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Freed from debating in bad faith, former Twitter users could finally unclench, go outside, and touch some grassWell, it’s happening then: Elon Musk, one of history’s least inspiring Saturday Night Live hosts, has agreed to buy Twitter for approximately $44bn. I cannot in any realm understand why he has decided to buy the website I go to every day to embarrass myself on, but this is less about the deal and more about Musk himself: not uncool, exactly (although it is impossible to be cool and be a billionaire, and yes this does include Rihanna), but a man who creaks and vibrates with a desperate-to-be-liked-by-the-cool-kids energy that most of us shook off towards the end of secondary school. I should not be able to so palpably see that a billionaire wants me to like him. I should just be living in a constant terror that he is going to explode the moon, like every good billionaire should always be threatening to do.Anyway, now is as good a time as any to assess the state of Twitter: it is not dead but definitely dying, and not because Musk has bought it (though the fact that Twitter was willing to effectively sell Twitter is frankly a red flag). The thing with social media platforms is that every one of them eventually dwindles down to something removed from the original bright kernel of the idea that made them – it is such a shame that David Fincher made such a cool film about the founding of Facebook, which is now just essentially a car boot sale that Candy Crush mums and dads “who remember proper bin men” get radicalised on – and Twitter is no different: the bizarre way the timeline never loads in sequential order; that doomed experiment with “fleets”; the fact that every viral tweet eventually sours – the user who tweeted it choosing like clockwork to sell galaxy projectors in a sponsored follow-up post.Joel Golby is a writer for the Guardian and Vice, and the author of Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant Continue reading...

The draft is supposed to ensure parity across the league. But it also helps teams retain power over players as they turn professionalThe NFL draft sells hope. In fans’ imagination draft prospects are anything they want them to be. When the draft starts in Las Vegas on Thursday, fans can dream that their team is one pick, one draft class away from becoming a Super Bowl contender.That is the kindest reading, the one that views the draft as a way to ensure competitive balance, of the league legislating parity. Another reading: it’s an exercise in wage suppression, giving as much money as possible to veterans at the expense of the young pups coming into the league. Some may say that it also serves as a way for the league and its franchises to exert control over new employees from the outset: they don’t get to choose where they’ll work or live; they’re sent to whatever outpost is dictated to them, their income decided by the rookie wage scale. Continue reading...

The bearded city council member in North Pole, Alaska, backs Bernie and champions child welfare. Could his new workshop be in Washington?Sarah Palin announced her candidacy for Alaska’s only congressional seat this month, entering a race with dozens of candidates. She certainly brings name recognition to the contest – but another contender may have her beat in that department.His name is Santa Claus. Continue reading...

Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren have an unpleasant amount in common with Angela Rayner. Female politicians are routinely belittled on both sides of the AtlanticYou have to be careful about letting women into politics, you really do. You give them a few rights and then they start clamouring for more. Worse still, they start using their womanly wiles to get their way, crossing their legs in parliament and distracting great Oxbridge-educated statesmen from their trains of thought.I speak, of course, of Angela Rayner. Labour’s deputy leader was accused by the Mail on Sunday (MoS) last week of a “Basic Instinct ploy to distract Boris” by … moving her legs at work. Continue reading...

Logistics firm self-reported almost 3,000 violations of sanctions targeting terrorism and regimes in North Korea, Iran and Syria, US treasury says

EU commissioner raises hate speech concerns as UK draws attention to penalties in online safety billThe UK and EU have warned that Twitter must comply with new content rules or face sanctions that range from fines to a total ban, as concerns were raised that hate speech will increase on the platform under the ownership of Elon Musk.The world’s richest man has agreed a $44bn (£34bn) deal to buy the social media network, which will hand control of a platform with 217 million users to a self-confessed “free speech absolutist”. Continue reading...

Police say baby Brandon Cuellar, who has since been found, was taken from home at about 1pm on MondayA 3-month-old baby who was kidnapped from his San Francisco Bay Area home was found Tuesday and three suspects were detained, police said.The baby, Brandon Cuellar, was taken to a hospital as a precaution, the San Jose police department announced on Twitter, without saying where the boy was located. Continue reading...

North Carolina congressman faces misdemeanor criminal charge after gun spotted at security screening checkpointThe far-right North Carolina Republican congressman Madison Cawthorn is facing a misdemeanor criminal charge after police at an airport in his home state said they found a gun in his bag Tuesday.Police at Charlotte Douglas international airport handed Cawthorn, 26, a municipal citation accusing him of possessing a dangerous weapon on city property, officers said in a statement. Continue reading...

The US 'has seen no sign to date' that Russia’s president Vladimir Putin wants to end the Ukraine conflict through diplomacy, US secretary of state Antony Blinken has said.Confronted by the Kentucky Republican Rand Paul, who wanted to know why the Biden administration was 'agitating' for Ukraine to join Nato, Blinken said it would be a decision for Ukraine to make if they remained independent. He added the US government was 'broadly aligned' with Ukraine's needs

The vice-president’s case is considered a ‘breakthrough’ infection, as she is fully vaccinated and received a booster shot last OctoberUS vice-president Kamala Harris has tested positive for Covid-19, her office announced on Tuesday.Harris has not displayed any symptoms and will isolate and work from her vice-president’s residence in Washington DC, her office said, adding that she has also not been in close contact with Joe Biden or the first lady, Jill Biden. Continue reading...

President will pardon three people, including a former Secret Service agent, and reduce the sentences of 75 othersJoe Biden will issue the first pardons of his presidential term on Tuesday, in addition to reducing dozens of prison sentences and launching criminal justice reform initiatives.The president will pardon three people and will reduce the sentences of 75 additional people, many of whom have been convicted of non-violent drug crimes. Continue reading...

Administration appeals lower-court rulings that required controversial border asylum program to be reinstatedThe Biden administration is seeking the US supreme court’s go-ahead to end a controversial Trump-era immigration program that forces many seeking asylum in the US to wait in Mexico for their hearings.The justices are hearing arguments on Tuesday in the administration’s appeal of lower-court rulings that required immigration officials to reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy that the administration “has twice determined is not in the interests of the United States,” according to court filings. Continue reading...

Military judge rules Cooley must forfeit $54,550 in pay and face a public reprimand for forcibly kissing his sister-in-law in 2018A two-star general in the US air force who was convicted over the weekend of abusive sexual contact for forcibly kissing his sister-in-law after a family cookout in 2018 must forfeit $54,550 in pay and face a public reprimand, a military judge ruled Tuesday.Gen William Cooley received that sentence, military officials confirmed in a statement, after becoming the first-ever general to face a military trial in the American air force’s 75-year history. Continue reading...

Anti-Defamation League counts 2,717 incidents of harassment, assault and vandalism in 2021 – highest since it began countingA Jewish civil rights organization’s annual tally of antisemitic incidents in the US reached a record high last year, with a surge that coincided with an 11-day war between Israel and the Hamas militant group, according to a report released Tuesday.The Anti-Defamation League counted 2,717 antisemitic incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism in 2021, a 34% increase over the previous year and the highest number since the New York City-based group began tracking such incidents in 1979. Continue reading...

Brooklyn began the season with a core of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden. They ended it with zero playoff wins and a crushing loss to the CelticsThe Brooklyn Nets began this season as many experts’ favorites to reach the NBA finals from the Eastern Conference. Instead, they were swept by the Boston Celtics in the first-round of the playoffs. All that’s left now is to try to figure out what went wrong in Brooklyn. Continue reading...

New York Times reporters show how Senate leader’s opposition to Trump dwindled in face of hard political realityHours after the deadly Capitol attack on 6 January 2021, the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, told a reporter he was “exhilarated” because he thought Donald Trump had finally lost his grip on the party.Close to a year and a half later, however, with midterm elections looming, Trump retains control over the GOP and is set to be its presidential candidate in 2024. Continue reading...

Do not weep for Twitter, its users, or its investors. Weep for the entire chain of bad political decisions that allowed us to get to this pointThe loudest reaction to Elon Musk buying Twitter, for some reason, has been concern about “free speech”. The second loudest reaction has been dismay about the fact that Elon Musk is a bad guy, and now he owns Twitter. I regret to inform you that both of these reactions are missing the point here – and the point is much, much scarier.Will Elon Musk do anything meaningful to transform Twitter into a valuable and flourishing public square, a shining beacon of the power of untrammelled free speech to ennoble society, rather than the cesspool of neuroses, conspiracy theories and media feuds that it is now? Probably not. On the other hand, it’s already a cesspool. Can’t get too much worse.Hamilton Nolan is a labor reporter at In These Times Continue reading...

I am hopelessly addicted to Twitter, despite its many faults. Musk’s takeover, and the likely return of Donald Trump, fills me with dreadHow does he do it all? Elon Musk is a father of seven, a busy businessman, a would-be coloniser of Mars and a full-time internet troll. As if he didn’t have enough on his plate, the world’s richest and most attention-seeking man has also just reached a deal to buy Twitter for $44bn. Not content with simply spending an inordinate amount of time posting puerile jokes on the platform, he is now seizing the memes of production.But don’t worry: it is not just a vanity project, it’s “philanthropy”. Musk has explained that he is buying Twitter to protect free speech and civil liberties. “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said in a statement posted to his new toy.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Comments come as diplomats gather in Germany for US-hosted talks to navigate ‘critical’ phase. Plus, Bennifer and the other couples who get back together

The tiny New Jersey university shocked some of the biggest teams at this year’s NCAA tournament. The effects are still being felt a month laterTake it from the president at Saint Peter’s himself: Life has not quite returned to normal at the tiny Jersey City university, whose basketball team stunned the sports world in March by becoming the first No 15 seed in history to reach the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight.“This may sound crazy,” Eugene J Cornacchia tells the Guardian, referring to the student body, “but they seem to be walking with more confidence, more spring in their step.” Continue reading...

The UN’s annual report on mitigating calamities shows that a radical rethink is needed to protect those who suffer mostIf the world seems beset by constant disasters, from the pandemic to drought, we only have ourselves to blame.Over the past two decades, we have experienced up to 500 disasters a year as a result of human activity. By 2030, this could rise to 560 a year – or 10.7 a week. Continue reading...

Records Mark Meadows released to January 6 committee are missing texts from from critical 12-day periodDays before Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration, Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared in a text to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to press for Donald Trump to overturn his 2020 election defeat by invoking martial law, new messages show.The message – one of more than 2,000 texts turned over by Meadows to the House select committee investigating January 6 and first reported by CNN – shows that some of Trump’s most ardent allies on Capitol Hill were pressing for Trump to return himself to office even after the Capitol attack. Continue reading...

Sheena Gullett was stranded in a broken down car after it became stuck in the snow in California and her friend went for helpA woman stranded for six days in a broken-down car in a remote northern California forest survived by rationing yogurt and eating snow, authorities said.The ordeal of Sheena Gullett, 52, was detailed in a Facebook post by the Lassen county sheriff’s office. Gullett and friend Justin Lonich, 48, were driving to Little Valley, a small incorporated community, on dirt roads off Highway 44 on 14 April when their vehicle became stuck in snow. They spent the night in the vehicle and in the morning its battery was dead. Continue reading...

The people’s convoy had gathered outside lawmaker Buffy Wicks’s house to protest her support of an abortion rights billA convoy of trucks that had gathered outside a California lawmaker’s house over the weekend to protest her support of an abortion rights bill was forced to leave the area after crossing paths with a group of young people armed with eggs.The people’s convoy, inspired by Canadian truckers who shut down roads to protest vaccine mandates, arrived in the Bay Area last week after weeks of demonstrations in Washington DC. Continue reading...

Bishop Evans jumped into the Rio Grande on Friday to save two people he thought were struggling to swim acrossSearch crews on Monday recovered the body of a Texas national guard soldier who apparently drowned three days earlier while trying to save two people he believed were struggling to swim across the Rio Grande near the US southern border.The 22-year-old soldier, Bishop E Evans, was working in Eagle Pass as part of a border security operation under the direction of the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott. Evans’ superiors hailed him as “selfless” and condemned the people he was trying to save as suspected drug traffickers attempting to enter the country without permission. Continue reading...

Republican governor embraces top priority of his party, following Donald Trump’s false claims that his 2020 re-election was stolenFlorida governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill Monday to create a police force dedicated to pursuing voter fraud and other election crimes, embracing a top priority of Republicans after Donald Trump’s false claims that his reelection was stolen.DeSantis, who is running for reelection and considered a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate, made voting legislation a focus this year, pushing the Republican-controlled Legislature to create the policing unit in a speech where he referenced unspecified cases of voter fraud, which have become popular talking points in his party. Continue reading...

Mexican American woman, 52, who was due to be put to death on Wednesday, wins time for court to consider new evidenceThe Texas court of criminal appeals has issued a stay of execution for Melissa Lucio, the Mexican-American woman who was set to be judicially killed within 48 hours, ordering a lower court to consider new evidence of her innocence in the death of her two-year-old daughter Mariah.The court issued its order on Monday as the final clock was ticking on Lucio’s transfer to the death chamber. She would have been the first Hispanic woman executed by Texas. Continue reading...

New York judge holds former president in contempt of court for failing to comply with a subpoena for documentsA New York judge has held Donald Trump in contempt and fined him $10,000 a day, following the former president’s failure to hand over documents to prosecutors investigating his business practices.Letitia James, the New York state attorney general, had asked for the contempt finding this month stating that Trump had not complied with a subpoena requiring him to produce documents and information. Continue reading...

Jeff Leach, leading push to stop possibly innocent woman being ‘murdered by the state’, calls case ‘most troubling I’ve ever seen’The Texas Republican spearheading an extraordinary bipartisan effort to delay Wednesday’s execution of a Mexican American woman amid mounting evidence of her innocence has described the case as “the most troubling I’ve ever seen, possibly the most troubling in the history of our state”.In an interview with the Guardian, Jeff Leach, a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives, said that even strong supporters of the death penalty – as he once considered himself – had great concern about the rapidly approaching execution. Melissa Lucio, 52, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection for killing her two-year-old daughter Mariah, but new scientific evidence suggests the toddler died accidentally after a fall. Continue reading...

White House pandemic coordinator says press conference was lamentable but does not regret taking position on Trump’s teamThe former White House Covid response coordinator, Deborah Birx, has decried the press conference in 2020 during which, in her presence, Donald Trump floated the idea of the injection of disinfectant to treat coronavirus – calling the episode a “tragedy on many levels”.In an interview with Good Morning America, Birx said she does not regret taking on the role in Trump’s team, even though she received criticism for not standing up to his misinformed comments more forcefully at the time. Continue reading...

The newly re-elected French president is determined to transform the EU, but the obstacles are enormous“We did it. We turned the European Union into a giant, able to hold its own in a world of giants such as China and the United States.” In summer 2027, as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, looks back on his recently completed decade in office, will he be able to say this? A lot will depend on who he means by “we”.“European sovereignty” is Macron’s term for being a giant in a world of giants. Strategic sovereignty involves not being dependent on Russia for your energy, the US for your security or China for your corporate profits. It’s having a European foreign and security policy muscular enough to deter aggressors such as Vladimir Putin, even if the US has re-elected Donald Trump in 2024. It’s also not relying entirely on others for your microchips, AI and digital platforms. In short, it’s a very long way from where Europe is today.Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political writer and Guardian columnist Continue reading...

By posing in a digger just after Muslim properties had been razed, Johnson is enabling Modi’s nationalist policiesBoris Johnson belongs in a Bombay film. In a photo from his recent India visit he’s pictured leaning out of the cab of a yellow excavator in a JCB factory with all the swagger of Shammi Kapoor hanging out of a moving train in the 1962 classic film Professor. There’s the same pudgy flair, the same willingness to be ridiculous in the cause of charm, and the same blithe disregard for time and place.The day before Johnson landed in Ahmedabad, seven of these JCB diggers had been used to raze Muslim shops and homes, and the gate of a mosque in New Dehli’s Jahangirpuri area, in defiance of a supreme court stay on demolition. The municipality that ordered the demolitions was run by the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), and the brazen disregard of the apex court’s orders seemed almost staged for television.Mukul Kesavan is an essayist and author who teaches history at Jamia Millia Islamia university in New Delhi Continue reading...

To the watching world, the Ukrainian resistance has been a crash-course in the heroic – a call for us to apply the same courage, whether physical or moral, in grappling with the many crises of our ageThe Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion has had repercussions far beyond that country’s borders, prompting urgent reconsideration of everything from energy policy to authoritarianism to European history. For me, it’s also been a crash course in the heroic, as we watch Ukrainians risk and sometimes lose their lives to defend their country, their homes, their principles, their rights and their future. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, was much admired for refusing to leave Kyiv as the Russian army marched toward it, but ordinary people have also demonstrated courage, defiance and commitment.Often they did so with wit and panache, as with the Ukrainian sailor’s famous “Russian warship, go fuck yourself” reply to a demand to surrender. People studied first aid, made molotov cocktails, joined the resistance, helped neighbors and strangers. While millions have fled the country, the great majority of Ukrainians remain, some of them sheltered by strangers in safer parts of the country, some taking refuge in basements and, in Kyiv, subways and bomb shelters. Maryna Hanitska, the new director of the Borodyanka Psychoneurological Nursing Home, stayed with the facility’s residents for the weeks during which Russian soldiers pointed guns in her face, the buildings lost heat, water and power, and some died of the cold and used her hidden mobile phone to send information to the Ukrainian military.Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. Her most recent books are Recollections of My Nonexistence and Orwell’s Roses Continue reading...

The awful reality is that the far right remains perilously close to power – and my country has a president that no one trustsWhen Emmanuel Macron’s face appeared on TV at 8pm last night, my friends and I breathed a sigh of relief. With Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (formerly National Front), the far right had come perilously close to gaining power in France, and after two weeks of constant worry about what that would mean for our country’s minorities and institutions, disaster was averted.The same scene was repeating all around France, as we received texts reading “Ouf!” (“Phew !”). It’s an “Ouf!” French voters know too well by now: we already shared it five years ago, when Macron and Le Pen faced each other in the runoff of the 2017 presidential election and he won by 66% of the vote to 34%. But this time, he only defeated her by 58.5% to 41.5%, and the feeling of deja vu quickly gave way to indignation. In April 2002, when Marine Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie, stunned France by going to the runoff against Jacques Chirac, the National Front was defeated 18% to 82%. The margin for comfort has all but evaporated in two decades. How much can we relax when the far right comes closer to reaching the Elysée at every election?Pauline Bock is a French journalist based in Paris. She covers media and politics for the independent website Arrêt sur Images Continue reading...

Washington pledges more military aid, including advanced weapons, and return of US envoys. Plus the parents of trans children tackle the lawGood morning.Russia is failing in its war aims and “Ukraine is succeeding”, Washington’s top diplomat has announced after a visit to Kyiv during which he pledged additional military aid, including advanced weapons, and a return of US envoys.What else did Blinken say? He told reporters this morning: “Ukrainians are standing up. They are standing strong. And they are doing that with the support that we have coordinated from literally around the world.What has Russia said? The Kremlin has warned the US against sending more arms to Ukraine, Moscow’s ambassador to Washington told Russian state television. “We stressed the unacceptability of this situation when the United States of America pours weapons into Ukraine,” Anatoly Antonov said.What else is happening? Here’s what we know on day 61 of the invasion.What were the results? Macron beat Le Pen with a lower margin than the 66% he won against her in 2017. Turnout was also lower than five years ago, with abstention estimated at a record 28%.What’s next for Marine Le Pen? Far-right leader hails “victory in itself” and vows to fight on after winning more than 40% of the vote. Continue reading...

As more Republican states target trans youth, a group of parents meet to push back on discriminatory legislation, share stories and celebrateThe faces of two clearly exhausted adults appear on a screen at the front of the room. They wish to be identified only as parents from Texas.“I don’t know what I look like on your end,” the mother says, “but I know I look like death on my end, so it can’t be good on the Zoom screen.” Continue reading...

The Williams sisters dominated tennis for much of the 21st-century but their male counterparts have been overshadowed in the Big Three eraWhen 17-year-old Michael Chang won the French Open in 1989, it was a huge event for American tennis. Not only was it the story of a teenager coming from seemingly nowhere to win a major, it also represented the end of a nearly (gasp!) five-year drought of men’s slam champions for the United States. After all, never before had there been more than four consecutive calendar years in the entire history of the sport when an American had not claimed one of the four slams.Chang’s victory ushered in a golden age for American men’s tennis. He was joined by Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Jim Courier. Collectively the group won a total of 27 grand slam titles (with Sampras’s 14 leading the way) over a 15-year period, from Chang’s win in Paris through to Agassi’s last major, at the Australian Open in 2003. Continue reading...

The Eagles owner and future NFL commissioner became disillusioned as the big teams swept up the best players. But he had a simple solution to ensure parityThe NFL draft, which starts on Thursday, has become a spectacular, three-day, wall-to-wall TV blowout watched by millions. But Upton Bell insists that its basic appeal has not changed all that much since the first draft was held 86 years ago.“It’s the great American crapshoot,” Bell tells the Guardian from his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, referring to the uncertain future of any draftee – or the team that drafts him. Continue reading...

From non-mother to mother: the scale of the change is almost unspeakable. Yet I am the same person Continue reading...

Democratic congresswoman joins Bernie Sanders in Staten Island and says workers’ successful effort was ‘first domino to fall’The progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told Amazon’s first unionized workers in New York on Sunday that their victory was “the first domino to fall” in what she expected to be a wave of similar votes for representation across the country.The leftwing Democrat joined Vermont senator Bernie Sanders on stage in Staten Island to celebrate the historic achievement and to call for workers in more Amazon facilities in the US to follow their example. Continue reading...

National guard soldier Bishop Evans, 22, attempted to save two people he believed were drowning but did not resurfaceSearch crews combed the Rio Grande for a third day Sunday looking for signs of a Texas national guard soldier who went missing in the water amid an attempt to save two people he believed were drowning.For the first time Sunday, Texas officials publicly identified the missing soldier as Bishop E Evans, a 22-year-old specialist and field artilleryman. Continue reading...

Warren gives party stark warning in CNN interview, and condemns House minority leader Kevin McCarthy as ‘liar and a traitor’Democrats need to “get up off our rear ends” and work to bring down prices and runaway inflation, or face wipeout in November’s midterm elections, the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren warns.In a forthright interview Sunday morning on CNN’s State of the Union, the former candidate for her party’s presidential nomination also lambasted the Republican House minority leader Kevin McCarthy as “a liar and a traitor” after he was caught on tape lying about his support for Donald Trump after the 6 January insurrection. Continue reading...

Crash comes after authorities in March reported arresting 210,000 migrants attempting to cross southern border without permissionSixteen people – most of whom were trying to enter the US without permission – were injured when their pickup truck crashed while being chased at high speeds by Texas police, according to authorities.Two of those hurt were critically wounded and flown to hospitals in San Antonio by helicopter, said the sheriff of Medina county, Randy Brown, whose deputies pursued the truck at the center of the wreck. Continue reading...