Intelligence believes Russia’s president may see US backing of Ukraine as direct affront, giving him further incentive to meddle

Tech giant wants to redo election, arguing in legal filing that National Labor Relations Board acted in way that tainted results

I got gay-married last year and naively thought I wouldn’t have to worry about the government nullifying my nuptialsAn adult marrying another adult of the same sex? Outrageous; the Lord will smite thee. An adult marrying a child of the opposite sex, on the other hand? Totally fine with God, apparently.Arwa Mahdawi’s new book, Strong Female Lead, is available for order Continue reading...

Florida governor and potential Republican presidential contender says, ‘I can’t have Castro to my south and Abrams to my north’

Truth Social seems to be going the way of Trump Steaks and Trump Vodka as it sees low engagement weeks after its release and resignations from executivesBy any measure, Truth Social, Donald Trump’s social media platform, has had a rough start.Engagement is low, the initial flood of downloads of the app have withered to a trickle and the first resignations of its top staff have begun. It’s too soon to tell if it’s a stiff, but as with many Trump businesses that fail to take off, the former US president appears to be washing his hands of it: he has barely used it. Continue reading...

Nicola Sturgeon recently made clear that Flower of Scotland is not a shoo-in, despite its popularityOf the many things to be worked out were Scotland to become independent, the national anthem is low down on the list. The Corries’ 1960s folk song Flower of Scotland, which has been sung at football and rugby matches for decades, has everything a decent anthem needs. From its defiant tale of triumph over the auld enemy at Bannockburn (“And sent him homeward / Tae think again”) to its eulogy for absent heroism (“Autumn leaves lie thick and still / O’er land that is lost now”), it is imbued with what the Australian poet and literary critic Christopher Kelen calls “anthem quality”. This, Kelen argues, is the ability of a song to raise a special type of goosebump – not only through the feelings that words and tune stir in the individual singer, but also “the knowledge that these feelings are shared by one’s compatriots”.Yet Flower of Scotland elicits a murmur of embarrassment in some circles, even among nationalists – indeed, this goes all the way to the top. In a recent interview on The Cultural Coven podcast, Nicola Sturgeon was asked about a hypothetical new anthem for an independent Scotland. “Nothing beats belting out Flower of Scotland at Hampden or Murrayfield,” the first minister said, but she confessed that: “The words are not the most uplifting and forward-looking.” She offered two alternatives: Highland Cathedral – a popular bagpipe tune that haunts Edinburgh’s tourist traps – and Dougie MacLean’s 1977 song Caledonia, a homesick lament best known for its starring role in an early-1990s advert for Tennent’s lager.Rory Scothorne is a historian and writer based in Edinburgh Continue reading...

Florida’s governor is unhappy that Disney has opposed his ‘don’t say gay’ bill – and is threatening to revoke its privilegesIt took a single stroke of Ron DeSantis’s pen, passing Florida’s so-called “don’t say gay” bill into law, to transform the self-proclaimed happiest place on earth into a scene of bitter conflict.Disney’s theme parks have become the latest battlefront in the pugnacious rightwing Republican governor’s culture war on what he calls “wokeness”, and on the state’s LBGTQ+ community. DeSantis, a close Trump ally, and perhaps rival, is threatening sanctions on the corporate behemoth after it dared to challenge the controversial law banning discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms. Continue reading...

Logan says network ‘does not want independent thinkers’ as Fox stays quiet on reports it dropped her after November remarkThe former CBS reporter Lara Logan, who compared Dr Anthony Fauci to the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, has claimed she was “pushed out” at Fox News because the conservative network does not want “independent thinkers”.“I was definitely pushed out,” Logan told Eric Metaxas, a conservative radio host, this week. “I mean, there is no doubt about that. They don’t want independent thinkers. They don’t want people who follow the facts regardless of the politics.” Continue reading...

Attorney says Ali Alexander, organizer of ‘Stop the Steal’ movement, will work with DoJ after he was subpoenaedAli Alexander, the prominent pro-Trump activist, will cooperate with the justice department investigation into the Capitol attack, making him the first high-profile political figure to agree to assist the government’s criminal inquiry into the events of January 6.The move is likely to give initial momentum to the newly expanded justice department investigation running in parallel to the House select committee investigation examining Donald Trump and the Capitol attack. Continue reading...

The expectations around relationships have never been so lax, but what are the new rules?There’s a lot of information about society in relationship advice writing.The first thing you can safely deduce doesn’t even come from the content, just the sheer amount of advice columns that are produced: we love it. We are all hungry little advice piggies, desperate for rules and guidance, squealing and oinking with fear and displeasure about the almost total freedom we’ve been given to conduct our affairs.Contractarianism, which stems from the Hobbesian line of social contract thought, holds that persons are primarily self-interested, and that a rational assessment of the best strategy for attaining the maximisation of their self-interest will lead them to act morally...After getting back from a trip, a friend of mine learned that her boyfriend had gone to a strip club and gotten a lap dance, which felt like a clear crossing of her boundaries within their relationship. […] After asking her about her relationship rules in their monogamous partnership, I realised that while this was a dilemma needing work, the real issue was that they had never had a conversation about what their boundaries even were. Continue reading...

World No1 Scottie Scheffler shoots 67 to take a five-stroke lead going into the weekendDJ doesn’t hit his birdie putt on 1, but par will always work. He remains at -3. Morikawa makes no mistake, though, rolling confidently into the back of the cup for a birdie that takes him to level par for the tournament. Meanwhile up on 3, Im restores his lead by rolling in a 25-footer for birdie.-5: Im (3)

Quest for win that would give him career grand slam has taken on many forms and this year’s version is more conservativeEight years Rory McIlroy has been coming here to try to win the major he needs to complete the grand slam, and it feels as if he has gone about it in eight different ways. There was the McIlroy who had discovered meditation, and the McIlroy who fixated on his method, the McIlroy who had been reading self-help books, the McIlroy who was studying the swing science, and the McIlroy who was muscled up because he was spending so much time in the gym; there was McIlroy who talked up how much the Masters meant and the McIlroy who played it down. None of them got it done. So this year he has brought boring Rory.At the start of the week McIlroy kept talking about being conservative, disciplined and patient. His plan was to play for the middle of the green, pick off the birdie putts when they came and make sure he stayed away from the kind of trouble that ends up in the big numbers that leave him too much to do come Sunday. Which was not a bad strategy so far as they go. The only trouble with it is, as he said himself, is it is not a style of play that comes naturally to him.McIlroy is a risk-taker, a shot-maker, a heart-breaker: he sees too many possibilities in the game to take it slow and steady. “It goes against my nature.” Continue reading...

One criminalizes medical care for trans youth and another requires students to use bathrooms that match birth certificatesThe governor of Alabama on Friday signed into law two controversial bills: one that criminalizes healthcare providers who offer gender-affirming care to transgender youth and another that requires students to use bathrooms that match the gender on their birth certificates.Kay Ivey, a Republican, said she “believed very strongly that if the Good Lord made you a boy, you are a boy, and if he made you a girl, you are a girl”. Continue reading...

Los Angeles sheriff’s department accused of hours-long group strip-search as court report adds to string of scandalsLos Angeles jail guards have frequently punched incarcerated people in the head and subjected them to a “humiliating” group strip-search where they were forced to wait undressed for hours, according to a new report from court-appointed monitors documenting a range of abuses.The Los Angeles sheriff’s department (LASD), which oversees the largest local jail system in the country, appears to be routinely violating use-of-force policies, with supervisors failing to hold guards accountable and declining to provide information to the monitors tasked with reviewing the treatment of incarcerated people. Continue reading...

After 232 years, a Black woman is on the supreme court – and the atmosphere on a sunny Washington day was celebratoryThey could all feel the weight of history. Yet the mood was as light as spring air when Ketanji Brown Jackson looked out at the crowd of smiling faces.“It has taken 232 years and 115 prior appointments for a Black woman to be selected to serve on the supreme court of the United States,” the judge said in bright sunshine. “But we’ve made it!” Continue reading...

Jury in Grand Rapids acquits two of conspiracy to kidnap Michigan governor and unable to agree on verdicts for other two men on trialTwo of four men on trial were acquitted on Friday of conspiracy to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, in a plot prosecutors said was motivated by fury at the Democrat’s tough Covid-19 restrictions in the early stages of the pandemic.The verdicts regarding Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta were read in federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan, US district judge Robert Jonker presiding. Continue reading...

Richard Bernard Moore is set to die on 29 April in state that has been unable to obtain lethal injections drugs for yearsA man who is set to die either by a firing squad or in the electric chair later this month is asking the South Carolina state supreme court to halt his execution until judges can determine if either method represents cruel and unusual punishment.Richard Bernard Moore is set to die 29 April unless a court steps in. He has until next Friday to choose between South Carolina’s electric chair, which has been used twice in the past 30 years, or being shot by three volunteers who are prison workers in rules the state finalized last month. Continue reading...

Former champion, struggling now with distance, suggests that 2023 could be his last year at Augusta NationalSandy Lyle can still remember the first time. The 2023 Masters is likely to be the last time. Lyle created a little piece of history at Augusta National this week, having teed up in a major for the 100th time. He thereby becomes the first golfer from Scotland to achieve that not inconsequential feat. Not that the 64-year-old was aware of his milestone. “Nobody has ever mentioned that to me,” he said. “Does it make me feel better? Yes, a little bit. Something to tell the grandkids in years to come.” Lyle’s mood had been influenced by another missed Masters cut. “It’s not easy when you are making bogey after bogey,” he conceded.The 1988 champion last survived for the weekend in Georgia in 2014, with his latest halfway exit coming after rounds of 82 and 76. These are not embarrassing scores – Augusta, already a tricky venue, is especially formidable this year – but Lyle’s scenario lends itself to the narrative of when enough becomes enough for invitees. Unlike in other majors, winners of the Masters are entitled to play for as long as they so choose. Continue reading...

Several dozen tested positive after a dinner hosted by the Gridiron Club, where proof of vaccine was requiredGrowing numbers of prominent members of Congress and senior staffers in Washington DC are contracting Covid-19, sparking concerns about the risk to Joe Biden as unmasked events increase at the White House.Celebrations were being held on Friday at the White House for the Senate confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson for the supreme court and the event was happening out of doors, said the press secretary, Jen Psaki, who missed the US president’s trip to Europe last month after testing positive for coronavirus. Continue reading...

Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35, accused of posing as homeland security officials and cultivating Secret Service accessOne of two American men arrested in Washington for posing as US federal security officials and cultivating access to the Secret Service, which protects Joe Biden, claimed ties to Pakistani intelligence, a federal prosecutor told a judge.Justice department assistant attorney Joshua Rothstein asked a judge not to release Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35, the men arrested on Wednesday for posing as Department of Homeland Security investigators. Continue reading...

The race for the Elysée could end up as a horror story for anyone who cares about the wellbeing of France or EuropeThe French election is straying from the script. It was meant to be a predictable remake. It has turned into a thriller. It could end up as a horror story.A month ago, Emmanuel Macron seemed certain to be the first French president to win a second term in 20 years. After Russia invaded Ukraine, his poll ratings soared. He built a 12-point lead in a probable second-round match-up with the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, and a 15-point lead over all other candidates in the first round. Continue reading...

Veteran middleweight champion ready for one last run at the top, fighting Ryōta Murata this weekend before potential rematch with old foe Canelo ÁlvarezFor years Gennady Golovkin was considered too good to get a big fight. Like Marvin Hagler before him, the crowd-pleasing Kazakh known as Triple G tore through the middleweight division with an unsettling blend of patience, technique and bone-crunching power in both hands, knocking out 23 opponents in a row over one blistering eight-year stretch, unifying three of the four major belts and matching Bernard Hopkins’ division record with 20 successive title defenses.Golovkin was feared, avoided and marginalized during his decade-long ascent from YouTube curiosity to bona fide 160lb bogeyman, finding himself on the raw end of the risk-versus-reward calculus that governs boxing’s matchmaking process. Denied opportunities by the brand-name stars and their promoters, he instead took as many as four fights a year against all-comers to stay in the public eye on the promise that if he kept knocking them over they couldn’t ignore him for ever. Continue reading...

Indoctrinated by my mother, who used to visit ‘Mr Trevor’, I find myself speculating to my own children about ‘energies’When my mother was in her 20s and living in London, she visited a psychic at his home in the suburbs. He had done some healing work for her friend Carla, a basketball player, who after an injury had had some success with Mr Trevor where traditional physio had failed. That was his name – Mr Trevor – and as my mother would tell me every time the story was wheeled out, he was a “retired postmaster” and a “very humble man”. In other words, not a charlatan. I recall looking through her address book after her death, and there he still was, under the Ts. He must have been long dead by then too.It was the story of Mr Trevor that softened me up for a lifetime of susceptibility to woo-woo spiritual nonsense, something I can apparently disparage without ever quite letting go. The psychic world is 99% baloney, and approaching a medium the last resort of the desperate. These people exploit the grief-stricken and clog up police investigations with false leads. I know this, as all rational people do. Yet, while in my own 20s, I went recreationally with friends to a medium, and I can’t remember a thing about it save for how much we laughed afterwards. There is Mr Trevor, telling my mother she would have one child, a girl, with “long fingers, like a starfish”, then coming over all funny and croaking out a phrase her dead father used to say to her as a child. I have nowhere to put this, except under the heading Things I Know to Be True That I Know Not to Be True.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist based in New York. She is the author of She Left Me the Gun: My Mother’s Life Before Me Continue reading...

The bill – which makes abortion a felony – indicates that the state, like most legal observers, expects the US supreme court to overturn RoeThe Oklahoma state legislature has been busy. This week, in a surprise move, the state house passed a bill criminalizing all abortions. The bill had been passed by the state senate last year but had been largely abandoned as Oklahoma conservatives sought other, more promising, ways to restrict abortion in the state. As an outright ban on abortions, enforced by the state, the Oklahoma bill that now heads to the governor’s desk for signature would be in plain violation of Roe v Wade, and unlikely to survive a court challenge while that precedent stands.The passage of the bill – which makes abortion a felony and would imprison doctors for up to 10 years per procedure – indicates that the state, like most legal observers, expects the supreme court to overturn Roe soon. The bill, which Oklahoma Republicans voted on while many of their Democratic colleagues were away participating in an abortion and civil rights rally, provides no exceptions for rape or incest. Oklahoma’s governor, Republican Kevin Stitt, has previously stated that he will sign any anti-choice bill that is sent to him. If he signs this one, it will go into effect this summer.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

An inquiry into the pattern of discrimination revealed that Asian drivers have been pulled over at disproportionate rates to the populationLaw enforcement in a rural northern California county that’s seen a major conflict over water rights stopped Asian drivers at vastly disproportionate rates compared to the county’s white population last year, in what civil rights groups have characterized as a pattern of “intentional discrimination” in the region.The ACLU and the Asian Law Caucus, two civil rights groups, obtained traffic stop data from the Siskiyou county sheriff’s office as part of an investigation into the county’s treatment of its Asian community – particularly Hmong Americans. Continue reading...

The club was beloved by young partygoers and felt like a ‘very safe space for queer people of color’It was supposed to be a safe space for LGBTQ+ people. Then someone set the nightclub on fire while they were still inside.Rash, a five-month-old queer bar and nightclub in New York’s Bushwick, was leveled by a blaze on Sunday night, injuring two people in what police are investigating as an intentional act. Continue reading...

Donetsk governor says thousands were at station when it was struck. Plus, Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation to supreme court lauded as ray of hope

From baggage handlers to wheelchair attendants, jobs – often outsourced – offer low pay, few benefits and vary wildly by cityLarry Allen has worked in various jobs at Dallas Fort Worth international airport for over 40 years.Before the pandemic, Allen worked as a baggage handler, making just over $2 an hour and relying on tips to get by. When Covid-19 hit the US, Allen was told not to come back into work and wasn’t recalled until one year later, when he took a position as a wheelchair agent. Continue reading...

Panel appears to believe militias coordinated to physically stop certification of Joe Biden’s election victory on 6 January last yearThe House select committee investigating January 6 appears to believe the Capitol attack included a coordinated assault perpetrated by the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys militia groups that sought to physically stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.The panel’s working theory – which has not been previously reported though the justice department has indicted some militia group leaders – crystallized this week after obtaining evidence of the coordination in testimony and non-public video, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Continue reading...

Members of the Patriotic Millionaires say the income gap in the US has become a disaster – and it’s time to ‘take that money back’The sound system played Pink Floyd’s Money as the Patriotic Millionaires assembled in the boutique Eaton hotel in Washington DC last week. After compulsory Covid tests there was a lot of well-heeled hugging and laughter among a crowd that looked like extras from Succession as they sat down at tables stacked with M&Ms stamped with “tax the rich”.This was the first time since the pandemic that the Patriotic Millionaires had assembled together in person. The group, founded in 2010, is made up of high net worth individuals who believe – counterintuitively these days – that the really rich should pay more taxes. And after a dozen often frustrating years some of them now believe change is coming. Continue reading...

Congressional Black Caucus hails ‘historic pick’ of Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman in the court’s historyThe confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the US supreme court marked a moment in American history many in public life waited over decades for – and one some thought they would never see happen.When the day arrived, it inspired an outbreak of euphoria for many Black Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Continue reading...

With perhaps three decades of service on the supreme court ahead, KBJ’s perspective and influence could be profoundWhen Ketanji Brown Jackson takes her place on the supreme court this summer, following her confirmation by the Senate on Thursday, it will bring to an end a painful period for US progressives, who were forced to watch Donald Trump appoint three rightwing justices under extremely contentious circumstances.But if left-leaning Americans think that the supreme court will be dramatically recalibrated by the appointment of KBJ – as she has become affectionately known, in an echo of RBG, the late justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg – they should think again. Continue reading...

One Ukraine journalist tells why she and her colleagues across the country are determined to bear witness to unfolding horrors

Im Sung-jae finished at five under par, one shot clear of Cam Smith and four clear of Tiger Woods on his return to AugustaMigliozzi is joined at the top by the ever-entertaining Harry Higgs. The 30-year-old from Dallas is playing in his first Masters, having finished tied for fourth at Kiawah in last year’s PGA, and is very much part of the Barnes-Daly-Jimenez everyman tradition, as anyone who remembers him getting the old puppies out at the Phoenix Open a couple of months ago will attest. Having opened with bogey, he’s seized the day much as he embraces life, with birdies at 2, 3 and now 4. The young Australian Min Woo Lee, current Scottish Open champion, makes it three with a long birdie rake across 5.-2: Migliozzi (6), MW Lee (5), Higgs (4)

Takeshi Ebisawa accused of planning to purchase surface-to-air missiles for rebel groups in Myanmar and distribute drugs in USUS authorities have arrested a leader of a Japanese crime syndicate on charges of plotting to distribute drugs in the United States and purchase weapons including US-made surface-to-air missiles.Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Takeshi Ebisawa, who they described as a leader in a network of Japanese crime families known as yakuza, and a co-conspirator agreed to buy the missiles for rebel groups in Myanmar during conversations with an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent. Continue reading...

Golf’s greatest showman shows he is ready to compete against all odds after a solid if mostly unspectacular startThere were about 50,000 people at Augusta National for the start of the Masters: fans, media, members, stewards, caddies, cooks, camera crew and all the other support staff, and on Thursday morning almost every last one of them was asking the same sort of question. Plenty had come along to the 1st tee at 11am to find out the answer, too. The dogged ones had staked a front-row spot first thing that morning. Everyone else was craning their necks and popping up on their tiptoes, jockeying to try to find a line of sight that would allow them to catch a flash of Tiger Woods in his shocking pink shirt.Could Woods still do it? Even Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player were going back and forth after the opening ceremony. Nicklaus wasn’t sure. “Feeling competitive is different than feeling like you can win,” he said after he’d hit the ceremonial tee shot. “I mean, I’m sure Tiger will be very competitive this week. But I don’t know whether he can win or not. He hasn’t played any competition for a long time.” It’s 508 days, to be exact. Continue reading...

Joe Biden’s nominee is confirmed by Senate in 53-47 vote

Joe Biden speaks of ‘historic moment for our nation’ as Democrats give standing ovation after judge’s ascent to supreme courtPoliticians and activists kept coming back to one word on Thursday after the confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the US supreme court: joy.After two grim years of a deadly pandemic and a democracy in peril, Jackson’s ascent as the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court was lauded as a much-needed ray of hope. Continue reading...

The US senate confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the supreme court on Thursday, shattering a historic barrier by making her the first Black female justice and giving President Joe Biden a bipartisan endorsement for his effort to diversify the court. Jackson, a 51-year-old appeals court judge with nine years experience on the federal bench, was confirmed 53-47, mostly along party lines but with three Republican votes.

Jackson confirmed 53 votes to 47, and will become first Black woman to serve in court’s more than 200-year historyKetanji Brown Jackson, a liberal appeals court judge, was confirmed to the supreme court on Thursday, overcoming a rancorous Senate approval process and earning bipartisan approval to become the first Black woman to serve as a justice on the high court in its more than 200-year history.After weeks of private meetings and days of public testimony, marked by intense sparring over judicial philosophy and personal reflections on race in America, Jackson earned narrow – but notable – bipartisan support to become the 116th justice of the supreme court. The vote was 53 to 47, with all Democrats in favor. They were joined by three moderate Republicans, senators Mitt Romney of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, who defied deep opposition within their party to support Joe Biden’s nominee. Their support was a welcome result for the White House, which had been intent on securing a bipartisan confirmation. Continue reading...

Attorney general Letitia James requests calls for fines until Trump complies with order to turn over files related to his businessesNew York’s attorney general on Thursday asked a state judge to hold Donald Trump in contempt of court for not turning over documents she subpoenaed for her civil investigation into the former US president’s business practices.In a court filing, attorney general Letitia James said Trump failed to abide by his earlier agreement to comply “in full” with her subpoena for documents and information by 31 March. Continue reading...

Ketani Brown Jackson becomes the first Black female justice on US’s highest legal body after her confirmation passes 53-47Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the US supreme court has passed the Senate and she will now become the first Black female justice on America’s highest legal body after being nominated by Joe Biden earlier this year.Jackson’s nomination has been widely praised by women of color, especially after she sustained grueling confirmation hearings at the hands of some top Republicans who seemed dedicated to political points-scoring and whose criticisms often seemed like racist dog-whistling. Continue reading...

The QAnon-tinged questioning at the hearings for the supreme court justice displayed a party in thrall to conspiracy theoriesJudge Ketanji Brown Jackson reached a historic milestone on Thursday, becoming the first Black woman ever appointed to the US supreme court. But before Jackson could be confirmed, she first had to navigate a brutal opposition campaign from far-right critics who challenged her credentials and outlandishly accused her of supporting child abuse.The bareknuckle tactics used by some Republicans to discredit Jackson underscored just how far to the right the party has drifted and may foreshadow a new, disturbing “normal” for American politics. Continue reading...

Democrat, who attended event with Joe Biden a day earlier, is fully vaccinated, boosted and asymptomatic, spokesperson saysThe House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has tested positive for Covid-19, a day after appearing unmasked at a White House event with Joe Biden.Pelosi received a positive test result for Covid-19 and is asymptomatic, her spokesperson, Drew Hammill, said on Thursday in a tweet. He said she had tested negative earlier in the week. Continue reading...