If you’re going to make fun of sensitive subjects, you’d better be clever about it. ‘Ha ha, she’s bald and looks like GI Jane’ just won’t cut itIt was the slap that launched a thousand hot takes. Here’s what Will Smith hitting Chris Rock at the Oscars tells us about the actor’s early childhood. Here’s what Smith’s violent outburst can teach us about the war in Ukraine. Here’s why the whole thing felt staged. Here’s the history of public slapping in 10 gifs. Here’s why the Academy is hypocritical for saying it doesn’t condone violence, when Michael Moore got booed during the 2003 Oscars for criticising the Iraq war – and you don’t get any more violent than war, do you?Look, you’ve probably had enough of people talking smackgate by now. I’m sure you’re over this whole thing. I get it. The sensible little voice in my head is telling me: “Arwa, don’t get involved. You don’t need to wade into this sordid story and turn a celebrity fracas into a lesson about life, the universe, and everything.” Alas, like Will Smith, I’m afraid I just can’t control myself. Just as he couldn’t repress his urge to slap, I can’t repress my urge to pundit. So I’d like to take a minute; just sit right there, and I’ll tell you why Chris Rock should never have made that stupid joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith’s, hair. Continue reading...

Viewing figures for the Academy Awards have been in decline for years and 2022’s ceremony looked like yet another snoozefest … until Smith slapped Chris RockWithout question, Sunday night’s Oscars were the ugliest in history. By physically assaulting a performer onstage, Will Smith managed to cause irreparable damage to the ceremony. And the outright failure of the show’s producers and guests to chastise Smith, or even fully acknowledge his attack, has thrown the entire Academy into disrepute. However, if you squint hard enough and look at it from just the right angle, it might have been just the thing that the Oscars needed.First, some perspective. This year’s Oscars needed to be a hit. Last year’s Covid ceremony was watched, by some degree, by far fewer people than any other Oscars in history. This was in part due to circumstance – no big films had been released due to Covid, and the big stars were understandably reluctant to all go and breathe on each other in an enclosed space – but also due to the event itself. Held in a train station, it was brisk and brief and shorn of all clips and jokes. It was not in any way fun to watch, so nobody watched it. Continue reading...

Ex-president issues lengthy statement after a judge says Trump likely committed felonies during his attempts to overturn electionDonald Trump has claimed to have hit a hole-in-one at his golf course in Florida while playing with a former world No 1, Ernie Els.The former president released a lengthy statement about the shot, which was said to have happened on Saturday, late on Monday. Continue reading...

The absence, to date, of mass death from hunger doesn’t mean that Russian forces are innocent of the war crime of starvationThe deputy mayor of Mariupol, Sergiy Orlov, describes people sheltering in basements trying to survive without food, medicine or a power supply, and drinking melted snow because the water has been cut off. In Chernihiv, March 16, a line of 10 civilians queuing for bread outside a grocery shop were killed by Russian troops. Ukrainian intelligence reports indiscriminate shelling and targeting of agricultural machinery, fields and grain stores; and civilians are being blocked from leaving besieged towns and cities or killed whilst fleeing. This is a playbook familiar to any monitoring similar starvation crimes in Syria, Yemen, Tigray or South Sudan.A few very elderly Ukrainians will remember the forced starvation of the Holodomor of 1932-33, when a combination of brutally enforced collectivization and punitive confiscation of food killed about three million Ukrainians through the resulting famine. It was the occasion for Stalin’s infamous remark ‘if only one man dies of hunger, that is a tragedy; if millions die, that’s only statistics.’ He was wrong: every Ukrainian knows the story, deeply carved into their collective memory. After Ukrainian independence, monuments to the victims of famine were constructed in Kiev and Kharkhiv.Alex de Waal is executive director of the World Peace Foundation, Boston MassachusettsCatriona Murdoch is a partner at Global Rights Compliance, an international foundation specialising in international criminal, humanitarian, and human rights law Continue reading...

Putin’s lies, and the lies coming from America’s extreme right, are mutually supporting. There’s a reason for thatIn a speech delivered last Friday from his office in the Kremlin, Putin criticized the west’s “cancel culture”, which, he charged, is “canceling” Russia – “an entire thousand-year-old country, our people”. It was the third time in recent months Putin has blasted the so-called “cancel culture”.Which is exactly what Trump, Tucker Carlson, and the Republican party have blasted for several years. Continue reading...

The jurisdictions that help kleptocrats live in luxury on stolen assets must stop shielding corrupt elitesSeven years ago, an anonymous source who went by the name “John Doe” provided us with the data that became the Panama Papers – 2.6 terabytes of leaked documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. The leak turned out to have quite an impressive Russian component. We found shell companies connected to Vladimir Putin’s judo friends, Boris and Arkady Rotenberg, to the oligarch Alisher Usmanov and the wife of the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. But, most significantly, we stumbled across Sergej Roldugin, a professional cellist and godfather of Putin’s eldest daughter, who had a central role in a network of secret offshore deals and vast loans worth $2bn, described at the time as the key to tracing Putin’s hidden fortune.All this hidden wealth mattered when we published the Panama Papers in 2016, two years after Russia had annexed the Crimean peninsula. Now, after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it matters more than ever. Lawmakers in the UK, the EU, the US and Canada have sanctioned Russian banks, Russian companies and individuals close to Putin. This includes Russian oligarchs, as well as Putin’s friends, supporters and admirers who have helped facilitate his kleptocracy by hiding his wealth in accounts under their own names or just championing his kleptocracy for their own illicit enrichment. Individuals like the cellist Sergej Roldugin, the Rotenberg brothers and Usmanov.Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer are investigative journalists with the German paper Süddeutsche Zeitung. They initiated the 2016 Panama Papers as well as 2017 Paradise Papers revelations and the 2022 Suisse Secrets. Obermaier is co-founder of the Anti-Corruption Data Collective (https://acdatacollective.org), Obermayer on the board of Forbidden Stories (https://forbiddenstories.org). Continue reading...

‘Fear makes you an accomplice,’ Zelenskiy tells world leaders before peace talks. Plus, bunker sales soar as anxiety over Russia rises

Congressional groups have drawn up lists of executive actions to further the Biden agenda while not giving up on legislationWhen Senator Joe Manchin announced in December that he would not support the Build Back Better Act, House progressives immediately got to work. As the Congressional Progressive Caucus continued to lobby for passing a social spending package, its members also started crafting a list of potential executive orders that Biden could sign to advance Democrats’ policy agenda.That list was released in mid-March after months of deliberations, and it outlines a specific strategy for Biden to combat the climate crisis and lower costs for American families with the flick of his pen. Continue reading...

Called ‘constitutional carry’ or ‘permitless carry’, the bills have been criticized by police and activists who say removing permits poses a safety riskAmerica’s relationship with guns will probably never be peaceful, but as a rash of new pro-gun laws spread across the country some fear it could soon be legal in as many as 25 US states to carry a concealed gun without a permit.To gun control advocates and law enforcement it’s a dangerous new development in America’s enduring, historic and highly politicized infatuation with personal firearms. Continue reading...

Companies will need to find a new model that works for them and their employees – many of whom prefer to work at home some daysIt can be hard to remember what work at the office was like before the pandemic forced millions of Americans to start working from home. That shift was monumental and seemingly implausible, until it happened. But people soon adapted to saying “sorry, you’re on mute” on Zoom calls and wearing sweatpants all day.This spring, workers are finally heading back to the office en masse and into another untested and ambitious experiment in work life: hybrid working. Continue reading...

Amid Russia’s war on Ukraine and a global pandemic, pressure is once again building to think about how people can protect themselves during a crisisGary Lynch is the CEO of Rising S Company in Texas. When I first visited his warehouse in 2018, I watched his crew assemble, deliver, and bury a handful of bunkers in people’s backyards every month. The bunkers are thick plate steel boxes that are welded together like a giant Lego set – the size of the bunker limited only by a client’s resources.Sales, he says, have spiked 1,000% since that time as anxieties around the pandemic, civil unrest, climate change and war have driven more buyers to his company. Continue reading...

The comedy legend’s cultural and commercial power have waned as he struggles to resist going lowbrowAt this point in his gilded career, Chris Rock doesn’t take an Oscars gig for the clout. He takes it for the check. And the 57-year-old funnyman made clear from the moment he took LA’s Dolby Theatre stage to present the prize for best feature documentary that he wouldn’t be sweating for it.Rather than launch into a meticulous bit that might remind the world why he was once so big that he hosted this program all by himself twice, he made fun of the crowd – hack moves. He singled out Jada Pinkett Smith, who has alopecia, maligning her with a near 30-year-old movie reference, and everyone in the room laughed on reflex – because he’s Chris Rock. For his brief guest spot to end with Will Smith slapping him on live television and then heckling him from a front-row seat in some ways speaks to how much the comedy legend has slipped. (Smith apologized to Rock in an Instagram post on Monday.) Continue reading...

Ayanna Pressley and others say comic’s joke about Jada Pinkett Smith was demeaning to 147m people worldwide with alopeciaCongresswoman Ayanna Pressley and others with alopecia have spoken out about Will Smith hitting Chris Rock at the Oscars, after Rock joked about Jada Pinkett Smith’s short hair.Pinkett Smith has talked about living with alopecia-related hair loss. Pressley, who in 2020 opened up about her own journey with alopecia, shared her thoughts on Twitter on Sunday night. Continue reading...

Every time you hear someone say it’s time to ‘live with the virus’, remember that doesn’t mean doing nothing about itSo, is that it? After wave upon wave of infections, the combination of vaccination and Omicron’s comparatively mild (though still serious) properties has led the UK to declare the pandemic, essentially, over.After two lockdowns, a huge burden on healthcare and at last an extremely prompt and effective vaccination campaign, the UK has still registered more than 160,000 lives lost to the pandemic, roughly half of them in the Alpha wave. Continue reading...

Select committee unanimously agrees to advance contempt of Congress citations against Peter Navarro and Dan ScavinoThe House select committee investigating the Capitol attack voted on Monday to recommend the criminal prosecution of two of Donald Trump’s top former White House aides – Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino – for defying subpoenas in a bid to undermine the January 6 inquiry.The select committee unanimously approved the contempt of Congress report it had been examining. The citations now head for a vote before the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, which is expected to approve resolutions for referrals to the justice department. Continue reading...

Joe Biden said his remark in Warsaw that Vladimir Putin should not remain in power reflected his own moral outrage, not an administration policy shift. 'I wasn’t then nor am I now articulating a policy change. I was expressing moral outrage that I felt and I make no apologies,' he said, noting that he had just visited with families displaced by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Biden added that he was 'not walking anything back' by clarifying the remark. Asked whether the remark would spur a negative response from Putin, Biden said: 'I don’t care what he thinks ... He’s going to do what he’s going to do'

Tax on households over $100m aims to ensure wealthiest Americans no longer pay lower rate than teachers and firefightersJoe Biden proposed a new tax on America’s richest households when he unveiled his latest budget on Monday.The Biden administration wants to impose a 20% minimum tax on households worth more than $100m. The proposal would raise more than $360bn over the next decade and “would make sure that the wealthiest Americans no longer pay a tax rate lower than teachers and firefighters”, according to a factsheet released by the White House. Continue reading...

Measure bars teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third gradeThe Republican governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, has signed into law a bill that forbids instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, a policy that has drawn intense national scrutiny from critics who argue it risks marginalizing LGBTQ+ people.LGBTQ+ advocates, students, Democrats, the entertainment industry and the White House have denounced what critics have called the “don’t say gay” bill. The issue has led to a clash between DeSantis and Disney, a major player in the Florida tourism industry. Continue reading...

President says he was not calling for regime change but was expressing personal ‘moral outrage’ over Russia’s invasionJoe Biden on Monday defended the unscripted remarks he made at the end of an important speech in Poland at the weekend, in which he said that Russian president Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power”, which had prompted hurried efforts by other senior figures in the administration to play down the comment in the face of international criticism.The US president, when questioned on Sunday after attending church following his return to the White House, denied that he was seeking “regime change” as a new policy. Continue reading...

Local advocate says ‘events like this remind us that there is no safe space’ for the homelessFour people died and several were injured after a driver in Salem, Oregon, crashed a car into a homeless encampment early Sunday morning.Police arrested Enrique Rodriguez Jr, 24, on Sunday evening. He was charged with four counts of first-degree manslaughter, second- and third-degree assault and six counts of reckless endangerment. Continue reading...

Zelenskiy is a master of mobilising his nation’s defence. But his plight must not become a plaything of western politicsAn iron maxim of war is to imagine what your enemy most wants you to do, and not to do it. Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is floundering. He has lied to the Russian people to justify it. He has told them it is not Ukraine but Nato and the west that seek their defeat and his overthrow. That is why they must support him in his fight. To a large extent they have done so.Nato has so far been scrupulous in not playing Putin’s game. It has stood aloof from active military support to Ukraine’s President Zelenskiy, as have its individual member countries. Continue reading...

The actor cited the father of Serena Williams as another man who protects his family. But there is no comparison: Smith has no excuseWill Smith has spoken. Chris Rock has spoken. The Academy has spoken. Even the Los Angeles Police Department has spoken. But the person I really want to hear from has remained silent.What does Jada Pinkett Smith think of her husband slapping the Oscars host? What was it that caused Smith to switch from laughing at Rock’s joke about her “GI Jane” look to, less than 10 seconds later, striding onstage, slapping him, marching back to his seat and shouting to the stage, “Keep my wife’s name out your fucking mouth”. After which, in case anyone watching might still have thought it was some kind of pre-rehearsed skit, he shouted the same thing again, and twice as loud.Joseph Harker is the Guardian’s senior editor, diversity and development. He is a former editor and publisher of the weekly newspaper Black Briton Continue reading...

Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino have refused to cooperate with House panel investigating January 6 insurrectionTwo of Donald Trump’s top former advisers, Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino, are facing mounting legal peril after the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol moved a step closer to recommending criminal charges against them.The members of the committee were expected to meet on Monday night to discuss whether to hold Navarro, Trump’s former trade adviser, and Scavino, his former deputy chief of staff, in criminal contempt of Congress. Continue reading...

While the dial only seemed to be turning one way, the 94th Academy Awards was unexpectedly rich in sexist ‘her-indoors’ gags, undoing any progressIf this year’s Oscars had a spirit animal, you’d have to say it was Les Dawson. An uncharacteristically aggressive and unfunny Dawson, perhaps. But the 94th Academy Awards proved to be an evening unexpectedly rich in “her-indoors” gags for the lads, while women stood on the sidelines making abashed cracks about their own physical shortcomings.The most generous possible reading of Chris Rock’s joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, for instance, is that he simply finds the idea of a woman having short hair hilarious. This does not seem unlikely. After all, his preceding gag concerned the domestic nightmare which would await poor Javier Bardem should he win best actor but his missus, Penélope Cruz, fail to bag best actress. You know what women are like! Continue reading...

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has reinstated penalties that could cost manufacturers hundreds of millionsThe US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has reinstated a sharp increase in penalties for automakers whose vehicles do not meet fuel efficiency requirements for model years 2019 and beyond.The decision is a win for Tesla that could cost other automakers hundreds of millions of dollars or more. Continue reading...

Rick Scott of Florida grilled on Fox News Sunday about suggested income tax rise and letting social security and Medicare fallA Republican senator and reputed presidential hopeful found himself in a tough spot when he claimed tax rises contained in his own “11 point plan to rescue America” were “Democratic talking points” instead.“No, no, it’s in the plan!” his interviewer exclaimed, on Fox News Sunday. “It’s in the plan!” Continue reading...

Let’s assume for a moment that Putin does fall. What happens next? Here are three scenariosVladimir Putin’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine aimed at toppling the Kyiv government – based on the preposterous claim that it’s run by “neo-Nazis” – has produced Europe’s worst war in a generation, and it has taken a terrible toll on civilians. The Russian armed forces have hit hospitals, apartment buildings, a shopping center and a theater that was serving as a shelter. The immense suffering has been made worse by sieges, above all the one around Mariupol, large parts of which have also been reduced to rubble.The war has also forced millions from their homes. The UN high commissioner for refugees reports that more than 3.7 million Ukrainians have fled their homeland and that another 6.7 million have been internally displaced. The two figures together – children account for nearly half the total – comprise 20% of Ukraine’s population.Rajan Menon is the director of the grand strategy program at Defense Priorities, senior research fellow at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University, and Anne and Bernard Spitzer emeritus at Powell School, City College of New York Continue reading...

Talks to start in Turkey as Ukraine president seeks peace ‘without delay’. Plus, drama at the Oscars as Will Smith attacks Chris Rock on stageGood morning.Ukraine is willing to discuss “neutral status” at face-to-face talks with Russia in Turkey, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said.What else did he say? Zelenskiy said he was not willing to discuss demilitarisation, and said Ukrainians would need to vote in a referendum to approve their country adopting a neutral status.What about international diplomacy? The French president has cautioned against verbal escalations after the US is forced to deny it is seeking regime change.What else is happening? Here’s everything we know on day 33 of the Russian invasion.How did Hollywood react to the incident? Reactions to the most talked-about moment of the Oscars ranged from delight to concern.What else happened? The eventful 94th Academy Awards ceremony delivered drama in spades. Here are some of the standout moments. It was also an historic night for women.Who else won? Here’s a full list of all the Oscar winners. Continue reading...

Ban would shift US uranium production into overdrive – posing environmental and spiritual threats to Indigenous communities who live near the minesSacred Native American sites such as the Grand Canyon and Bears Ears may seem a long way from the devastation unfolding in Ukraine. But as the US mulls a ban on Russian uranium, part of economic levers to stop Putin’s war, Indigenous communities living near US mines could pay the price.John Barrasso, a senator from Wyoming, recently introduced a bill that calls for a ban on all forms of uranium imported from Russia. Uranium fuels America’s nuclear power plants, and about 20% of that comes from Russia, while close to another 30% is imported from the Russian allies of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Continue reading...

The best actor winner Will Smith apologised in his acceptance speech for striking presenter Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaven head.Accepting the Oscar for his role as Richard Williams, the father of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, in King Richard, Smith apologised to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and his fellow nominees but not to Rock.'Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family,' a tearful Smith said and continued: 'Love will make you do crazy things', adding: 'I hope the academy invites me back'

The 2022 Oscars ceremony went off script in a dramatic way as Will Smith walked on stage and slapped comedian Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith. Moments later Smith gave a teary acceptance speech and apologised for his outburst after winning the best actor award for his role as Richard Williams, the father of tennis champions Venus and Serena Williams, in King Richard. ‘Love will make you do crazy things,' Smith said.Troy Kotsur made history as the first deaf man to win an Oscar for his role in Coda, while West Side Story's Ariana DeBose won the best supporting actress award. Jessica Chastain won best lead actress for her role in The Eyes of Tammy Faye and delivered a powerful acceptance speech lamenting attacks on the LGBTQ community. ‘For any of you out there who do in fact feel hopeless or alone I just want you to know that you are unconditionally loved for the uniqueness that is you,' she said

A new, democratic Russia is impossible without a change of national mindset – and an acknowledgment of national guiltBombed-out Ukrainian cities and the corpses of children are not shown on Russian TV. Brave young people in Russia who protest against the war are being beaten up and arrested, while most people remain silent – there are no mass protests, no strikes. It hurts to see that many of my fellow citizens support the war against Ukraine: they put the Z on their windows at home and on their cars.Russian television now repeatedly shows an interview with the famous actor Sergei Bodrov, a cult figure in Russia. “During a war one cannot speak poorly of one’s own,” he says. “Even if they’re wrong. Even if your country is wrong during the war, you shouldn’t talk poorly about it.” And that’s what people do, willing to support “their own” even if they are shooting at Ukrainians.Mikhail Shishkin is a novelist, and the only author to have won the Russian Booker, Russian National Bestseller and Big Book prizes Continue reading...

Testimony could play a major role in establishing whether Trump oversaw a criminal conspiracy in efforts to overturn 2020 electionBehind closed doors in a nondescript conference room at the foot of Capitol Hill, the House select committee investigating 6 January next week expects to hear testimony about the connections between the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys militia groups and the Capitol attack.The panel expects to hear how the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys coordinated their plans and movements in the days before the insurrection to the same level of detail secured by the justice department and referenced in recent prosecutions for seditious conspiracy. Continue reading...

In this new series, I promise not to write as though I am the first ever to have given birth to a child, but I do have different questions to askIf you are reading this, it means that I have just become a mother. For reasons of practicality, and superstition, I am writing this column in advance. I am currently 29 weeks pregnant, just into my third trimester, but this will not run until, all being well, my baby is born.Born, too – hopefully less painfully – is this series, The Republic of Parenthood, which will hopefully speak to other parents, and examine some of the philosophical, political and cultural issues around modern parenthood. I chose the name to honour The Republic of Motherhood, a beautiful poem by Liz Berry that evokes the feeling of which many new mothers speak; of joining a new society, almost, which feels like a closed-off state separate from the rest of the world, one that necessitates the learning of new rules and customs:“I stood with my sisters in the queues of Motherhood –

Smith takes top actor prize for his role as Venus and Serena Williams’ father Richard as he guides his daughters to tennis success• Follow all the action with our liveblog

Best actor nominee Will Smith appeared to smack presenter Chris Rock in the face with an open hand and shouted a vulgarity at the comedian for making a joke about his wife's appearance at the Oscars ceremony. Rock made a joke about the hairstyle of Smith's wife Jada Pinkett Smith that referenced the movie GI Jane in which actress Demi Moore shaved her head. Pinkett Smith suffers from the hair loss condition, alopecia. Smith, who later won best actor for 'King Richard,' walked on stage and slapped Rock in what at first appeared to be a scripted joke. But the mood turned somber moments later when Smith, back in his seat, shouted back, 'Keep my wife's name out of your fucking mouth'

French president Emmanuel Macron has called for restraint in both words and actions in dealing with the Ukraine conflict, after US president Joe Biden described Russian president Vladimir Putin as a ‘butcher’ and said he should not remain in power. ‘I wouldn't use this type of wording because I continue to hold discussions with president Putin,’ Macron told France 3. 'What do we want to do collectively? We want to stop the war that Russia has launched in Ukraine without waging war and without escalation.'

John Herdman’s team beat Jamaica 4-0 on Sunday in front of a packed house to complete a remarkable 12 months for Canadian footballOh? Canada? Yes, Canada.Almost four decades after their only appearance at a men’s World Cup, Canada are back, becoming the first North American nation to secure passage to Qatar 2022. Continue reading...

Adam Kinzinger vows to ‘get to the bottom’ of insurrection after Clarence Thomas’s wife reportedly urged White House to overturn Trump’s election defeatAdam Kinzinger, one of two Republican members on January 6 committee, on Sunday vowed to “get to the bottom” of events surrounding the 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol but refused to reveal whether the panel intends to question Ginni Thomas – wife of US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas – over reports of her urging the White House to overturn Donald Trump’s election defeat.Senior Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar said Clarence Thomas must recuse himself from relevant cases and warned the integrity of the supreme court is at stake. Continue reading...