False narratives pushed by Tucker Carlson and key Republicans in Congress have been embraced and recycled by MoscowFalse and conspiratorial narratives pushed by some American conservative politicians and media figures about Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine have bolstered and created synergies with the Kremlin’s legendary disinformation machine, experts on information manipulation say.But even though Russia has embraced and promoted American disinformation, as well as the Kremlin’s own much larger stock of Ukraine war falsehoods, both brands have been widely debunked by experts and most media outlets, underscoring Moscow’s setbacks in the information war. Continue reading...

Barack Obama jokingly referred to Joe Biden as 'vice-president' on his return to the White House for the first time since 2017. The 44th president was there to celebrate the Affordable Care Act and offered Biden a potential boost ahead of the midterm elections

Victims joke about encounters as animal’s own ‘statement’ goes viral on TwitterUS Capitol police have apprehended an “aggressive” suspect accused of attacking a congressman and perhaps others. The alleged assailant: an unusually bold fox.Earlier in the day, police had warned of fox encounters in the area and said they were working to trap and relocate any animals. Continue reading...

The 46th president and the 44th got the old gang back together to celebrate the Affordable Care Act and seek a midterm boostIt was Back to the Future at the White House. Starring Barack Obama as Marty McFly and Joe Biden as Doc Brown. And ignoring Donald Trump as Biff Tannen, a four-year rupture in the space-time continuum.Obama returned to the White House on Tuesday for the first time since the bleak winter morning in January 2017 when he departed it alongside Trump, who seemed intent on erasing the first Black president. Continue reading...

Family says it is ‘optimistic’ about chances on appeal after controversy over juror in first trialThe siblings of Ghislaine Maxwell said on Tuesday they were “profoundly shocked and troubled” that a judge rejected a new trial for the British former socialite convicted on sex-trafficking charges, despite revelations that a juror who helped to convict her failed to disclose he was sexually abused as a child.In a statement, the “Maxwell Family” said it was focused on an appeal against US district judge Alison Nathan’s ruling last Friday. Continue reading...

State house approves bill that would make performing an abortion a felony and punishable by 10 years in prisonOklahoma lawmakers overwhelmingly passed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony punishable by 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. That is likely to land the bill on the desk of the Republican governor, Kevin Stitt, who has promised to sign all anti-abortion legislation.Oklahoma’s bill is just one in a raft of Republican bills to severely restrict or ban abortion, all timed before a widely anticipated supreme court case that disrupts nearly 50 years of established protections for abortion rights. If Oklahoma’s bill passes into law, it will take effect this summer. Continue reading...

Donald Trump’s eldest daughter, a former senior White House adviser, spoke via video to committee about events of January 6Ivanka Trump testified before the January 6 committee on Tuesday, the special congressional panel investigating the insurrection at the US Capitol in 2021 in which extremist supporters of Donald Trump attempted in vain to overturn his defeat in the presidential election.The Mississippi congressman Bennie Thompson, the committee’s chairman, said on Tuesday afternoon that she had been answering investigators’ questions on a video teleconference since the morning and was not “chatty” but had been helpful. “She came in on her own” and did not have to be subpoenaed, Thompson said. Continue reading...

Smiley Martin is facing charges as detectives try to piece together the chaotic scene where more than 100 shots were firedPolice in Sacramento arrested a second person in connection with Sunday’s mass shooting in a bustling stretch of California’s capitol. Six people were killed in the shooting and at least 12 were injured.On Tuesday the department announced Smiley Martin, who was also injured in the shooting, would be booked in Sacramento’s county jail once his medical care is complete. Martin, 27, is facing charges of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and possession of a machine gun. His brother Dandrae Martin, 26, was arrested on Monday and charged with assault and illegal firearm possession offenses. Continue reading...

His comeback after the life-threatening car crash seemed fanciful but Woods has defied limits throughout his careerTiger Woods’s first real memory of the Masters is of watching Jack Nicklaus play on the Sunday of 1986. Woods was 10 and had been out to play nine holes with his dad that morning but they were back in front of the TV in time to see Nicklaus, then 46, come round the turn in one of the most famous rounds in the history of the majors. From six shots back he made five birdies and an eagle and won by one. Woods remembers watching him hit that famous second shot on the 15th, from the hill over the water and to 12 feet from the hole, and the way he raised both fists in the air to celebrate, and wondering why he was so happy when he still had to make the putt.Over the years Woods has asked Nicklaus, more than once, what he was thinking about in that moment. Woods never really got a good answer out of Nicklaus but, according to his book Unprecedented, this is the way he has come to think about it: “He did what he needed to do to put himself in a position to win the Masters. He was not thinking about winning. He was thinking only about the shot and what he needed to do. He wasn’t getting ahead of himself.” Continue reading...

Daniela Jampel, who worked for the city law department, crashed press conference to demand that Eric Adams ‘unmask our toddlers’A lawyer for New York City was fired after she crashed a news conference to confront the mayor, Eric Adams, about the city’s mask mandate for children aged two to four.Daniela Jampel, who had worked for the city law department since 2016, was fired later on Monday, a department spokesperson said. Continue reading...

Ex-president issues mocking statement after Congressman Fred Upton of Michigan says he will not stand in midtermsThe Michigan congressman Fred Upton has become the fourth of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump over the Capitol attack to announce his retirement in November.The others are Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, a member of the January 6 committee, Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio and John Katko of New York. The retirements are seen as further boosting Trump’s power and influence with Republicans. Continue reading...

Ukraine’s leader is a master communicator but his words made for uncomfortable listening in a forum with Russia at its heartTwo days ago his audience consisted of Justin Bieber, Doja Cat, Dua Lipa, Lil Nas X, Olivia Rodrigo and Saweetie. This was Volodymyr Zelenskiy, president of Ukraine and man for all seasons, delivering a virtual message to the Grammy music awards in Las Vegas.A little incongruous? A bit off key? The same might have been said on Tuesday when Zelenskiy addressed the UN security council, led by its five permanent members: the United States, Britain, China, France – and Russia. Continue reading...

Second building ordered evacuated in North Miami Beach since collapse of Champlain Towers South last June in nearby Surfside, which killed 98 peopleResidents of a five-story apartment building in North Miami Beach were ordered to evacuate after officials deemed the building “structurally unsound” during its 50-year recertification process, officials said.The residents of Bayview 60 Homes were ordered out on Monday by city officials. It was the second building ordered evacuated in the city since the collapse of Champlain Towers South last June in nearby Surfside, which killed 98 people. Continue reading...

CBS News affiliate WCCO uncovers archive material of school-age Prince being interviewed as teachers picket in the backgroundArchival footage has been found of the singer Prince at a teachers’ strike in 1970 when he was just 11.The video was first discovered by WCCO, a CBS News affiliate in Minnesota, and shows film of an April 1970 teachers’ strike. Continue reading...

Matt Mowers’ double voting may have violated federal election law, at a time when Black voters have faced harsh penalties for unwitting violationsA former Trump administration official now running for Congress in New Hampshire voted twice during the 2016 primary election season, possibly violating federal voting law and leaving him at odds with the Republican party’s intense focus on “election integrity”.Matt Mowers, a leading Republican primary candidate hoping to unseat the Democratic representative Chris Pappas, cast an absentee ballot in New Hampshire’s 2016 presidential primary, voting records show. At the time, Mowers served as the director of former New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s presidential campaign in the pivotal early voting state. Continue reading...

Dominic Taddeo, who killed three in the 1980s and was key figure in organized crime in Rochester, New York, captured in HialeahA New York mobster who escaped federal custody in Florida has been rearrested, officials said.Dominic Taddeo, 64, a figure in organized crime in Rochester, New York, who killed three men in the 1980s and tried to kill two others, was apprehended “without incident” in Hialeah on Monday, the US Marshals service said. Continue reading...

Ofsted found some children now struggle to recognise facial expressions. More time for play and communication would help themLast week, while watching an outdated DVD about “growing and changing” with my year 2 class, a child in the programme blew out their birthday candles and shared slices of the cake with their friends. Outrage in the classroom ensued. “Miss, was that before corona? That’s disgusting!”Birthday parties are a small part of what young children have missed over the past two years. Since the first lockdown began, children have missed months of classroom learning, play dates, drama groups and football practice. Recent findings from Ofsted show the pandemic has delayed the social skills of young children – with some unable to understand facial expressions as a result. These will surprise no teacher. There have been no national lockdowns or two-week “bubble” closures during this academic year, and this relative consistency has been wonderful. But being back at school has also given staff a clearer understanding of how the pandemic has affected children’s development.The author is a teacher at a primary school in London Continue reading...

Number of billionaires worldwide falls by 329 amid Russian sanctions, according to ForbesThe total wealth of the world’s billionaires has dipped from a record high last year amid a drop in global stock markets since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite the planet’s richest people still holding a combined $12.7tn (£9.7tn) in assets.According to the annual Forbes magazine ranking of the world richest people, the number of billionaires worldwide fell by 329 to 2,668, with the total value of their combined assets falling slightly from $13.1tn on the 2021 list. Continue reading...

The ex-president also said that Iran, China and South Korea were happy Biden won, adding that ‘the election was rigged and lost’

The couple’s Oscars afterparty saw celebrities bypass Chateau Marmont workers who have complained of abhorrent conditionsMuch of the energy that erupted after the murder of George Floyd seems to have been hijacked by a brand of “antiracism” overconcerned with microaggressions, with representation in film and media, and with interpersonal relationships. It’s a framework that largely ignores economic inequality, or the potential for strategic, organised struggle. Instead, the emphasis is placed on the insistence that if we just make white people nicer and encourage them to do better through a combination of demanding, begging or cajoling – all the while obsessively documenting a catalogue of personal privileges between individuals based purely on whether they are “white”, “black” or “brown” – that we are “doing the work”.Ahistoric and devoid of class analysis, this brand of activism doesn’t have the tools to address the shitshow that recently took place at Jay-Z’s annual Oscars Gold party at the Chateau Marmont hotel. Continue reading...

When it comes to economic questions, there’s more agreement between culture war opponents than you might thinkThe neoliberal order that triumphed in America in the 1990s prized free trade and the free movement of capital, information, and people. It celebrated deregulation as an economic good that resulted when governments could no longer interfere with the operation of markets. It hailed globalization as a win-win position that would enrich the west (the cockpit of neoliberalism) while also bringing an unprecedented level of prosperity to the rest of the world. A remarkable consensus on these creedal principles came to dominate American politics during the heyday of the neoliberal order, binding together Republicans and Democrats and marginalizing dissenting voices to the point where they barely mattered.Somewhat paradoxically, this broad agreement on matters of political economy nurtured two strikingly different moral perspectives, each of them consonant with the commitment to market principles that underlay the neoliberal order. The first perspective was ‘neo-Victorian’, celebrating self-reliance, strong families, and disciplined attitudes toward work, sexuality, and consumption.Gary Gerstle is a Guardian US columnist. Excerpted and adapted from The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era (Oxford University Press, 2022) Continue reading...

Ukraine’s president prepares to address UN security council but casts doubt on meeting Putin. Plus, why it’s over for fossil fuelsGood morning.Worse atrocities than those discovered in Bucha are likely to be uncovered in other areas seized from Russian invaders, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned, ahead of his appearance at the UN security council today.Is Zelenskiy going to meet Vladimir Putin? Zelenskiy spoke on Ukrainian TV in an address to the people. He cast doubt on whether there would be a meeting between him and the Russian president.How could Putin be prosecuted for war crimes? Biden has called for the Russian leader to face trial, but the process would be difficult and could play out in several ways.What else is happening? Here’s what we know on day 41 of the Russian invasion.What did Jim Skea, a professor at Imperial College London and co-chair of the working group behind the report, say? “It’s now or never, if we want to limit global warming to 1.5C. Without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, it will be impossible.” Continue reading...

Labor leaders view this year’s elections – and 2024’s – with special urgency, as a goal-line stand to preserve America’s democracyMany union leaders used to pooh-pooh talk about saving democracy, according t0 Shane Larson, the Communications Workers of America’s director of government affairs. All that changed after the January 6 assault on the Capitol and after many Republicans pushed to overturn Biden’s victory in several states.“Just a few years ago, some union leaders would complain, ‘Why are we focusing on these do-good democratic issues?’ They’d say we need to focus exclusively on labor rights and jobs, jobs, jobs,” Larson said. “Now no one is complaining about this at all. There’s a real recognition that the entire labor movement has to be involved in this effort, that we have to do something for our democracy or we can lose it. Continue reading...

Samuel Fisher was also a self-declared dating coach who sold a $150 package of misogynistic tips for men to pick up womenA rioter who believed the QAnon conspiracy theory and joined the insurrection by extremist supporters of Donald Trump at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, as they attempted to overturn his election defeat, has been sentenced in New York to 3.5 years in prison.Samuel Fisher, 33, was sentenced on Monday after being charged with illegal possession of firearms, including a modified semi-automatic AR-15-style assault rifle, a “ghost gun” pistol, a shotgun, and 11 pre-loaded high capacity magazines at an apartment in the upscale Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan. Continue reading...

Dante, a Virginia town, is seeking to transform itself into a hub of ecotourism by nurturing the environment around it, and bring some of the natural beauty back to the communityEighty-five years ago, Bobbie Gullett was born in the heart of coal country. She grew up in Dante, Virginia, a bustling municipality of 6,000 with a hospital, a hotel, schools, a movie theater, a taxicab stand, a train line. She remembers living in a worker house owned by the Clinchfield Coal Company: Back then, Gullett recalls, while the supervisors lived up on the ridges, coalminers and their families lived in the hollows of the nearby mountain range.Their squat houses spread along the winding streets of town, which sat in a bowl created by the bumpy, tree-crested hills. In spring and summer, mountain laurel bloomed in the forest and kudzu spread in patches, and in the winter, snow blanketed the town. Continue reading...

Bundy, who is running for governor in Idaho, summoned his followers to a judge’s home, revealing a troubling development in a divided political landscapeOne recent Friday afternoon far-right militia figure Ammon Bundy started a live video feed on his YouTube channel in the wake of being arrested on trespassing charges at a hospital in Idaho, where he is running for governor.Bundy appeared disappointed to tell his followers what he believed the government was forcing him to do next. He looked down at the camera, wearing an open-collared shirt and his usual cowboy hat, and let out a sigh. Then he threatened a sitting Idaho judge, summoning his supporters to go to his home. Continue reading...

Eric Adams launches Florida ad campaign denouncing state’s ‘don’t say gay’ legislationThe mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, has launched a digital campaign designed to persuade members of Florida’s LGBTQ+ community to move to the Big Apple, after their state passed a so-called “don’t say gay” education law.On Monday, Adams announced the launch in five Florida cities of digital billboards and creative ads denouncing the legislation, which bans the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade. Continue reading...

The one-month review follows criticism for its pandemic response including initial delays in developing a coronavirus testThe US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday announced plans to revamp itself, with director Rochelle Walensky hiring an outside senior federal health official to conduct a one-month review.James Macrae, an associate administrator in the Department of Health and Human Services, will join CDC on a one-month assignment from 11 April to listen to and engage with the agency’s Covid-19 response activities, Walensky said in an email to her colleagues. Continue reading...

Officials opt for new approach to moving sister vessel of Ever Given, which blocked Suez canal for a weekA cargo ship has been stuck in the Chesapeake Bay for more than three weeks, and after two unsuccessful attempts to free it, officials are pivoting to a new approach.On Monday, the US coast guard announced that containers would be removed from the Ever Forward to lighten the load before another try. Continue reading...

Nomination advances in Senate after judiciary committee vote splits along party linesLisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney on Monday brought to three the number of Republican senators to say they would vote in favor of supporting Ketanji Brown Jackson as Joe Biden’s nominee to the US supreme court.Murkowski of Alaska put out a statement on Monday evening saying: “After multiple in-depth conversations with Judge Jackson and deliberative review of her record and recent hearings, I will support her historic nomination to be an Associate Justice on the US supreme court.” Continue reading...

Foley’s brother and mother testify at Virginia court trial of El Shafee Elsheikh, accused of kidnap and murder of US journalistThe Islamic State terrorists who kidnapped American journalist James Foley never made serious attempts to negotiate a ransom before brutally executing him, family members have told a court.Foley’s brother and mother took the witness stand at US district court in Alexandria at the terror trial of El Shafee Elsheikh, a Briton accused of playing a leading role in a hostage-taking scheme that resulted in the deaths of Foley and three other Americans – Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller. Continue reading...

The Senate judiciary committee meets today, beginning a week expected to conclude with the confirmation of the first black female supreme court justice

Police say they have received more than 100 videos or photos from the scene and have executed three search warrantsPolice in the California state capital have made an arrest in connection with Sunday’s mass shooting that left six people dead and at least a dozen others injured. In the hours after the bloodshed, police say they have received more than 100 videos or photos from the scene and executed search warrants on three homes.They identified a 26-year-old man as one of the individuals arrested in connection to the shooting, in a press release. He has been charged with assault and illegal firearm possession offenses. Continue reading...

Western leaders prepare fresh round of sanctions against Moscow amid outrage over reports of killings in town of Bucha, near KyivJoe Biden has called for Vladimir Putin to be tried for war crimes as western leaders prepared a fresh round of economic sanctions against Moscow amid mounting global outrage over claims of civilian killings by Russian soldiers in Ukraine.The US president was responding to harrowing images broadcast around the world after the discovery over the weekend of a mass grave and bodies in civilian clothes, some with their hands bound, in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv. Continue reading...

Viktor Orbán’s fourth consecutive election victory was crushing. But once again it was an unfair fightWhat now for the European Union’s most challenged and compromised democracy? The scale of Viktor Orbán’s fourth consecutive election victory in Hungary was crushing, comprehensive and unexpected. Faced for the first time with a united opposition alliance that put internal differences aside, predictions of a close race – or at least a competitive one – were confounded. On a high turnout, Mr Orbán’s Fidesz party actually won a greater number of seats than it held previously while Péter Márki-Zay, the opposition’s candidate for prime minister, failed even to win the local constituency he was contesting. Once again, resistance to Mr Orbán’s brand of authoritarian, conservative nationalism was largely confined to Budapest and other urban centres.This is a result that will be mourned in Brussels and celebrated in the Kremlin. After pledging to keep Hungary out of the confrontation between the liberal west and Vladimir Putin’s Russia over Ukraine, Mr Orbán has a mandate to obstruct and disrupt EU attempts to impose further sanctions on Moscow. At a time when European unity is paramount, that is a problem that western leaders can do without. But at a still more fundamental level, the EU faces the acute dilemma of how to deal with a member state in which democratic norms have been flouted to such an extent that Mr Orbán’s autocratic rule appears unassailable. Continue reading...

Secret Service chose Malibu property to be as close as possible to president’s son, report saysThe US Secret Service is paying more than $30,000 a month to rent a Malibu mansion, in order to protect Hunter Biden.To house agents protecting Joe Biden’s son, the agency has rented a Spanish-style estate that according to a property listing features “gorgeous ocean views” and “resort style living at its finest”. Continue reading...

Paul Stankowski was able to get a good close look at the emerging Woods as he stormed away to win the 1997 MastersTiger Woods’s domination of the 1997 Masters was such that only the tournament within the tournament behind him was competitive. He prevailed by a dozen shots. Six separated Tom Kite, who was second, from those who tied for 17th.Paul Stankowski will return to the galleries at Augusta National this week with memories of 25 years ago reverberating inside his head. Stankowski is an interesting case; he missed the cut on his Masters debut in 1996 and finished in a share of fifth a year later before finishing 39th in 1998. He was never to play in the Masters, which is held in Georgia, again. Continue reading...

Jury will decide whether Nikolas Cruz faces life in prison or the death penalty after pleading guilty to the murders of 17 peopleJury selection in the death penalty trial of Nikolas Cruz, who murdered 17 students and staff members in a 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, began on Monday after years of delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic.Cruz, 23, has already pled guilty to the murders at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school, meaning a jury will decide whether he faces life in prison or the death penalty. It is the deadliest US mass shooting ever to go to trial. Continue reading...

Spanish police and US FBI agents have seized a £70m superyacht in Mallorca linked to Viktor Vekselberg, a sanctioned Russian billionaire who Washington says is a close ally of Vladimir Putin. The yacht can host 14 guests in luxury in seven cabins, with a crew of 22, according to the SuperYachtFan website

Terry Wayne Wallis had been in a serious car accident but surprised doctors and family when he regained consciousnessAn Arkansas man who woke up after spending 19 years in a coma has died.Terry Wayne Wallis, who woke up from an almost 20-year coma in 2003, died last Tuesday at the age of 57, according to an obituary posted by a funeral home. Continue reading...

Jamie Dimon says bank could lose $1bn from crisis and calls for new ‘Marshall plan’ to ensure energy supply

Intercourse is not only pleasurable, but it also keeps body and mind healthy through maintaining intimacy with a partnerDid you know that orgasms can help your hair grow? It’s a fun fact, especially significant for women over the age of 40, because in midlife our hair thins as growth slows down. I know this because as a 53-year-old woman and co-presenter of the podcast Postcards from Midlife, I am now something of an expert on women in this age group. And sex, I have found out, is vital for us – emotionally, physically and culturally.The traditional narrative that the baby boomer generation encountered and passed on to today’s generation who are now in midlife – Generation X – was that women’s sex drives declined with age, while men’s remained the same or increased. There was an assumption that as other things came to dominate our lives – caring for elderly parents, looking after teenagers, dealing with illness, trying to stay relevant at work – our sex lives, much like our physical selves, would become invisible. And of course, juggling all this does affect us – but this notion of a declining sex drive is not only patronising, but also inaccurate. In fact, 40% of midlife women we quizzed in a survey on our Facebook group said they wanted more sex. A total of 56% said they owned at least one sex toy; 65% enjoyed sexual fantasies (though 82% didn’t discuss these with their partners); more than 35% were masturbating at least once a week; and almost 37% were having sex at least once a week. So it seems we didn’t put our love lives in the loft with our vinyl collections.Lorraine Candy is an author and co-presenter of the podcast Postcards from Midlife Continue reading...

Prizes for Silk Sonic, Doja Cat and Olivia Rodrigo showed the awards at their best – which can’t be said for Louis CK’s honourThere’s nothing the Grammys like more than classiness. Many of the albums and songs to have won the top prizes have been ones that are handsomely, rather than raggedly, made; emotionally forthright but keeping themselves in check. And so it proved at the 2022 ceremony, where strong work of great classiness by Silk Sonic, Jon Batiste and Olivia Rodrigo secured the big prizes.Silk Sonic’s Leave the Door Open is a very deserved winner of four awards, for record and song of the year, plus R&B performance and R&B song (the latter shared with Jazmine Sullivan, also the rightful winner of R&B album). With its immaculate session musicianship and vocal harmonising, it seems to be in conversation with R&B itself, lampooning the earnest lust of the late 70s and 80s iteration of the genre but not mocking it. There is a kind of sketch comedy detail to the way Anderson Paak makes sure all the bases are covered to seal the romantic deal, proffering fillet steaks and marijuana – but without such sumptuous songwriting it would have risked coming off as a Lonely Island-type parody. These wins mean Paak’s Silk Sonic partner Bruno Mars is now a 14-time winner, and Mars is perhaps the very vision of what the Recording Academy loves: technically brilliant, in tune with history and alive to love and sex without being threateningly erotic. Continue reading...

The death of Don Young left an Alaska House seat vacant and the former governor announced her run on FridayDonald Trump has endorsed the former governor and vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin for the vacant congressional seat in Alaska.“Sarah shocked many when she endorsed me very early in 2016, and we won big,” the former president said in a statement on Sunday night. Continue reading...