detained upon entering the US, and some of them have been held for more than a year, lawyers, activists and detainees say. Some children have been separated from their parents. Continue reading...
The Russian and US presidents will discuss a Ukraine ceasefire plan, as the EU aims to ramp up pressure by insisting the ball is in Russia's court'. Plus, how the Irish are ruling pop culture
Planned missiles on Kyushu said to be part of counterstrike capabilities', as fears grow over US security pactJapan is planning to deploy long-range missiles on its southern island of Kyushu amid concerns around the Trump administration's stance towards its security pacts and continuing regional tensions.The missiles, with a range of about 1,000km, would be capable of hitting targets in North Korea and China's coastal regions, and are due to be deployed next year in two bases with existing missile garrisons. They would bolster the defences of the strategically important Okinawa island chain and are part of Japan's development of counterstrike capabilities" in the event it is attacked, according to reports from Kyodo News agency, citing government sources. Continue reading...
Women's goods are taxed at a higher rate than men's, an invisible bias that is estimated to cost women $2.5bn a yearMany shoppers know about the so-called pink tax - a needless markup on products marketed to women, even if those products are essentially the same, just cheaper, when sold to men. Personal care items such as razors, deodorants and shampoo fall into this category. But shoppers may be less aware of pink tariffs", or taxes on imported goods labeled as women's items".Pink tariffs are one reason women's clothing tends to cost more than men's at the checkout counter, and why some women might buy sweatpants or oversized sweaters technically made for men" - it could save them some cash. Continue reading...
Like other middle-aged women, my wardrobe is predominantly made up of black, loosely fitting clothing, often worn backwards. I'm glad to see us represented in the witchcore trend.It's time," the New York Times says, to start dressing like a witch." I don't think this headline filled me with joy just because it was one of the few not to give me palpitations and a 20-point blood pressure spike; I'm genuinely excited to read that witchcore is coming.Despite wearing the same grubby sweatshirt five days a week, I love finding out what florid, fever dreams fashion has cooked up: can it ever top Balenciaga spring/summer 2023, when furious-looking models trudged through mud in giant boots, like teens forced to walk the family dog in winter? This report suggested the current round of shows were less out-there, but brimming with good news for the middle-aged homeworker. There is, reportedly, a very witchy vibe to the entire season", exemplified by the Tom Ford show and the upsettingly named fashion house Matieres Fecales (fecal matter).Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
The US president is condemning waste' and firing workers - while cashing in by traveling to his own resortsIt's no secret that Donald Trump loves to golf, especially at his own resorts. But Trump's habit is costing US taxpayers tens of millions of dollars - even as he decries fraud and claims to slash waste in federal spending.Since he took office, Trump has fired tens of thousands of federal workers and tried to shut down agencies, part of his effort to unilaterally dismantle the government. He has also made seven trips to Florida and the golf courses he owns there. Continue reading...
The last time a player from a historically black college made the NBA was in 2010. Work is underway to open up the pathway to the prosIn the coming weeks, tens of thousands of people will attend the Final Four of the men's and women's NCAA Tournaments. They'll pack into raucous arenas and argue with strangers about the merits of college basketball stars - and then celebrate victory or mourn defeat with those same strangers hours later. At the center of the commotion and excitement will be eight teams, young men and women who are among the best in their sport.But there will be another group of athletes in San Antonio at the same time as the men's Final Four is played there, and it will include the best basketball players from historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The 48 players - 24 men and 24 women - are not going to be in Texas for the Final Four, but instead will compete in the 2025 HBCU All-Star Game & Experience, a six-day event that culminates in back-to-back championship matches on 6 April. Continue reading...
US immigration has become a machine of surveillance and fear. We're already seeing the consequencesThis month marks 22 years since the creation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).Created in the wake of 9/11 under the guise of national security, Ice was supposed to target real threats. Instead, it has become a machine of mass surveillance, indiscriminate arrests and fear-based enforcement that does little to keep us safer. Over the years, the harshest post-9/11 policies were rolled back after proving ineffective. But today, we are watching history repeat itself. Continue reading...
US president Donald Trump said he ordered the launch of military strikes against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis over the group's attacks against Red Sea shipping. Trump promised to use 'overwhelming lethal force' until the rebel group ceased their attacks on shipping along a vital maritime corridor.
It's time to open up your big fat mouths and push back against fatphobiaA strange paradox about being fat is how, at the same time as people can't seem to see past your fatness, you can also somehow be invisible. For some, your fatness becomes the only thing about you, the only quality you have. My fatness causes adults to laugh or sneer or hurl abuse in the street, or to say horrible depraved things online. Strangers hate my extra flesh so much that they can't help but regularly inform me about it as I'm tweeting, walking home, standing in a mall, ordering a drink at a bar - or once, entering my own front door.I can't remember every one of the numerous public incidents but I do remember the first time it happened. I was a (lonely) 14-year-old waiting for the bus with a bunch of other kids at 8:30am, and men drove past and shouted WHALE" at me. It was humiliating, it was stupid (I am clearly a land animal), and in my memory it was the sharp beginning of my life in a fatphobic world. It was the beginning of fatphobia fundamentally changing who I was, who I was growing into, planting seeds that would affect me for decades. Shortly after that, I stopped being able to do public speaking, and even now I have to drug myself, my body going into flight mode when I put her in front of a crowd.Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads Continue reading...
Russian president accepts the philosophy' of US's Ukraine ceasefire terms, says US envoy; Musk's popularity falls - key US politics stories from Sunday at a glanceUS president Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that he expected the US president to speak with Vladimir Putin this week, adding that the Russian president accepts the philosophy" of Trump's ceasefire and peace terms.Witkoff told CNN that discussions with Putin over several hours last week were positive" and solution-based". He declined to confirm when asked whether Putin's demands included the surrender of Ukrainian forces in Kursk; international recognition of Ukrainian territory seized by Russia as Russian; limits on Ukraine's ability to mobilise; a halt to western military aid; and a ban on foreign peacekeepers. Continue reading...
Portions of eastern US under watch for dangerous winds and tornadoes as storm moves out on SundayPortions of Pennsylvania, New York, and mid-Atlantic and south-east states were still under a National Weather Service watch for damaging wind and tornadoes, as the death toll from weekend storms rose to 36 people across six states.In a White House statement, Donald Trump said he was monitoring the tornadoes and storms, adding that 36 innocent lives have been lost, and many more devastated". Continue reading...
Independent reporting on how disparities undermine child well-being in AmericaThis series is supported, in part, through philanthropic funding to theguardian.org, a US-based foundation that partners with the Guardian on independent editorial projects. Support for this project comes from the Foundation for Child Development.All of the journalism is editorially independent, commissioned and produced by our Guardian journalists. You can read more about content funding on the Guardian here. A full list of philanthropically supported editorial projects can be found here. Continue reading...
Page honoring Charles C Rogers for his Vietnam war service is now defunct with letters DEI' added to website addressThe US defense department webpage celebrating an army general who served in the Vietnam war and was awarded the country's highest military decoration has been removed and the letters DEI" added to the site's address.On Saturday, US army Maj Gen Charles Calvin Rogers's Medal of Honor webpage led to a 404" error message. The URL was also changed, with the word medal" changed to deimedal". Continue reading...
Victim, 45, hospitalized and in stable condition as police unable to say if attack was random or targetedA 45-year-old man was set on fire in the middle of Times Square overnight on Sunday, according to police, three months after a woman was killed on a subway car in an arson attack.Footage from the scene captured the moments the man, shirtless and severely burned, was rushed by authorities into an ambulance after the flames were extinguished. Continue reading...
by Edward Helmore in New York and Tom Phillips in Rio on (#6VZ7C)
Trump invoked 1798 law previously used to detain Japanese Americans in second world war to justify deportationsThe US deported more than 250 mainly Venezuelan alleged gang members to El Salvador despite a US judge's ruling to halt the flights on Saturday after Donald Trump controversially invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law meant only to be used in wartime.El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, said 238 members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and 23 members of the Salvadoran gang MS-13 had arrived and were in custody as part of a deal under which the US will pay the Central American country to hold them in its 40,000-person capacity terrorism confinement centre". Continue reading...
by Edward Helmore in New York and Shaun Walker in Kyi on (#6VZ67)
Steve Witkoff says US discussions with Russian president positive' and solution-based' and leaders likely to speakDonald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that he expected the US president to speak with Vladimir Putin this week, saying that the Russian president accepts the philosophy" of Trump's ceasefire and peace terms.Witkoff told CNN that discussions with Putin over several hours last week were positive" and solution-based". He declined to confirm when asked whether Putin's demands included the surrender of Ukrainian forces in Kursk; international recognition of Ukrainian territory seized by Russia as Russian; limits on Ukraine's ability to mobilize; a halt to western military aid; and a ban on foreign peacekeepers. Continue reading...
by Hannah Al-Othman North of England correspondent on (#6VZ66)
Exclusive: Doctor Who writer says he feels a wave of anger heading towards us' and hostility in UK as well as USRussell T Davies has said gay society is in the greatest danger I have ever seen", since the election of Donald Trump as US president in November.Speaking to the Guardian at the Gaydio Pride awards in Manchester on Friday, the Doctor Who screenwriter said the rise in hostility was not limited to the US but is here [in the UK] now". Continue reading...
While writing my book, I asked on social media for stories from parents suffering extreme sleep deprivation. It was hilarious - and frighteningSleep is a feminist issue. Or should I say, lack of sleep is a feminist issue. During a particularly thickly cut bout of tiredness, when my son was a newborn, I became so convinced that my tiny, milk-stained baby had rolled out of my arms and somehow, unfathomably out of the room, into the night outside that I started crawling along the floor of our hallway, in the dark, sobbing. The fact that the boy couldn't yet roll over, was in his cot, and the door was closed, while my partner snored like a mechanical digger beside him, could not penetrate the exhausted fug of terror that had enveloped me after weeks, months of broken, fluttering, barely snatched rest.Whether it's waking up every 45 minutes to feed a screaming baby, making shopping lists while roasting under the duvet in an insomniac hormonal flush, staying up past midnight to clean the house once your children are in bed, or setting the alarm for 4.45am so you can get your elderly mother to the toilet before she has an accident; the night shift of unpaid, unrecognised and uncelebrated domestic labour is still predominantly undertaken by women. While the Office for National Statistics found that in 2022, almost 4.9 million (56%) night-time workers were male and almost 3.9 million (44%) were female, this does not by any means mean that women are getting more sleep. I very much doubt that it was a breastfeeding woman who smugly declared Friday 14 March as World Sleep Day.Nell Frizzell is a journalist and author Continue reading...
Former talkshow host takes public her battle to remove her guardian, ordered by a court due to dementia and aphasiaThe note dropped from the upper floor window of an assisted living facility in New York on the morning of 10 March contained a simple message: Help! Wendy!!" it read.For any patient inside, it would have been tragic. But, astonishingly, the writer of this note was Wendy Williams, a trailblazing television talkshow host and once one of the most recognisble daytime TV faces in America. Continue reading...
by Jessica Elgot Deputy political editor on (#6VZ4R)
Pair recently met to discuss Donald Trump, Elon Musk and other political matters, Sunday Times saysNigel Farage has reportedly met Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson's adviser turned nemesis, after the Vote Leave founder suggested voters should back Reform UK at the local elections.Cummings, who was once a sworn enemy of Farage during the EU referendum as he battled to keep control of the leave campaign, is reported to have met the Reform leader to discuss Whitehall changes, which allies said was the strongest sign yet that Farage was taking seriously the idea of becoming prime minister. Continue reading...
The new series highlights the huge problem of disaffected youths. Society now needs to recognise the issue - and create solutions, writes the Observer's arts and media correspondentThis is not a review. There have already been plenty of those, most hailing Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham's new Netflix drama series, Adolescence, as a modern television landmark. It has received a run of five-star recommendations from critics in the last week, with many praising the acting just as much as its bold journey into a dark and difficult subject for the screen: the alarming alienation of some of Britain's male youths.So far, only the odd amateur online reviewer has seemed unimpressed. A few of these sceptics have called it slow" or pointless. They have clearly found it neither compelling nor surprising, defying a consensus among professional critics that this is the best piece of serious television seen in a long while. Continue reading...
The Kennedy Center and BLM mural have been targeted, the newspaper is in freefall - and the Maga movement is gaining a footholdIt was an audience more accustomed to stifling a cough or resisting the temptation to unwrap a sweet. But when they spotted vice-president JD Vance taking his seat at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington on Thursday night, classical music-goers erupted in unrestrained boos, jeers and shouts of You ruined this place!"The noisy protest exemplified a culture clash taking place in the nation's capital. It came in the same week that work began to remove a giant Black Lives Matter" mural near the White House, a top political columnist quit the Washington Post newspaper and a spending bill passed by the House of Representatives sought to impose drastic budget cuts of $1.1bn on the District of Columbia (DC). Continue reading...
The confidence comes from the fact that, love him or hate him, Trump is a businessman at heartIt may seem crazy out there, but small business owners are feeling fine. According to PNC Bank, 78% are optimistic about prospects this year, near the 23-year high mark. The banking platform Bluevine reported last week that small business confidence had surged" and is higher than ever". A recent index from the National Federation of Independent Businesses shows small business optimism is rising across industries, led by manufacturing, and that overall sentiment is at historical highs.Do these people not read the news? Continue reading...
The promotion of Israel's national narrative remains exempt from Trump's wholesale attack on DEIOn 7 March, the Trump administration announced that it had cancelled $400m in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University, saying the school's Jewish students have faced relentless violence, intimidation, and antisemitic harassment on their campuses" and that universities must comply with all federal anti-discrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding".The harassment" leveraged by the president and other pro-Israel ideologues was a reference to the paradigm-setting pro-Palestine activism that energized the campus over the past year. Columbia's students became national leaders in the anti-genocide movement, and the Gaza solidarity encampment they established garnered international attention - including from the US Congress, which held hearings on so-called campus antisemitism". Continue reading...
Meant as a cautionary leftwing tale, Report from Iron Mountain had a real-world impact that is still playing outWe live in a blizzard of fake news, disinformation and conspiracy theories. It's tempting to blame this on social media - which does indeed exacerbate the problem. And AI deepfakes promise to make the situation even worse. But at root this is not about technology: it's about how humans think, as an astonishing case that long predates the internet reveals. This is an amazing story - about the perils of amazing stories.In November 1967, at the height of the war in Vietnam, a strange document was published in New York. Report from Iron Mountain was the work of a top-secret special study group" recruited by the Kennedy administration to scope out what would happen to the US if permanent global peace broke out. It warned the end of war, and of the fear of war, would wreck America's economy, even its whole society. To replace the effects, extreme measures would be required - eugenics, fake alien scares, pollution, blood games. Even slavery. The report was so incendiary it had been suppressed, but one of the study group leaked it, determined that the public learn the truth. It caused a furore. The worried memos, demanding someone check if this document was real, went all the way up to President Johnson. Continue reading...
The employers of the estate agent who sued them for unfair constructive dismissal would do well to read MachiavelliNiccolo Machiavelli had an important piece of advice about office politics: If an injury has to be done to a man," he writes in The Prince, it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared." Most of us can relate to that.It's likely that whoever accidentally insulted Nicholas Walker, the take-no-prisoners manager of the Rickmansworth branch of Robsons Estate Agents, by giving him a second-rate desk, hadn't read Machiavelli's 1532 tract. Because Walker, no doubt thinking of Machiavelli's subsequent invocation - it is safer to be feared than loved because ... fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails" - immediately dragged his ashen-faced employers to an employment tribunal where he successfully sued them for unfair constructive dismissal. They probably really regret giving him that desk.Holmes and Moriarty, the new authorised Sherlock Holmes novel by Gareth Rubin, is out now Continue reading...
Using the 227-year-old law to argue a Venezuelan gang's activities amount to an invasion is unprecedented', according to the Congressional Research Service
District judge orders planes be turned around after Trump deploys obscure act against Venezuelans; strikes ordered on Houthis in Yemen - key US politics stories from Saturday at a glanceA federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from using an obscure, 227-year-old law designed primarily for use in wartime to deport five Venezuelan nationals from the US.District judge James Boasberg, responding to a lawsuit brought by two civil liberties organizations, issued an immediate halt and ordered any planes already in the air be turned around, saying the government was already was flying migrants it claimed were newly deportable to be incarcerated in El Salvador and Honduras. Continue reading...
Chaotic weekend sees blizzard warnings in midwest, wildfires in southern plains and dust storms in Texas. At least 26 tornadoes were reported but not confirmed as a low pressure system drove powerful thunderstorms across parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi and Missouri. The Storm Prediction Center said fast-moving system could spawn twisters and hail as large as baseballs, but the greatest threat would come from straight-line winds near or exceeding hurricane force, with gusts of 100mph (160km/h) possible.
Meta's attempt to silence ex-employee Sarah Wynn-Williams has drawn attention to its work on stifling freedom of expression in ChinaThere's nothing more satisfying than watching a corporate giant make a stupid mistake. The behemoth in question is Meta, and when Careless People, a whistleblowing book by a former senior employee, Sarah Wynn-Williams, came out last week, its panic-stricken lawyers immediately tried to have it suppressed by the Emergency International Arbitral Tribunal. This strange institution obligingly (and sternly) enjoined Wynn-Williams from making orally, in writing, or otherwise any disparaging, critical or otherwise detrimental comments to any person or entity concerning [Meta], its officers, directors, or employees'". To which her publisher, Macmillan, issued a statement that could succinctly be summarised thus: Get stuffed."Clearly, nobody in Meta has heard of the Streisand effect, an unintended consequence of attempts to hide, remove or censor information, where the effort instead increases public awareness of the information". The company has now ensured that Wynn-Williams's devastating critique of it [see our review inthe New Review] will become a world bestseller. Continue reading...
The Russian president has responded to a plan for a 30-day truce with Ukraine by issuing a set of tough conditions You can buy a copy of this cartoon Continue reading...
A SpaceX mission was launched to replace two Nasa astronauts who have been stuck at the International Space Station for nine months. The stuck astronauts are scheduled to depart the station on 19 March after the Crew-10 astronauts arrive on 19 March
The G7 meeting in Canada was a vital show of unity that put the ball firmly in Russia's court. There's not a shred of ambiguity about thatIn diplomacy, focus is often on where we disagree. But Britain and our partners are stronger when we stand together. Last week's G7 meeting made that clear.We arrived in Canada with real momentum. Our Ukrainian and American friends deserve a lot of credit for the breakthrough at Jeddah - with British diplomacy, from the prime minister down, making a big difference behind the scenes. Continue reading...
After just a few weeks in the White House, the self-appointed peace-giver has stoked war, accelerated the nuclear arms race and alienated US alliesIf Robert K Merton, the founding father of American sociology, were alive today, he'd be fascinated by the Donald Trump phenomenon. Scarcely more than 50 days into his second presidential term, hapless Trump provides daily proofs of Merton's universal law of unintended consequences".Rooted in ignorance, error, wilful blindness and self-defeating prediction, Trump's rash actions produce contradictory, harmful and often opposite results to those he says he wants. The ensuing chaos characterises what may become the briefest honeymoon in White House history. Continue reading...
President denounced CNN and MSNBC as illegal' and instructed VoA's parent agency to be eliminatedDonald Trump expanded on his threats to the media on Friday, suggesting actions of the press should be deemed illegal and subject to investigation.I believe that CNN and MS-DNC, who literally write 97.6% bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat [sic] party and in my opinion, they're really corrupt and they're illegal, what do they do is illegal," the president said during a contentious speech at the Department of Justice. Continue reading...
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