US news | The Guardian

Former PR chief says Trump wielded complete control over 2016 campaign - and her testimony could be a coup for prosecutors

Cosmetic procedures are on the rise among younger people; I'm barely 30. Still this is about more than just clinging to youthEveryone goes through it: a reckoning with one's own mortality in the mirror, poking at eye bags and tugging at folds of loose skin. Am I looking a bit rough? It's part of the human condition to fear ageing, but among millennials and gen Z there seems to be a heightened anxiety around growing older, coupled with an increasingly casual attitude towards getting fillers and Botox compared with previous generations.Almost half of millennial women polled by the BBC in 2019 said they believed that having a cosmetic procedure was akin to having a haircut. I can say from experience that it is not. Like many, I have fallen victim to negative anti-ageing rhetoric. After months of staring at my tired face on Zoom calls during lockdown, I felt as if my hot years were slipping through my fingers. When the world opened up, I found a doctor to restore" my hollowed out under-eyes with 1ml of filler. I was barely 28.Georgina Lawton is the author of Raceless: In Search of Family, Identity and the Truth About Where I BelongDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Bureau of Labor Statistics releases latest estimate of how much labor receives of national income, showing bleak declineWhen Jesse Motte began working at a Starbucks inside a Target store in Columbia, South Carolina, more than two years ago, $15 an hour sounded great. He was excited to start because it was the most he had ever made after working for years in the service industry.The excitement has dissipated due to his inconsistent and erratic work schedule, the rising costs of necessities and the minuscule raises he and his co-workers receive annually. His most recent annual wage increase was $0.37 an hour. Continue reading...

Unrwa says offensive will cause more civilian suffering and deaths.' Plus, death toll climbs in Brazil floods

Far-right congresswoman has spearheaded effort to oust fellow Republican as speaker but motion to vacate widely expected to failThe House is expected to vote this week on a motion to remove Republican Mike Johnson as speaker, but the effort, spearheaded by hard-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, faces virtually no chance of success.Greene announced on Wednesday that she would move forward with forcing a vote on Johnson's removal this week, following through on a threat she first issued in late March. Greene has consistently attacked Johnson for advancing bills that have attracted widespread bipartisan support, such as the government spending proposal approved in March and the foreign aid package signed into law last month. Continue reading...

Radical honesty isn't for the faint-hearted, but it's one of the greatest joys I've ever discoveredI never used to think of myself as a liar. I always saw myself as an honest person. The only time I'd ever veer from the truth was to protect someone's feelings. But that wasn't really lying, I would tell myself, it was an act of kindness!And then I had a therapy session, where I realised that all of this was actually people-pleasing behaviour and it turned out I was a prolific liar. Not only that, but according to my therapist, by constantly hiding my true feelings to protect those I loved, I was blocking them from ever getting to know the real me and creating true intimacy.Radhika Sanghani is a writer and author. Her children's book The Girl Who Couldn't Lie is published on 9 May Continue reading...

For those who like their boxing straight up, the Mexican's win on Saturday night solidified his status as the signature fighter of this eraBoxing has changed. HBO and Showtime are gone. Once dominant fighters like Roy Jones, Bernard Hopkins, Andre Ward, and the Klitschko Brothers have left the arena. Big fights are gravitating to Saudi Arabia.In recent years, through it all, there has been one constant - Canelo Alvarez.Thomas Hauser's email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book - a memoir titled My Mother and Me - is now available in stores. In 2019, he was selected for boxing's highest honor - induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Continue reading...

At Columbia University I saw young people who feel they have no choice but to risk their futuresOn a hot day last week, the pavements outside Columbia University were heaving. About 200 protesters were gathered, making a noise that was bigger than their numbers, raising pro-Palestine chants and signs. It was a disparate crowd, diverse across ethnicities and generations. I've lived in this neighbourhood all my life," said one of them when I asked him why he was there. One smiling elderly lady walked through the crowd offering small bottles of water. A helicopter circled overhead. The police who encircled the crowd were jittery, yelling at passersby to keep moving, and raising the temperature of what was a loud but perfectly orderly and amiable crowd.Once inside the campus, I made my way to the reason for protesters, the police and the high security at the university gates: an encampment of students on a patch of lawn at the heart of campus. It had been up for about two weeks at this point, after a series of demands to university administrators, including divestment from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid", were not met. Continue reading...

Largely white, male group taunts pro-Palestinian protesters on campus and one man makes racist gesture towards Black womanDozens of students at the University of Mississippi gathered this week to protest against Israel's war in Gaza and to call for the state's flagship university to be transparent in its potential dealings with Israel.There were hundreds of counter-protesters, in contrast to the few dozen pro-Palestinian protesters. The scene evoked memories of the resistance to the civil rights struggle in the US south six decades earlier. Continue reading...

Officers in riot gear raid encampment at dawn as university warns demonstrators that failure to leave could lead to arrestPolice have dismantled the student-led Palestinian solidarity encampment at the University of Southern California.About 4am on Saturday, as many as 100 Los Angeles police officers in riot gear raided the encampment at dawn as anti-war student demonstrators slept in the tents. In a series of tweets during the raid, the university warned demonstrators to leave the area, adding that people who don't leave could be arrested". Continue reading...

Republicans accuse president of weak response, but prominent Democrats claim he has been very strong from the beginning'Some Democrats rallied to the defense of Joe Biden on Sunday as the president came under increased criticism over his response to pro-Palestinian student protests and his handling of Israel's war on Gaza.Republicans have seized on Biden's response to the protests, which have seen more than2,000 people arrested around the country, accusing him of a weak response. But prominent Democrats, including Biden re-election campaign co-chairperson Mitch Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans, claimed the president has been very strong about this from the beginning". Continue reading...

Democrat says country is going off track after Trump compares Biden administration to Germany's fascist secret policeThe senior congressional Democrat James Clyburn has responded to remarks made by Donald Trump at a private event on Saturday in which he compared the Biden administration with the Gestapo secret police in fascist Germany, saying it was incredible, but it's not surprising".The 83-year-old South Carolina Democrat added that Trump is given to hyperbole on every subject that he ever approaches ... The country got off track after that 1876 election and we are approaching the same kinds of elements today." Continue reading...

From Arsenal's crucial goalscorer to another rudderless performance from Tottenham, we hand out honors (and dishonors) from the top-flight weekendWe witnessed man take flight in Manchester on Saturday, when Erling Haaland rose at the back post to impale a Rodri cross into the far corner. Behold: Haaland with his finest Michael Jordan impression.Not content with His Airness moment, Haaland added another three goals in City's 5-1 win over Wolves, taking his tally in club football to 200 in five seasons. Not bad," Haaland said after the game. Continue reading...

Yolanda George, mother of Christopher Gilbert, calls on police to make arrest after incident in Louisiana in AprilThe family of a 26-year-old Louisiana man who has brain damage after a friend allegedly pushed him into a lake despite him being unable to swim is calling on authorities to deliver them justice.Christopher Gilbert's family's pleas came after he nearly drowned on 14 April while at a lakefront restaurant by Lake D'Arbonne in the northern Louisiana town of Farmerville. Continue reading...

South Dakota governor and possible Trump running mate says she made a choice between [my children] and a dangerous animal'The South Dakota governor and Republican vice-presidential hopeful Kristi Noem asked the American public to consider having to make a choice between your children or a dangerous animal", as she again defended her killing of a 14-month-old dog.I would ask everybody in the country to put themselves in that situation," Noem told CBS's Face the Nation about her decision to shoot the dog, named Cricket, after the animal ruined a pheasant hunt and killed a neighbor's chickens. Continue reading...

Joe Biden and Donald Trump are the two oldest candidates in US history. If either needs to be replaced, what next?Americans are bracing for a rare presidential rematch between the two oldest candidates in US history: the 81-year-old president Joe Biden and the 77-year-old former president Donald Trump.Concerns about their age, mental fitness and the possibility that Trump could be convicted of a felony and sentenced to jail time have raised questions about what would happen in the extraordinary event one of them dies, becomes incapacitated or abruptly withdraws. Continue reading...

The 1978 world champion and his son are frustrated by their rejected bid to launch an F1 team but are not giving up hopeThe former Formula One world champion Mario Andretti, perhaps the most successful driver in US history, is certainly at ease in the paddock for this weekend's Miami GrandPrix.The 84-year-old, who won his F1 championship in 1978 for Lotus and has also taken four IndyCar titles, victories at the Indy 500, the Daytona 500 and has been honoured as the US driver of the year in three separate decades, still revels in immersing himself in the sport and his pleasure at its burgeoning revival in his home country is palpable. Continue reading...

A flood watch remains in effect through Sunday afternoon after forecasters predict additional rainfall in Harris countyHigh waters flooded neighborhoods around Houston on Saturday following heavy rains that resulted in crews rescuing more than 400 people from homes, rooftops and roads engulfed in murky water. Others prepared to evacuate their properties.A flood watch remained in effect through Sunday afternoon after forecasters predicted additional rainfall Saturday night and the likelihood of major flooding in Harris county, the nation's third-largest county which includes Houston, and nearby areas. Continue reading...

Authorities characterized the wreck as only ... a traffic crash' rather than an intentional, politically motivated actFor the second time since January, a motorist crashed into the gates of the White House on Saturday.The driver in Saturday's case was pronounced dead at the scene after smashing a speeding car into an outer gate of the US president's home and workplace. Authorities characterized the wreck as only ... a traffic crash" rather than an intentional, politically motivated act. Continue reading...

Beware what the fitness gurus tell you: the body has its limits. Perhaps that's why orthopaedic waiting lists are so longI am preparing for an anaesthetist to sink a hypodermic needle into my back at a busy London hospital ahead of a scheduled surgery to replace my knee. Knowing this might be painful, I ask a fellow patient how he got his mind around the jab. Two spliffs of good dope worked for me," he confessed. I'm yet to try that, but this is my second left knee replacement in less than 15 years - an increasingly common story as our population ages and obesity levels cause growing strain on our joints.More than 2m hip and knee replacements have been performed in the UK since the early 2000s and waiting lists continue to grow. By 2060, demand for hip and knee joint replacement (based on data for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man) is estimated to increase by almost 40%. Continue reading...

Former England cricketer Monty Panesar is to stand for parliament, but he doesn't seem to know what his own policies areThere's an old adage that says sport and politics don't mix. It's a moot point with persuasive arguments on both sides. But in light of former England spin bowler Monty Panesar's jaw-dropping radio interview last week as George Galloway's Workers Party of Britain's prospective candidate for Ealing Southall, west London, in thenext election, perhaps a more pertinent question is whether sportspeople and politics are a propitious union.Panesar, once described as the best finger spinner in the world", was asked about the party's commitment to leave Nato, which is one of its key policies. He admitted that he didn't have a deep knowledge" of Nato but explained that his party wanted to quit the military alliance to prevent illegal immigration. Continue reading...

The protests sweeping US universities have brought intense division, but some students have treasured hope, unity, solidarity and loveSeven months ago, before Hamas stormed into Israel, killing roughly 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostage, Eleanora Ginsborg and Samar Omer had never met.But in the attack's violent aftermath, Ginsborg and Omer, students at the University of California, San Diego, forged a new friendship - and a new sense of activism-fueled purpose. A third student who already knew Omer like a sister", and requested to go by the pseudonym Hala Abdallah out of safety concerns, completed the group. Continue reading...

Depending on the expert, either Biden or Trump is likely to pull ahead, but nothing about this election - especially events - is predictableYou know what I hate?" Donald Trump asked in Freeland, Michigan, on Wednesday night. When these guys get on television, they say - pundits, you know, the great pundits that never did a thing in their whole lives - You know, we have two very unpopular candidates. We have Biden or we have Trump. These are very unpopular.'"Watched by a crowd of adoring fans in Make America Great Again (Maga) regalia, against the backdrop of a plane marked Trump" in giant gold letters, the former US president protested a little too much: I'm not unpopular!" Continue reading...

Biden's call for order after on-campus clashes and mass arrests of pro-Palestinian protesters further threatens the youth voteWhen student Lauren Brown first heard the commotion, including firecrackers, she assumed the sounds were coming from nearby frat houses. Then, at around four in the morning, she heard helicopters. Later, she awoke to news and footage of a violent attack by pro-Israeli protesters on an encampment set up to oppose the ongoing war in Gaza.It was hard to watch," said Brown, 19, a freshman at the University of California, Los Angeles, whose dorm was near the encampment. And I wondered where the police were. I saw posts from people talking about them being teargassed and maced and campus security was just watching." Continue reading...

Emerging from Covid's shadow, the city is resonating with glamour, politics and power - and the traffic jams are building up tooCall it a return to IRL (In Real Life). New Yorkers are experiencing a bracing resumption of the physical experience of living in the city, four years after the onset of the pandemic upended routines, pushed people online and left much of the population, as in so many places, wondering if normality would ever return.Uptown, police have broken up student protests on the Columbia and City University campuses condemning Israel's attack on Gaza. Downtown, a furious Donald Trump is commandeering attention from the courthouse on the edge of Chinatown, snarling up traffic as his motorcade travels to and fro. President Biden's fundraising trips to the city to fund his re-election are having a similareffect. Continue reading...

Last week, Conservative campaigning gave a chilling indication of the depths to which they will sink to retain powerIn the psychedelic 60s stop-frame animation children's television series Trumpton, all the characters have identifying proper names - the fireman Captain Flack, the state stormtrooper Police Constable Potter, and the mysterious dungeon-dwelling economist Gideon Pencils Osborne. The mayor of Trumpton, however, was known only as The Mayor, and neither his actual name nor his political affiliations were ever revealed, though he smelt of pubs and Wormwood Scrubs and too many rightwing meetings.All over the land last week, Tory mayors dreamed of similar anonymity, hoping that if no one knew anything about them, and their campaign literature didn't reveal they belonged to the Tory party, people might at least vote for them by accident, thinking they were someone else. Oh! Andy Street was the West Midlands' Tory mayor candidate? I thought I was voting for the glamorous, and now deceased, Welsh wrestler Adrian Street. I liked it when he pulled out Jimmy Savile's hair in 1971."Stewart Lee's new live show, Stewart Lee vs the Man-Wulf, opens in London in December before a national tour

The mistakes made at one point in time have an eerie way of re-emerging as memories fadeI've been spending the last several weeks trying to find out what's really going on with the campus protests.I've met with students at Berkeley, where I teach. I've visited with faculty at Columbia University. I've spoken by phone with young people and professors at many other universities.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His newest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

Raised as we now are on social media and true crime, we need to fight the impulse to always find out moreIf you haven't yet watched Baby Reindeer, a story that begins with its star Richard Gadd's experience with a stalker, you probably have a good reason. It will not be because, for instance, nobody has recommended it, told you how extraordinary it is, or powerful, or unique, and it won't be because you haven't heard of it - its success has been startling (as I type it's at the top of Netflix's UK and US charts weeks after its release) and its themes have made headlines. It could be, as is the case with a friend of mine, that its subject matter hits too close to home, and however unsettling it is for me to watch, for them the prospect feels like it might pull a thread and unravel everything, not least the damage caused by police failures, but we'll come to that.Despite Gadd's nuanced portrayal of the woman who stalked him, and his beautifully strange story of love and trauma, some fans of the show quickly created a horrible sort of sequel when they attempted to expose the stalker on social media. Historic tweets were urgently screengrabbed, photographs posted side by side, she was quote-tweeted as if a celebrity - the character's name was trending for days. On Instagram, Gadd urged them to stop. Please don't speculate on who any of the real-life people could be. That's not the point of our show." Continue reading...

The WTA finals host revealed its commitment to women's rights by jailing a female activistIf a record of sexual apartheid is not the ideal look for a nation that must still, occasionally, placate progressives, news of an extreme example - the lengthy imprisonmentof Manahel al-Otaibi, a 29-year-old fitness instructor and women's rights activist - has at least arrived too late to tarnish Saudi Arabia's latest sporting triumph: buying up the Women's Tennis Association finals.In fact, given that country's hectic promotional schedule, there could hardly have been a more convenient time for human rights organisations to report, as they did last week, that al-Otaibi whose circumstances were for months unknown, is serving 11years in prison for the terrorist" offences of wearing indecent clothes" (ie, not an abaya) and supporting women's rights. Her sister, Fouz al-Otaibi, fled the country in 2022 to avoid similar persecution. Fouz tweeted last week: Why have my rights become terrorism, and why is the world silent?" Continue reading...

Berkshire Hathaway's billionaire CEO, 93, steels shareholders for new era at the annual meeting known as Woodstock for Capitalists'As dawn broke on Saturday, thousands had gathered outside Omaha's CHI Health Center Arena. Some arrived before 3.30am, standing for hours in the drizzle.This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity", said Larry Blivas, 70, near the front of the line. The realtor traveled from Los Angeles to see an icon", he explained. Continue reading...

The IPP scandal should not be seen in isolation. It is all part of today's politics by vilificationDavid Blunkett acknowledged last week that it was the biggest regret" of his political life. As home secretary under Tony Blair in 2001, Blunkett was the architect of the imprisonment for public protection" scheme, or IPP.Under the IPP system, offenders were given a sentence (or tariff") proportionate to the offence committed. Once that sentence was completed, the offender was not released but remained imprisoned for as long as the Parole Board deemed them a risk to society". And when finally released, they remained on licence, meaning they could be recalled to prison at any time for minor breaches of regulation, or even because, as MPs discovered, of a lack of... suitable accommodation". Continue reading...

His constantly evolving works have been hailed as landmarks of the minimalist and post-painterly abstraction art movementsFrank Stella, a painter, sculptor and printmaker whose constantly evolving works are hailed as landmarks of the minimalist and post-painterly abstraction art movements, died on Saturday at his home in Manhattan. He was 87.Gallery owner Jeffrey Deitch, who spoke with Stella's family, confirmed his death to the Associated Press. Stella's wife, Harriet McGurk, told the New York Times that he died of lymphoma. Continue reading...

Berkshire Hathaway CEO stressed relationship at annual meeting attracting Apple CEO Tim Cook, Bill Gates and Bill MurrayThe billionaire investment tycoon Warren Buffett has stressed his empire will remain a key investor in Apple after it sold billions of dollars' worth of shares in the iPhone maker.Thousands of shareholders in Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett's sprawling conglomerate, have flocked to Omaha, Nebraska, for the firm's annual meeting - dubbed Woodstock for Capitalists - this weekend. Continue reading...

Rightwing media have seized on campus protests to portray the president as weak. Will it have an impact in November?At the height of the tensions on US campuses this week, with Republicans gleefully seizing on student unrest as an election issue that could propel Donald Trump back into the White House, Joe Biden tried to steer a middle path.Weighing the democratic right to peaceful protest and the political necessity to stem disruption, Biden declared that order must prevail". Continue reading...

Shug the pinstriped pony, who hoofed it as her trailer stopped on a highway, was eventually found horsing aroundA zebra that escaped from her owner in Washington state and went on the run for nearly six days has finally been rescued.In a statement released on Friday, the regional animal services of King county (Raskc) announced that the zebra - whose name is Shug - was captured near North Bend after roaming in the foothills of the Cascades for the better part of a week. Continue reading...

All praise to a classical singer for last week's rebellion against a sea ofilluminated screensIt was after the third song in Britten's Les Illuminations that Ian Bostridge decided he'd had enough. Wheeling round to face the constellation of screen lights that dotted Birmingham's vast Symphony Hall, the tenor called the show to a halt. Could everyone please turn off their phones? It was extremely distracting.After the performance, which was two weeks ago, Bostridge was surprised to find his phone-happy audience had been perfectly within their rights. More than that: they'd actually been encouraged to video him. The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) had last year decided to drop any perceived rules' of a traditional concert" in a bid to challenge conventions" and get young people" interested. Signs in its venues now ask ticketholders to bring drinks into the auditorium. Clap whenever they like. Wear whatever makes them feel comfortable. Take photos or short snippets of film (and share them with us)." Continue reading...

Jerry and Rita Alter, now deceased, are suspected of having stolen artworks in the 80s, including Willem de Kooning's Woman-OchreThe mystery of a nondescript, middle-aged couple who hung a stolen $150m Willem de Kooning painting behind a bedroom door in their Cliff, New Mexico, home may be closer to being resolved after the FBI agreed to assist in tracking down two other paintings that had been in the couple's possession.A new twist to the story of Jerry and Rita Alter, a pair of New Mexico teachers who somehow funded a life of travel and adventure to the point that they are suspected international art thieves, emerged recently when the US's top federal law enforcement agency confirmed it was getting involved in the case. Continue reading...

As she tries to limit the fallout from her dog- and goat-killing anecdotes, factual inaccuracies in her book are coming to lightAs she entered a second consecutive weekend trying to manage fallout from revelations in her upcoming memoir that she shot her dog to death, South Dakota's governor, Kristi Noem, had conceded that she would need to correct multiple factual inaccuracies in other parts of the book.Meanwhile, a Republican fundraiser which Noem was supposed to headline had to be canceled after threats against the event staff, hotel venue and governor, according to organizers. Continue reading...

More than 1,400 people have been arrested as police dismantle campus encampments - but are the tactics used too brutal?More than 1,400 people have been arrested across the US during a week of intense police crackdowns on a sprawling campus movement of pro-Palestine student demonstrations.As Joe Biden defended students' free speech rights but warned them that dissent must never lead to disorder", colleges across the country brought law enforcement to campus to arrest dozens or even hundreds of protesters and clear away their encampments. Continue reading...

Dozens of students at the University of Mississippi gathered this week to protest against Israel's war in Gaza and call for the state's flagship university to be transparent in its potential dealings with Israel.There were hundreds of counter-protesters, in contrast to the few dozen pro-Palestine protesters.The counter-protesters included individuals waving US and Donald Trump flags. There were no arrests, but the actions of the counter-protesters - who shouted 'Fuck Joe Biden' and 'USA', and included a white man apparently making monkey noisesat a Black woman - have been widely condemned on social media. Police safely evacuated the pro-Palestine students.

The online world was meant to be an open system but has become dominated by huge corporations. If we are to revive it, that must endBrowsing through a history of online public messaging last week, I came across a magical photograph from 1989 or 1990. It shows the world's first web server. It was Tim Berners-Lee's NeXT workstation in Cern, the international physics research lab, where he worked at the time. On the case is a tattered sticky label, on which is scribbled, in red ink, This machine is a server DO NOT POWER IT DOWN!!"Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist, had come up with the idea for a world wide web" as a way of locating and accessing documents that were scattered all over the internet. With a small group of colleagues he envisaged, designed and implemented it in the late 1980s and eventually put the whole thing - protocols, server and browser software, HTML specification, etc. - on one of Cern's internet servers, and in doing so changed the world. Continue reading...