Wednesday, 1 June 2022

The Guardian

The Guardian

Russia-Ukraine war: Moscow says US decision to supply Ukraine with rocket systems ‘increases risk’ of confrontation – live

Posted: 01 Jun 2022 01:24 AM PDT

US president says move will enable Ukraine 'to more precisely strike key targets'; most of Sievierodonetsk under Russian control

Away from the war in their homeland, Ukraine's men's football team are competing for a place in this year's Fifa World Cup in Qatar. Nick Ames writes for us:

When Ukraine face Scotland at Hampden Park tonight it will be less a rebirth than a reminder that, much as Russia might wish to erase the country's cultural identity, its football heritage remains truly alive. The act of playing for a World Cup place on Wednesday night, and over the next five days if all goes well, is both one of defiance and of expectation that, despite everything, good things can lie ahead.

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Himars: what are the advanced rockets US is sending Ukraine?

Posted: 31 May 2022 08:32 PM PDT

High Mobility Artillery Rocket System can hit Russian targets up to 50 miles (80km) away, helping to 'even the playing field'

Joe Biden has announced the US will send advanced missile systems to Ukraine. The new weapon is the Himars multiple launch rocket system, or MLRS: a mobile unit that can simultaneously launch multiple precision-guided missiles.

Both Ukraine and Russia already operate MLRS, but Himars has superior range and precision.

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Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 98 of the invasion

Posted: 31 May 2022 05:45 PM PDT

Sievierodonetsk mostly under Russian control; Kremlin further cuts gas supplies to Europe; seed bank in Kharkiv at risk

Russian forces now control of most of the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk. Serhiy Gaidai, the local governor, said in an online post late on Tuesday that Russian shelling had made it impossible to deliver humanitarian supplies or evacuate people. Civilians were told to stay underground.

President Zelenskiy has blasted the "madness" of bombing a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk. "Given the presence of large-scale chemical production in Sievierodonetsk, the Russian army's strikes there, including blind air bombing, are just crazy." Local officials said a nitric acid tank was hit and posted images of pink smoke billowing.

Zelenskiy said Ukraine's military forces have had some successes near Kherson and in parts of the Kharkiv region.

Ukraine welcomed EU sanctions but criticised the "unacceptable" delay. Speaking alongside Slovakia's President Zuzana Caputova in Kyiv, Zelenskiy noted that 50 days had passed between the fifth and sixth sanction packages.

Ukraine was working on an international UN-led operation with naval partners to ensure a safe trade route for food exports, according to Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, who said Russia was playing "hunger games with the world by blocking Ukrainian food exports".

Ukraine's giant seed bank is in danger of being destroyed. The genetic code for nearly 2,000 crops rests in underground vaults based in Kharkiv, north-eastern Ukraine, which has come under intense bombing. Read more of the Guardian's coverage how vital seed banks are in the climate crisis here and here.

The African Union warned EU leaders that Moscow's blockade of Ukraine's ports risked "a catastrophic scenario" of food shortages and price rises. Senegal's president, Macky Sall, who chairs the union, said "the worst is perhaps ahead of us" if current global food supply trends continued.

Ukraine would prosecute 80 suspected war criminals, said the prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova. Representatives of a group of countries investigating Russian war crimes have met with the international criminal court prosecutor, Karim Khan, at The Hague.

A senior Russian lawmaker has suggested kidnapping a Nato defence minister. Oleg Morozov from the United Russia party said on Rossiya-1 state TV he had a "fantastical plot" that a Nato war minister would travel to Kyiv and wake up in Moscow.

Sanctions against Russia are directed at ordinary citizens and motivated by hatred, the former president, Dmitry Medvedev, has said. Medvedev, who advises Vladimir Putin on national security, said on Telegram that the "endless tango of economic sanctions" won't touch the political elite but have brought losses for big business.

Russia has further cut off gas supplies to Europe. Gazprom turned off the taps to a top Dutch trader and halted flows to some companies in Denmark and Germany. The intensification follows the EU's decision to place an embargo on most Russian oil imports.

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Mass civil legal action to seek compensation for Ukrainian war victims

Posted: 31 May 2022 03:45 AM PDT

Exclusive: Lawyers to target assets of Russian state, military contractors and affiliated business figures across globe

A consortium of Ukrainian and international lawyers is preparing to launch a mass civil legal action against the Russian state, as well as private military contractors and businesspeople backing the Russian war effort, in an attempt to gain financial compensation for millions of Ukrainian victims of the war, the Guardian can reveal.

The team, made up of hundreds of lawyers and several major law firms, plans to bring "multiple actions in different jurisdictions against different targets", including the UK and the US, said Jason McCue, a London-based lawyer who is coordinating the initiative, in an interview in Kyiv.

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‘Humble and charismatic’: Uvalde shooting victims mourned at first funerals

Posted: 31 May 2022 07:18 PM PDT

Services for Amerie Jo Garza and Maite Rodriguez held on Tuesday, with 19 more planned for coming weeks

Funerals for the victims of the Uvalde elementary school shooting began in the small Texas town on Tuesday.

In the afternoon, hundreds of mourners turned out for the funeral mass for Amerie Jo Garza, a smiling fourth-grader who was killed a week ago after an 18-year-old gunman who was eventually killed by law enforcement murdered 19 children and two teachers at Robb elementary school.

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Peter Navarro subpoena suggests DoJ may be investigating Trump

Posted: 31 May 2022 06:11 PM PDT

Justice department seeks former aide's communications with ex-president and his attorneys

Peter Navarro, a top White House adviser to Donald Trump, is being commanded by a federal grand jury subpoena to turn over to the justice department his communications with the former president, the former president's attorneys and the former president's representatives.

The exact nature of the subpoena – served on 26 May 2022 and first obtained by the Guardian – and whether it means Trump himself is under criminal investigation for January 6 could not be established given the unusually sparse details included on the order.

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Deaths amid flooding and mudslides as Hurricane Agatha hits Mexico

Posted: 31 May 2022 06:53 PM PDT

Oaxaca state counts cost of strongest hurricane ever to come ashore in May during eastern Pacific hurricane season

Hurricane Agatha caused flooding and mudslides that killed at least 10 people and left 20 missing, the governor of the southern state of Oaxaca said on Tuesday.

Alejando Murat said rivers overflowed their banks and swept away people in homes, while other victims were buried under mud and rocks.

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Top Gun: Maverick sparks joy in Taiwan after its flag features on Tom Cruise jacket

Posted: 31 May 2022 10:12 PM PDT

Reports of cheers at an advance screening as Hollywood risks anger in Beijing at depiction on apparel of Cruise's Captain Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell

When the trailer for Top Gun: Maverick was first released online, keen-eyed viewers noticed a key detail from the 1986 original had changed: Taiwanese and Japanese flag patches on the back of a jacket worn by Tom Cruise appeared to have gone, leading to speculation they were removed to appease China's censors.

But the two flags remain in the cut being screened in Taiwan, with local news outlet Setn reporting that audiences at an advance screening cheered and applauded at the sight of the jacket. The inclusion of the flags left "many Taiwanese viewers moved, surprised and delighted", Setn reported.

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We cannot adapt our way out of climate crisis, warns leading scientist

Posted: 01 Jun 2022 12:00 AM PDT

Katharine Hayhoe says the world is heading for dangers people have not seen in 10,000 years of civilisation

The world cannot adapt its way out of the climate crisis, and counting on adaptation to limit damage is no substitute for urgently cutting greenhouse gases, a leading climate scientist has warned.

Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist for the Nature Conservancy in the US and professor at Texas Tech University, said the world was heading for dangers unseen in the 10,000 years of human civilisation, and efforts to make the world more resilient were needed but by themselves could not soften the impact enough.

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US supreme court blocks Texas law targeting social media rules

Posted: 31 May 2022 04:37 PM PDT

Measure passed by Republican-led legislature seeks to bar platforms from removing user posts based on 'viewpoint'

The US supreme court temporarily blocked a Texas law that would bar social media companies from removing user posts based on their "viewpoint", as lower courts battle over whether it would violate first amendment rights.

In a 5-4 decision, the justices granted a request from two technology industry groups that have argued the Republican-backed measure would turn platforms into "havens of the vilest expression imaginable".

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Man dies searching for Frisbees in Florida lake amid alligator warnings

Posted: 31 May 2022 05:21 PM PDT

Officials say 'gator was involved' in death of man at disc golf course where people often seek Frisbees to sell

A man died searching for Frisbees in a lake at a disc golf course where people are warned by signs to beware of alligators, police in Florida have said.

The unidentified man was looking for flying discs in the water and "a gator was involved", the Largo police department said in an email on Tuesday.

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US supreme court clerks may be required to hand over phone records – report

Posted: 31 May 2022 07:54 AM PDT

Some clerks reportedly considering retaining legal counsel as investigation into Roe v Wade opinion draft widens

In an unprecedented move, US supreme court clerks may be required to release their phone records as the investigation into who leaked the Roe v Wade opinion draft widens.

The possible mandated release of private cell records and signed affidavits, reported by CNN, is reportedly causing some clerks to consider retaining legal counsel.

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Biden praises Ardern for ‘galvanising action’ on gun control and climate change

Posted: 31 May 2022 03:34 PM PDT

US president welcomes New Zealand's PM to Oval Office and speaks of devastation caused by mass shootings

New Zealand's prime minister Jacinda Ardern has met US president Joe Biden to discuss shared concerns about China's growing influence in the Pacific, as well as extremism and dealing with the aftermath of mass shootings.

The two leaders spoke for more than an hour, with Biden saying Ardern's leadership on issues like climate change, violence and extremism was of international importance.

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Russia’s Alexei Navalny faces extra 15 years in jail over ‘extremism’ claims

Posted: 31 May 2022 11:57 AM PDT

Political foe of Russian president Vladimir Putin was already sentenced to nine-year term earlier this year

The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is facing new criminal accusations that could extend his current prison term by 15 years.

In an Instagram post on Tuesday, Navalny said an investigator had visited him in prison to declare that the authorities had opened a new investigation against him on charges of "creating an extremist group to fan hatred against officials and oligarchs" and trying to stage unsanctioned rallies.

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BTS-mania sweeps the White House as boy band speaks on anti-Asian hate

Posted: 31 May 2022 04:05 PM PDT

Young fans peer through the gates while K-pop sensations meet the president and address the press

They braved sweltering heat, they pressed their faces to the fence, they clutched cameraphones in the hope of glimpsing their idols.

The dozens of young fans at the White House gates resembled a pop concert on Tuesday – but the adulation was not for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, whose approval ratings are on the slide. The Korean pop sensations BTS were here to give sleepy Washington a shot of adrenaline, discuss Asian inclusion and representation and address hate crimes against Asian people.

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Austin resolution aims to ‘decriminalize’ abortion if Roe v Wade is overturned

Posted: 31 May 2022 02:00 AM PDT

Group of city council members seeks to protect patients from criminal prosecution if supreme court ends abortion rights

A group of Austin, Texas, city council members is preparing a resolution to "decriminalize" abortion there in the event the US supreme court overturns Roe v Wade, a landmark case decided nearly five decades ago that protects the federal right to terminate a pregnancy.

An unprecedented leaked supreme court draft decision showed a conservative majority of the nine justices are open to reversing Roe v Wade entirely. If that happened, 26 states would be certain or likely to ban abortion, including in Texas. The state has a "trigger" ban that would almost immediately ban abortion.

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‘Fexting’: How Jill Biden discreetly settles disagreements with Joe

Posted: 31 May 2022 06:26 AM PDT

First lady tells Harper's Bazaar she settles disagreements with president by text and stresses need for independence to daughters

When Joe Biden and Jill Biden disagree, they don't hash it out in front of other people. Instead, she says, they argue by text – "fexting" as they call it.

The first lady also told Harper's Bazaar magazine in an interview that her divorce from her first husband taught her to be independent and that she has drilled that lesson into her daughter and granddaughters.

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Lia Thomas says she transitioned to be happy, not to win swimming titles

Posted: 31 May 2022 07:00 AM PDT

  • Athlete was first trans swimmer to win US college title
  • Critics say Thomas had an unfair advantage over competitors

Lia Thomas, who earlier this year became the first transgender swimmer to win a major US college title, has pushed back against criticism that she had an unfair advantage over her competitors.

Thomas won the NCAA 500m freestyle title in March. USA Swimming's policy states that trans athletes must undergo three years of hormone replacement therapy before being allowed to compete. Thomas was six months short of that target when she won the title but the NCAA, the governing body of college sports in the US, decided not to adopt USA Swimming's rules and allowed her to compete.

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300lb of muscle in a a XXXXL T-shirt: how the World’s Strongest Man contest reinvented itself

Posted: 31 May 2022 10:00 PM PDT

Once it was a sideshow – but this year, Ukranian soldiers competed with LGBTQ+ pioneers in a sport that's being taken seriously

Oleksii Novikov doesn't walk into the room. He turns sideways, and shuffles through the doorway like someone navigating a particularly busy bar.

At 6ft 1in and 300lb of solid muscle, Novikov's shoulders are three and a half feet wide. His hands, permanently curled from years of lifting really heavy stuff, are like bear paws, his wrists as thick as some people's biceps. He's wearing an XXXXL T-shirt.

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Amanda Lear: the androgynous muse to Dalí who made disco intellectual

Posted: 31 May 2022 11:25 PM PDT

The subject of a new documentary, who is also portrayed in an upcoming Dalí biopic, scorned modelling as 'immoral and stupid', turning instead to a lifetime of underrated, high-minded pop

At the peak of the disco era in the late 1970s, Amanda Lear, who had established herself as a singer after 15 years of being a Vogue model and muse to everyone from Salvador Dalí to Bryan Ferry, had a bone to pick. "Disco music is a fantastic medium, and it's a pity not to use it intelligently: we used rock to communicate with youth," she said in 1979. "What shocks me is seeing my colleagues, who sing well, sing idiocies. The music is good, the production is good, the singer is good. The lyrics are aberrant."

Taking issue with the "love" and "baby"-heavy lyrics, her solution was to intellectualise disco. "I want to be the Juliette Gréco of the 1980s," she used to say – someone bohemian and erudite who would deepen pop culture. With more than 20m records sold globally, she is praised as an icon who made her life a work of art, but her artistic output is on a par with her life. It is all now retold in a new documentary, Queen Lear, as well as a biopic, Dalíland, directed by Mary Harron, in which Andreja Pejić plays Lear alongside Ben Kingsley and Ezra Miller as old and young versions of the painter.

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A moment that changed me: I played professional basketball, until I broke my eye socket – and came to my senses

Posted: 31 May 2022 11:00 PM PDT

I was putting off adulthood by trying my luck as an athlete. But when I was hit in the face I had a realisation

I was chasing Johnny around a screen – a blocking position – on the left nail, a throwing point. Yao had set it. He was maybe my only friend on the team – from Ivory Coast, he had been adopted by Germans and raised in Munich, about an hour's drive away. (One night, we caught the train into the city and he took me around.) Yao was guarded by a 6ft 9in centre, whose elbow caught me in the delicate patch of skull just under the eye socket.

It was like somebody had unplugged my cheek. For the rest of practice, I sat with my back against the wall, wondering how I had ended up here.

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‘We spark curiosity’: how the psychedelics industry is taking on Davos

Posted: 01 Jun 2022 12:00 AM PDT

The Psychedelic House of Davos, a satellite event happening in conjunction with the World Economic Forum, was a 'genius strategy' to build credibility, say experts

The World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland – where the financial and political elite gather to more or less decide the fate of the world – looked a little different this year.

For the first time since the cold war, Russia was blacklisted from the event, its typically lavish party house replaced with a gruesome multimedia exhibit on the promenade titled Russian War Crimes. Due to Covid concerns – which has kept the event out of commission for the last two years – the forum was held in the spring instead of the typical January, so world leaders were cheated out of their ski breaks in the Swiss Alps.

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The decade that broke Britain: the disastrous decisions that left millions in a cost of living crisis

Posted: 31 May 2022 10:00 PM PDT

The government is keen to blame growing levels of poverty on Covid and the Ukraine war. But policies from the benefits cap to the bedroom tax have left households on the brink amid the cost of living crisis. Here are 10 of the worst

Listening to the prime minister and his colleagues, you could be forgiven for thinking that the mounting cost of living crisis came out of the blue. As they see it, along came the war in Ukraine and what Boris Johnson has called "the aftershocks of Covid", triggering rocketing inflation. Suddenly, the gap between people's incomes and rising prices turned lives upside down.

In fact, for millions of people in Britain, 2022's growing sense of disaster is another chapter in a story that goes back at least 10 years – to rules and regulations that turned the welfare state into a mess of trapdoors and tripwires, to the hacking back of benefits, to the dire treatment of disabled people and to a new world of work where chronic insecurity and flatlining pay are an everyday reality.

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Get louder every decade: the new rules for dressing your age after 50

Posted: 31 May 2022 11:00 PM PDT

Worrying about what to put on as you get on? Relax, we've got you covered

In the rulebooks of how to age gracefully the don'ts make a lot more noise than the dos. No leather trousers! No cleavage! No man buns! No skateboards! The list of items allegedly verboten for the over-50s is endless. Your life has been boobytrapped, one false move and the world will fall about laughing. It's enough to make your hair go grey – oh, wait.

Here's a better idea. Let's talk about how to dress right for your age, rather than how to avoid getting it wrong. The list of style icons over 50 gets longer every year, and between them they are tearing up the rulebook (except the one about skateboards, sorry). Iris Apfel, White House interior designer turned fashion influencer, filled her recent capsule collection for H&M with fringed violet jacquard miniskirts and frog-shaped rhinestone earrings, and it sold out in hours. Apfel turns 101 this year.

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Us older people must fight for a better America, and world, for younger generations | Bill McKibben

Posted: 31 May 2022 05:55 AM PDT

Baby boomers were complicit in the decay of our civic life and cultural fabric – and we must play a serious role in fixing it

I had the chance this month to spend a couple of weeks on an utterly wild and remote Alaskan shore – there was plenty of company, but all of it had fur, feathers or fins. And there was no way to hear from the outside world, which now may be the true mark of wilderness. So, bliss. But also, on returning, shock. If you're not immersed in it daily, the tide of mass shootings, record heatwaves and corroded politicians spouting ugly conspiracies seems even more truly and impossibly crazy.

Camping deep in the wild is not for everyone, but there's another way to back up and look at our chaos with some perspective – and that's to separate yourself in time instead of space.

Bill McKibben is Schumann Distinguished Scholar in environmental studies at Middlebury College and the author most recently of The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at His Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened

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II thought having a baby might turn me into an ‘elite sleeper’. I was wrong | Arwa Mahdawi

Posted: 31 May 2022 11:00 PM PDT

Scientists have found 3% of the population need less shut-eye than the rest of us. Could I train myself to be one of them?

I don't want to boast or anything, but I have always considered myself something of an elite sleeper. I love sleeping more than just about anything. Given the opportunity, I will sleep for marathon stretches and can snooze through even the most extreme situations. On one very choppy ferry crossing on the notoriously rough route to the Isles of Scilly, for example, my travelling companion spent the entire three-hour ride throwing up in the bathroom while I dozed happily on a plastic chair.

Unfortunately, it has come to my attention that I am not an elite sleeper after all. It seems I am just lazy. Or, possibly, a high-functioning narcoleptic. Because, as it turns out, neurologists have been studying actual "elite sleepers" for years and they are defined as the approximately 3% of the population who are biologically programmed to need less sleep than the rest of us. According to a study that came out in March, elite sleepers have rare genetic mutations, which means they can sleep fewer hours than mere mortals without any risk of cognitive decline – excitingly, they could hold the key to a future cure for dementia.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

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Is the Covid pandemic finally nearing its end? | Aris Katzourakis

Posted: 01 Jun 2022 12:00 AM PDT

The virus's behaviour in highly vaccinated countries may offer clues to our future with the disease

  • Aris Katzourakis is a professor in viral evolution at Oxford University

More than two years on from the realisation that we are dealing with a novel pandemic, we are still nervously wondering what comes next. In the UK, Covid infection rates appear to have fallen to their lowest level since the summer of 2021, as has the number of deaths the virus is causing, but we know that new variants are still likely to emerge. So when will the end of this pandemic come, and what might it look like?

This is a very difficult question, because we won't know we have passed the end of the pandemic until some time has elapsed. The expectation is that eventually the disease will reach endemic levels, meaning immunity in the population will balance out the reproduction of the virus, resulting in a stable level of infection year on year. That stability could include regular, repeatable fluctuations such as seasonality, but we won't know that stability has been achieved unless the same pattern of infections is observed for more than one consecutive year.

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Why did the doctor ask if we have a gun in the house at my toddler’s check up? Because this is America | Arwa Mahdawi

Posted: 31 May 2022 05:50 AM PDT

After taking my daughter to the paediatrician, I was left wondering if I want to raise her in a country obsessed with the right to own deadly weapons

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I took my daughter to a paediatrician in Philadelphia for her one-year checkup. It was all very routine until, squeezed between a discussion about weaning and a question about baby gates, the paediatrician asked if we had a gun in the house. I was so taken aback by the idea that I might casually keep a glock in my knicker drawer that I burst out laughing. "She's from England," my wife, also somewhat taken aback, explained. "They're not used to guns." The paediatrician gave a sad smile. "I know it's terrible, but I do have to ask," she said. "This is America."

Once we got home from the appointment, I looked up whether it really was normal for paediatricians to ask about guns, or if we just had a very vigilant doctor. It turns out that, yes, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that firearm safety is discussed with patients and families. Which makes sense in a country where there are more guns than people and where people get accidentally shot by toddlers on a weekly basis. This is the US – where guns are the leading cause of death for children age one and older, and where the state of Texas restricts dildo ownership (it's illegal to own more than six dildos) but lets people carry a handgun without licensing or training.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

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I’ve finally put something on eBay that people want – now I wish I hadn’t | Zoe Williams

Posted: 30 May 2022 11:00 PM PDT

I was so excited when eBay started, until I realised no one wanted my stuff – so why do I feel so emotional about this sudden flood of unexpected interest?

It was so exciting when eBay first started, a final reckoning with the fact that we all, between us, had enough stuff. We just had to keep it moving around so that it felt new to someone, and life's defining itch-scratch-itch cycle – earn-spend-earn – would be broken. All that would be left to destroy was private property, and wham, we would reach Arcadia (the state of simple pleasure, not the doomed fashion business).

Then, it turned out that no one wanted my stupid stuff. I'd end up with a closing bid of £1.28, having gifted myself administrative posting tasks that would reach into the following month. My reputation was soon scorched as a seller, and I took to using the site only for buying vintage dog cufflinks, which never arrived. At least I wasn't banned from selling, unlike my Mr, who had his card marked early on as a potential money launderer. I have been round these traps a lot, and scoured Breaking Bad and Ozark many times to find out how money laundering works. I can find no reasonable explanation for the suspicion, except that the quality of his goods was too low for the possibility of honest exchange.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

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What does it mean to be Russian? For many of us, it’s no longer a simple question | Ivan Philippov

Posted: 30 May 2022 11:00 PM PDT

Like others ashamed by the invasion of Ukraine, I have left Russia, my home. We feel like leaves, scattered by a hurricane

"Ukrainians don't have to pay!" I am trying to buy three shawarmas in a market in Tbilisi, Georgia, but the street vendor emphatically refuses to take my money. I try to explain, even though I was warned not to say this: "I am sorry, I am not Ukrainian, I am Russian." The vendor looks at the Ukrainian flag pin on my lapel; he doesn't believe me.

Before 24 February, I never thought about what it means to be Russian. Now it's all I think about.

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I agreed to my sperm donor’s anonymity - now I see my daughter has a right to know who she is | Dorothy Byrne

Posted: 31 May 2022 01:00 AM PDT

When I got pregnant, the law guaranteed lifelong anonymity. Now, with DNA testing on the rise, that law needs to change

Out of 68 million people in the UK, there are just 29,725 individuals who have no legal right to know their parentage. My child is one of them. It's clearly wrong, and I am to blame. Twenty-seven years ago I decided to have a baby on my own. I didn't have a partner, but two different men offered to be the donor. I went to a leading fertility doctor, the late Prof Ian Craft, who had produced the first test-tube twins. He advised that research showed it was less emotionally complicated for a child to have an anonymous donor – research I have since been unable to locate.

So that's what I did. Aged nearly 45, I gave birth to a wonderful healthy daughter. At the time, anonymous donors were guaranteed anonymity for life. So by making that decision I gave up my child's right to ever know who her father was. Now I see the ethical flaw in the arrangement. How could I have given up someone else's right to know who they are?

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com

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French Open quarter-finals: Nadal beats Djokovic in epic, Gauff and Trevisan win – as it happened

Posted: 31 May 2022 04:25 PM PDT

The 13-times winner beat last year's defending champion in a match that went into the small hours of the Paris morning

Andy Murray had forgotten the last time he made it to Surbiton. It was in 2004, he played a guy called Jimmy Wang and he retired hurt. "I slipped and hurt my groin," he recollected after being prompted. Memories are made of this.

The players are out on Court Suzanne Lenglen. The start of the women's singles quarter-finals is moments away.

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Gabe Kapler: MLB’s liberal jock in America’s most conservative league

Posted: 31 May 2022 12:30 AM PDT

The Giants manager boycotted the national anthem after recent mass shootings. He is somewhat of a rarity in baseball, a sport not noted for its progressive values

They were teammates on the curse-busting 2004 Boston Red Sox: Curt Schilling, the brilliant and brave pitcher, and Gabe Kapler, a journeyman outfielder who boasted the physique of Charles Atlas yet was somehow never a home run threat.

Schilling became a far-right pundit-provocateur in retirement, a man as committed to owning the libs as he once was to beating the New York Yankees. The Donald Trump supporter has considered running for Congress and his Twitter feed was a predictable festival of Fox News-grade fatuity following the Uvalde massacre (because it is clear America will slide into autocracy if teenagers can't buy AR-15s).

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Ukraine players show their nation’s culture is alive and kicking | Nick Ames

Posted: 01 Jun 2022 12:00 AM PDT

The World Cup playoff semi-final in Scotland is a reminder that the war-torn country's identity and football heritage are intact

It would not be a huge surprise if the ball that scored Ukraine's first official goal was still travelling. They were 3-0 down against Hungary in the western city of Uzhhorod when, with virtually the final action, Ivan Hetsko lined up a free-kick just beyond the edge of the "D" and struck it with such shuddering force that it rebounded straight out of the net. The strike meant nothing and everything: it was 29 April 1992 and Ukraine would take some years to assemble a committed XI in the post-USSR shakedown, but Hetsko's thunderbolt had given them a form of lift-off.

"It was very difficult for us at first and I think we are in a similar position now," says Myron Markevych, who was overseeing Volyn Lutsk in the inaugural Ukrainian championship back then and later managed the national team. "Except we had to begin from zero then, and today we are basically starting from minus two."

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Coco Gauff into French Open semi-finals after victory over Sloane Stephens

Posted: 31 May 2022 08:20 AM PDT

  • Teenager reaches her first grand-slam semi with 7-5, 6-2 victory
  • Martina Trevisan awaits in last four after shocking Fernandez

For much of the past year, one of Coco Gauff's clearest goals has been to grow and advance at her own pace, ignoring all of the hype and expectation. But Gauff is 18, a high-school graduate as of just over a week ago, and on Tuesday she moved into her first grand-slam semi-final at the French Open.

With a solid performance under immense pressure, she was too strong for her friend and fellow American Sloane Stephens, winning 7-5, 6-2. Gauff will have an enormous opportunity of reaching the final as she faces the unseeded Martina Trevisan of Italy, who upset Leylah Fernandez 6-2, 6-7 (3), 6-3 as the Canadian struggled with an injury to her right foot.

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Dustin Johnson headlines inaugural LIV Golf event with Mickelson not listed

Posted: 31 May 2022 11:22 PM PDT

  • 'Free agency has finally come to golf,' says CEO Greg Norman
  • Field for Saudi-backed league includes 26 of world top 150

Former world No 1 Dustin Johnson and past major champion Sergio Garcia were listed among competitors for the opening LIV Golf Invitational Series event in a field released by the Saudi-backed league on Tuesday that did not include Phil Mickelson.

While six-time major champion Mickelson was not currently on the field list, he could still tee it up between 9 and 11 June at the Centurion Club outside London as six spots in the 48-player event remain open.

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No excuse for Uefa echoing Hillsborough by instantly blaming Liverpool fans | David Conn

Posted: 31 May 2022 09:15 AM PDT

Rush to instant judgment during the chaos in Paris instead of waiting for the facts was shocking from those responsible

Two days on from the Paris horrors, where Uefa demonstrated shocking ignorance of lessons learned from Hillsborough and other football catastrophes, Liverpool were already facing another one: beware the "independent inquiry".

The Portuguese MP Tiago Brandão Rodrigues may well be made of the sternest independent mind, but Uefa has appointed him to conduct the review into the Champions League fiasco and Uefa itself is very much a focus for the necessary investigation.

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Transfer latest: Real Madrid join hunt for Sterling, West Ham close on Aguerd

Posted: 31 May 2022 08:07 AM PDT

  • Forward out of contract next summer and yet to agree new terms
  • West Ham offer €35m for Rennes defender Nayef Aguerd

Real Madrid have joined Chelsea in monitoring Raheem Sterling, whose Manchester City contract expires next summer. Sterling, who joined City in 2015, represents himself and has yet to agree new terms.

Sterling has previously talked glowingly of Real Madrid and over the past season and a half has lost his automatic starting place. The 27‑year‑old England forward scored 10 and 13 Premier League goals in the past two campaigns.

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How the downsized National Spelling Bee can regain its pre-pandemic sting

Posted: 31 May 2022 01:00 AM PDT

The National Spelling Bee is back, but with fewer than half the spellers it had three years ago thanks to regional consolidation and a reduction in sponsorships. Here's what should be done

After a disheartening cancellation in 2020 and a largely virtual event last year, the Scripps National Spelling Bee is back in person. To be sure, 2020 and 2021 weren't lost years: online spelling bees, including my own, blossomed, and 2021 saw the crowning of the first African American champion. But this year's return to a semblance of normalcy – with LeVar Burton emceeing the event! – will undoubtedly delight logophiles and Trekkies alike.

The Bee has become an American cultural institution. Watching elementary and middle-school students wrestle with words under high pressure and strict time limits – a mere 90 seconds to ask questions and an additional 30 seconds to spell – is captivating. The Bee rewards discipline, feats of memory and linguistic mastery: what you see onstage is the culmination of hundreds of hours of work, with spellers' parents, and tutors like me, playing supporting roles. The approximately 30 words that a champion speller receives onstage are the surface of a deep reservoir of knowledge. That a competition which unapologetically champions learning has thrived for more than 90 years should be cause for celebration.

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‘We were eating, drinking, breathing the oil’: the villagers who stood up to big oil – and won

Posted: 31 May 2022 10:00 PM PDT

The fossil fuel industry faces a reckoning in the Niger Delta after disasters made it one of the most polluted places on the planet

On 10 October 2004, Eric Dooh received an urgent call from one of his father's employees: the waterway surrounding their houses was running black with oil. Near the outskirts of Dooh's village of Goi, a pipeline built by Royal Dutch Shell in the 1960s carried oil from inland Nigeria to an offshore terminal where it would be barreled and exported around the world. Dooh suspected the pipeline had sprung a leak. He attempted to alert the pipeline operator, but both Shell and its Nigerian subsidiary had largely abandoned oil operations in Goi a decade earlier in response to local uprisings. On that day, Shell's community relations officer was unavailable, Dooh recalled. He reported the leak to a nearby police station instead.

It wasn't until the next day that officials climbed onboard a helicopter, ascended over Dooh's village situated on the banks of the Oroberekiri Creek in Nigeria's southern Niger Delta region, and confirmed what villagers already knew: oil was spreading and not letting up.

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Linking nitrous oxide to climate risk is yet another example of the disdain shown to women’s pain | Isabelle Oderberg

Posted: 30 May 2022 11:02 PM PDT

Why this report? Why now? Why did I get all those rolling eye emoji text messages?

When a new report suggested that people who use nitrous oxide when giving birth should be warned about the impacts on climate change, I felt the mild tremor of a collective groan uttered in unison across the country. More than one person sent me headlines accompanied by a rolling eye emoji.

Clearly the climate crisis is a pressing mattter of life or death and the future of all humanity. The staggering results of our federal election show that this is an issue about which Australians are deeply concerned. And many medical colleges are considering the effects of climate change on their patients, with the Australian Medical Association even issuing a call to arms.

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Is the UK heading for a recession? - podcast

Posted: 31 May 2022 07:00 PM PDT

Last Friday, Boris Johnson was asked if the UK was heading for recession. He replied "not necessarily at all". Richard Partington explains why we are facing such economic uncertainty

Despite the chancellor's announcement of a £15bn package for people struggling with the cost of living crisis and energy bills, experts worry that there may still be danger for the economy ahead. Inflation is currently at 9% in the UK, and could peak at 10% later in the year.

The Guardian's economics correspondent, Richard Partington, tells Nosheen Iqbal about the impact of high inflation and low growth on the economy. Is the government doing enough to stop the country from going into a recession?

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Abuse in the modelling industry – podcast

Posted: 30 May 2022 07:00 PM PDT

Six former models have alleged sexual abuse against the fashion agent Jean-Luc Brunel. Lucy Osborne investigates how the industry failed victims of abuse

In the 1980s, Marianne Shine worked as a model in Paris. One Saturday night, after a dinner with other models, she was raped by her agent, Jean-Luc Brunel. For decades, she never told anyone what happened to her.

In 2020, Brunel was arrested on suspicion of trafficking and raping underage girls. He was a close associate of the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and allegedly supplied him with over 1,000 young women and teenagers. Like Epstein, Brunel killed himself in prison, so never faced trial.

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Disney and Ewan McGregor condemn ‘horrendous’ racism sent to Obi-Wan Kenobi star Moses Ingram

Posted: 31 May 2022 10:30 PM PDT

Ingram has revealed some of the 'hundreds' of abusive messages she's received after debuting in the Star Wars show, saying 'there's nothing anybody can do to stop this hate'

Obi-Wan Kenobi actor Moses Ingram has revealed she has received "hundreds" of racist messages since appearing in the new Star Wars show, with her co-star Ewan McGregor issuing a strong statement condemning abusive fans, saying "if you're sending her bullying messages, you're no Star Wars fan".

In the new Disney+ series, Ingram plays the Third Sister, Reva Sevander, who is tasked by Darth Vader to hunt McGregor's Kenobi. On Tuesday on Instagram she shared just a few examples of the racist abuse directed at her on social media since the show began.

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‘I want to capture love’: the intimacy of Jamel Shabazz’s photographs

Posted: 01 Jun 2022 12:02 AM PDT

In a new retrospective of his work, the New York-based photographer looks back on his illustrious career and the connections he's made along the way

For decades, photographer Jamel Shabazz has used his camera to connect with New York City's diverse communities, producing iconic images of subjects as various as the emergence of hip-hop culture, Black incarceration, the innocence of children playing in the streets, and gay pride celebrations. Through 4 September, The Bronx Museum of the Arts celebrates Shabazz with Eyes on the Streets, a retrospective coving over 40 years of the photographer's work.

Shabazz's photographs are powerful for their intimacy. Unlike many street photographers, Shabazz tends to photograph his subjects looking directly into the camera's lens, their eyes beckoning, their postures and facial expressions forming an instant connection with viewers. This intimacy comes from the lengthy encounters that often precede the photo itself, Shabazz approaching his subjects on the street and striking up a conversation before photographing them. "It takes time to make people feel comfortable and to get them to that point," he said to the Guardian. "And then, the photographs become evidence of the conversation. The key is really the communication. When you approach somebody with good intentions, they feel it."

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L Morgan Lee on making Broadway history: ‘I could not stop crying’

Posted: 31 May 2022 10:36 PM PDT

The actor has become the first openly trans performer to receive a Tony nomination for her role in the Pulitzer prize-winning musical A Strange Loop

L Morgan Lee, the first openly trans person to be nominated for a Tony Award, is just trying to put one foot in front of the other.

The award-winning actor is having a bit of a whirlwind year, after all. Following her Broadway debut in Michael R Jackson's Pulitzer prize-winning musical A Strange Loop, Lee received her first ever Tony nomination, an accolade she has hoped for since childhood, when she "[dreamed] about being one of these beautiful women in these beautiful gowns" who grace the red carpet.

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‘The Queen’s gone round the bend!’ – HM in pop, from the Smiths to Slowthai to the Stone Roses

Posted: 31 May 2022 10:00 PM PDT

She's been called a fascist, a parasite and a pretty nice girl who doesn't have a lot to say. So are all pop songs about the monarch treasonous? And are they really directed at her?

The most famous song about Queen Elizabeth II is called God Save the Queen, and so is the second most famous. The Sex Pistols' decision to record and release their anti-monarchist screed in time for the silver jubilee was the most brilliant provocation in a career consisting of almost nothing but brilliant provocations. The band had been playing the song for a few months under its original title, No Future, but manager Malcolm McLaren said the phrase sounded "like an ad for a bank". Much better, he thought, to hijack the national anthem, turn it upside down and hitch a ride on the jubilee. What a coup.

Another thing the Sex Pistols' hit shares with the national anthem is that it is not about Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor but a symbol of the British state. For John Lydon, the Queen is not just synonymous with "the fascist regime", she's "not a human being" at all. The song soon spirals away from the ruler towards the resentfully ruled, "the flowers in the dustbin". Britain was so fraught in 1977 – politically, socially, economically – that to many young people, the patriotic jubilee festivities were a bitter farce of nostalgia and denial, like bunting on a bomb site. As Jon Savage writes in England's Dreaming: "Here was the ultimate statement of pop's everlasting present, just at the moment when the masses were celebrating the past."

For although the pound may tumble, although panic fills the air
Although government may crumble, and the cupboards nearly bare
Though the stairs begin to rattle, and the rats begin to stare
She enfolds in mystic unity her subjects everywhere
And we know we're safe from harm while nanny's there

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Indian singer KK dies aged 53 after falling ill while performing

Posted: 31 May 2022 06:28 PM PDT

Krishnakumar Kunnath, a star Bollywood singer best known as KK, complained of feeling cold and unwell before collapsing

Star Bollywood singer Krishnakumar Kunnath, popularly known as KK, has died of a suspected heart attack at age 53 after a concert on Tuesday, prompting a flood of tributes from fans including Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.

"His songs reflected a wide range of emotions as struck a chord with people of all age groups," Modi said on Twitter.

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Police on Trial: two years after the killing of George Floyd, what has changed?

Posted: 31 May 2022 07:38 AM PDT

The Minneapolis murder led to protests and calls for structural change but a new documentary shows the journey to racial equality remains long

Journalist Libor Jany was working a holiday shift when he received a cryptic text message from a police spokesperson about a press conference outside city hall.

"Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and realised that the suspect was suffering a medical distress," John Elder of Minneapolis police told reporters. "Officers called for an ambulance. He was transported to Hennepin county medical center where he died a short time later."

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Pickpocket review – existential thrills in Robert Bresson’s study of a thief’s progress

Posted: 31 May 2022 07:00 AM PDT

Bresson's 1959 film about a misfit who dreams of rising above conventional morals is a brilliant example of the cinema of ideas

Robert Bresson's hypnotically intense and lucid movie-novella from 1959 is now revived as part of a director's retrospective at London's BFI Southbank, and whatever creakiness I thought I saw in this masterly film for its last UK re-release has vanished. The andante pace of Pickpocket is part of its brilliance, part of its seriousness and its status as a cinema of ideas: a movie with something of Dostoevsky or Camus, or even Victor Hugo.

The then non-professional actor Martin LaSalle was cast by Bresson as Michel, a gloomy young man who spends his days writing his journal in a seedy bedsit: a precursor for the prison cell for which he is destined. (Michel is clearly an ancestor of Paul Schrader's insomniac malcontents, but with his own monkish austerity.) Michel is plagued with nameless guilt about his elderly, unwell mother whom he cannot bring himself to visit, despite being urged by her young neighbour, Jeanne (Marika Green). His pal Jacques (Pierre Leymarie) tries to set him up with respectable paying jobs, but Michel has become obsessed with the occult thrill of pickpocketing: he broods over a biography of the 18th-century Irish pickpocket-adventurer George Barrington, and meets up with a pickpocketing gang who school him in the sticky-fingered art of unbuckling watches and pinching wallets. They also teach him how to pass the loot from man to man so no one, if spotted, will be found with the goods on him – even temporarily dropping the item into the pocket of another passerby if the heat is on, and then surreptitiously reclaiming it.

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Once Upon a Time in Londongrad review – a blazing fireball that could topple our democracy

Posted: 31 May 2022 02:05 PM PDT

This true-crime documentary looks at 14 London deaths that point the finger at Putin – and how our weak governance has led to a shady system that threatens the very rule of law

There is a recurring image in Once Upon a Time in Londongrad (Sky Documentaries/Now): a shot taken in 2014 in central London, outside an old block of serenely expensive flats nestling between the Swedish and Swiss embassies. A section of the beautiful iron railings separating the property from the pavement is missing, replaced by a garish mass of carelessly applied police incident tape.

The railings have been removed because the British property speculator Scot Young has recently fallen from his fourth-floor window and impaled himself. This death is then investigated by Heidi Blake and her team of journalists at BuzzFeed, a trail that leads to a Pulitzer nomination, Blake's book From Russia With Blood and now this punchy six-parter.

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The Men by Sandra Newman review – vision of a world without men

Posted: 31 May 2022 11:30 PM PDT

Half of humanity disappears in this disturbing study of loss, grief and moral sacrifice

In Sandra Newman's fifth novel, all human beings and foetuses with a Y chromosome disappear in an instant, leaving the XXs to celebrate, grieve or organise in a radically altered world. To create a work of fiction with such a stark premise – as Newman also did in her previous high-concept novel, The Heavens, a time-travelling tale set between a reconfigured present-day New York and 16th-century England – runs the risk of confronting the reader with a task of reimagining that is hard to see beyond.

But although it's true that The Men never allows us to forget its dramatic first principle, numerous other strands and themes emerge: the long aftermath of trauma and coercive control; various manifestations of charisma and complicity; the insidious, dehumanising effects of a society in thrall to screen representations of reality. It is also a novel about the lengths to which we might all go to assuage individual loss and grief; if the world turned out to be a better place without your loved one, would you sacrifice the greater good to turn the clock back?

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Shark Bait review – human chum bucket jeopardy thriller sinks without trace

Posted: 31 May 2022 03:00 AM PDT

It doesn't help that there is more charisma in the shark's cold dead eye than in the entire cast

"Tyler, no! You took a bang to the head!" "That might be a problem if there was something inside of there!" So goes an almighty self-own when one of five spring-breakers trapped on a jetski in shark-infested waters decides to swim for help in this depressingly unimaginative thriller. The party posse-cum-human chum bucket in this carnivorous outing are so moronic that the intro in which they twerk, chug beers and hijack motorised watercraft while roaring "Ride or die!" resembles the legendary Zoolander petrol fight without the satire.

In answer to their war-cry, they mostly die. After sensibly playing jetski chicken, the fatuous five find themselves crammed on a single stalled machine drifting out to sea – and Greg (Thomas Flynn) has a broken leg. Tensions rise when it turns out the vampish Milly (Catherine Hannay) slept with jock Tom (Jack Trueman) the previous night, behind the back of his girlfriend Nat (Holly Earl). We know Nat is a good person because she's the only one of these gringos who speaks Spanish but back on dry land, she failed to heed the warning of the double-amputee about the local aquafauna. And matters take a turn when the valiant Tyler (Malachi Pullar-Latchman) front-crawls off, and a dorsal fin saunters into view behind him like a piscine Alfred Hitchcock.

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I am fascinated by BDSM but don’t enjoy sex – could I be asexual?

Posted: 31 May 2022 12:00 AM PDT

I have slept with men and women, but have only had one orgasm. I like the idea of sex but don't enjoy it in the moment. What's going on?

I am a 20-year-old woman, who started having sex at the age of 18. Since then, I have slept with 10 men and two women, but have only climaxed with one of them. I like the idea of intercourse and am deeply interested in, and fascinated by, BDSM. I often fantasise about these things and find myself turned on by a particular person, but once I'm in the moment with that person, I no longer feel anything (though I proceed with intercourse, which means I feel even less pleasure). I masturbated five years ago (the only time I have ever masturbated), and that was the only time I have experienced an orgasm. Since then, I have been using sex as a dominance tool because I realise that, if I don't feel anything, I can, instead, focus on creating a knee-shaking experience for my partner. I always wondered if I was asexual, because, all through secondary school, I was never sexually attracted to anyone. Now I'm older and unable to feel pleasure during intercourse, I wonder if this really is the issue.

You have got way ahead of yourself by skipping some formative sexual steps, such as learning exactly how your body works through self-pleasuring. After that step is mastered, it is easier to move on to sex with someone else – since you can then take responsibility for your own pleasure and impart important information to your partner regarding how you like to be touched, caressed, and so on. The kind of erotic experiences you have been having more or less amount to pseudo sex – since you are engaging in these acts largely as a means to feel powerful or gain approval. You are setting up for yourself a pattern of bypassing feelings during sex, and if this continues you are guaranteed unsatisfying sex indefinitely. Consider going back to basics and, once you feel you have sufficient knowledge about your own body, you could begin to explore who you really are sexually in the context of a partner.

Pamela Stephenson Connolly is a US-based psychotherapist who specialises in treating sexual disorders.

If you would like advice from Pamela on sexual matters, send us a brief description of your concerns to private.lives@theguardian.com (please don't send attachments). Each week, Pamela chooses one problem to answer, which will be published online. She regrets that she cannot enter into personal correspondence. Submissions are subject to our terms and conditions: see gu.com/letters-terms.

Comments on this piece are premoderated to ensure discussion remains on topics raised by the writer. Please be aware there may be a short delay in comments appearing on the site.

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Tamagotchi kids: could the future of parenthood be having virtual children in the metaverse?

Posted: 31 May 2022 05:48 AM PDT

According to an expert on artificial intelligence, would-be parents will soon be able to opt for cheap and cuddle-able digital offspring

Name: Tamagotchi kids.

Age: Yet to be born, though it won't be long, says Catriona Campbell.

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Nigel Slater’s recipe for grilled chicken and curry sauce

Posted: 31 May 2022 04:00 AM PDT

A spicy Japanese take on a classic chicken dish

A chicken supper inspired by a classic Japanese curry.

Make the sauce: roughly chop 2 spring onions and put them in the bowl of a food processor. Peel 40g of ginger and 3 cloves of garlic, then add to the onions.

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Danish smørrebrød, Vietnamese salad rolls, scotch eggs – the 20 best recipes for eating outdoors

Posted: 30 May 2022 05:00 AM PDT

From Joe Woodhouse's lentil and spring green pies and Yasmin Khan's sunshine salad to Ben Tish's lasagne bread and Ravneet Gill's ras malai cake, these alfresco dishes will keep friends and family happy in any outdoor setting

A feast of easy outdoor eating. Perfect for you, for friends, for family. For the Jubilee weekend if the weather holds. Alfresco recipes to be maybe mixed and matched, eaten together anywhere. Presenting smørrebrød from Trine Hahnemann, summer rolls from Uyen Luu, a sunshine salad from Yasmin Khan. There's Nathan Outlaw's barbecued mackerel, Tom Kerridge's pork burgers and Samin Nosrat's kufte kebabs. To finish: Simon Hopkinson's gooseberry pie or Nigel Slater's luscious ice-cream sandwiches. Perhaps bring sunscreen, just in case.

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‘File fashion’: how to organise your wardrobe to make getting dressed easier

Posted: 30 May 2022 10:30 AM PDT

A well-organised wardrobe saves time and stress when getting dressed, and can help cut down on dry-cleaning bills and time spent ironing too

The fantasy of opening your wardrobe to find neat rows of colour-coded shirts, jackets and pants is pretty universal. In fact, in two separate, strange fashion jobs I've been paid by a superior to organise theirs.

The process usually starts with a cleanout, as any kind of organisation is aided by space. What follows can be more complicated.

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Did Joe Manchin block climate action to benefit his financial interests?

Posted: 31 May 2022 12:00 AM PDT

Recent revelations that Democratic West Virginian senator quietly made millions from his coal business could come back to haunt him as he eyes a run for re-election

Nancy Hilsbos, a former coalminer living in the West Virginia county that Senator Joe Manchin calls home, barely noticed the nondescript office block she passed almost daily.

The property, at the top of a rise on the road out of the small city of Fairmont, bears a large sign: "Manchin Professional Building". Nameplates announce the offices of accountants, financial advisers and insurers. But there is no mention of the most profitable and influential company registered at the address – the Democratic senator's own firm, Enersystems.

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Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer acquitted of lying to the FBI

Posted: 31 May 2022 10:22 AM PDT

Michael Sussmann's case is first courtroom test of special counsel John Durham's inquiry into FBI's Trump-Russia ties investigation

A lawyer for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign was acquitted on Tuesday of lying to the FBI when he pushed information meant to cast suspicions on Donald Trump and his alleged links to Russia in the run-up to that year's race.

The jury in Michael Sussmann's case deliberated on Friday afternoon and Tuesday morning before reaching its verdict.

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She experimented on primates for decades. Now she wants to shut down the labs

Posted: 31 May 2022 12:00 AM PDT

Lisa Jones-Engel quit her work as a lab researcher when she began to see how 'like us' monkeys are

"Right here! Beneath our feet! Are 300 monkeys! They haven't seen sunshine! In years!"

Lisa Jones-Engel stands outside the entrance to the Washington National Primate Research Center along with two dozen other protesters – most 30 years younger than she. Her long gray-blond ponytail tucked over one shoulder, she yells into a megaphone. As she shouts, another part of her brain is thinking: "God, you sound like a fucking activist. You sound like one of them."

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US Memorial Day weekend marked by even more mass shootings

Posted: 31 May 2022 07:18 AM PDT

At least nine people died and more than 60 injured in incidents in which four or more people were shot or killed

Days after a massacre at an elementary school in Texas in which 21 people died, the Memorial Day weekend in the US was marked by yet more mass shootings, at least 14 incidents total.

According to the Gun Violence Archive – which defines a mass shooting incident as one in which "four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter" – at least nine people were killed in the shootings and more than 60 injured. Overall, gun violence over the weekend from 5am on Friday to early Tuesday saw 156 people dead and 412 injured.

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Comedian infiltrates NRA event to mock Wayne LaPierre’s ‘thoughts and prayers’

Posted: 31 May 2022 07:15 AM PDT

Jason Selvig addresses Houston convention to sarcastically praise gun group CEO's response to a litany of mass shootings

An undercover comedian crashed the National Rifle Association's annual convention in Houston, Texas, and sarcastically thanked the organization's president for his repeated "thoughts and prayers" following deadly mass shootings across the US over the years, including one just three days previously where 21 people were killed at a school across the state.

Jason Selvig of the Good Liars, which pranks public figures, stood up to speak when NRA members were allowed to address the group's chief executive since 1991, Wayne LaPierre, according to a social media video posted by the comedy group.

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Kevin Spacey to travel voluntarily to UK to face sexual assault charges

Posted: 31 May 2022 06:05 AM PDT

Authorised charges relate to alleged attacks in London and Gloucestershire between 2005 and 2013

The actor Kevin Spacey will travel voluntarily to the UK to face sexual assault charges, he has told a US news outlet.

In a statement given exclusively to ABC's Good Morning America, Spacey said he was confident he could prove his innocence with respect to five counts relating to alleged attacks against three men in England between 2005 and 2013.

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Mountain lion attacks girl, 9, playing hide-and-seek

Posted: 31 May 2022 06:00 PM PDT

Child in Washington state praised for bravery after suffering serious wounds to head and upper body

A mountain lion attacked a nine-year-old girl who was playing hide-and-seek at a church camp in Washington state, seriously wounding her and sending her friends running in fear.

Lily A Kryzhanivskyy and two other children were playing in the woods on Saturday at the camp near the small town of Fruitland, north-west of Spokane. Lily jumped out to surprise her friends when the lion attacked, the Washington department of fish and wildlife said.

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$2m tabernacle stolen from New York City Catholic church, police say

Posted: 30 May 2022 01:31 PM PDT

Brooklyn diocese calls it 'a crime of disrespect and hate' and says gold relic is irreplaceable because of its historical and artistic value

Police say someone has broken into the altar at a New York City church, stole a $2m gold relic and removed the head from a statue of an angel.

The incident happened between 6.30pm last Thursday and 4pm on Saturday, the police said on Monday, at St Augustine's Roman Catholic church, known as the "Notre Dame" of Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood.

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Boris Johnson’s allies lobby MPs to stop Tory support draining away

Posted: 31 May 2022 11:44 AM PDT

Sense of crisis deepens in No 10 as speculation mounts about no-confidence vote in prime minister

Boris Johnson and his allies have launched an emergency effort to lobby wavering MPs as he faces the spiralling threat of a confidence vote in his leadership that could put his position under threat within days.

By Tuesday night, at least 44 Tory MPs had publicly questioned Johnson's fitness to hold office, including 18 who are known to have sent letters to Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers, to formally seek a confidence vote.

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Shanghai’s subway and shops reopen and streets fill up after two-month lockdown

Posted: 31 May 2022 08:58 PM PDT

Residents in areas deemed low-risk for Covid are allowed to move around the city freely again

Shanghai has eased a range of Covid-19 restrictions in a step towards returning to normal after a two-month lockdown that confined residents of the megacity to their homes and battered China's economy.

The commercial hub of 25 million people was closed down in sections from late March, when the Omicron virus variant fuelled China's worst outbreak since Covid first took hold in 2020.

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Trove of ancient Egyptian coffins and statues found at cemetery near Cairo

Posted: 31 May 2022 07:43 AM PDT

Painted wooden coffins and bronze statues of deities dating to 500BC found by archaeologists in Saqqara

Archaeologists working near Cairo have uncovered hundreds of ancient Egyptian coffins and bronze statues of deities.

The discovery at a cemetery in Saqqara contained statues of the gods Anubis, Amun, Min, Osiris, Isis, Nefertum, Bastet and Hathor along with a headless statue of the architect Imhotep, who built the Saqqara pyramid, according to Egypt's ministry of tourism and antiquities.

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Scientists discover ‘biggest plant on Earth’ off Western Australian coast

Posted: 31 May 2022 04:00 PM PDT

Genetic testing has determined a single 4,500-year-old seagrass may have spread over 200 sq km of underwater seafloor – about 20,000 football fields

About 4,500 years ago, a single seed – spawned from two different seagrass species – found itself nestled in a favourable spot somewhere in what is now known as Shark Bay, just off Australia's west coast.

Left to its own devices and relatively undisturbed by human hands, scientists have discovered that seed has grown to what is now believed to be the biggest plant anywhere on Earth, covering about 200 sq km (77 sq miles, or about 20,000 rugby fields, or just over three times the size of Manhattan island).

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Three jabs best for preventing Covid infections, global analysis finds

Posted: 31 May 2022 03:30 PM PDT

Number of doses, not vaccine combinations, key to boosting immunity, according to largest study of its kind

Three doses of the same Covid-19 vaccine or a combination of jabs work equally well in preventing infections, according to the largest study of its kind.

While the effectiveness of individual coronavirus vaccines is well known, the evidence around combinations of jabs has been less clear, especially for particular groups such as older people and those who are immunocompromised.

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Archbishop of Canterbury suggests Prince Andrew wants to ‘make amends’

Posted: 31 May 2022 03:00 PM PDT

Justin Welby made comment about the duke as he asked public to be more 'open and forgiving'

The archbishop of Canterbury has suggested the Duke of York is "seeking to make amends" as he encouraged society to be more "open and forgiving" in general.

Prince Andrew stepped down from public life after the furore over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender, and earlier this year he paid millions to a woman he claimed never to have met to settle a civil sexual assault case.

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Canada to decriminalize some drugs in British Columbia for three years

Posted: 31 May 2022 01:53 PM PDT

Policy aims to stem record number of overdose deaths by easing a fear of arrest by those who need help

Canada's government has announced that it will allow the province of British Columbia to try a three-year experiment in decriminalizing possession of small amounts of drugs, hoping it will help stem a record number of overdose deaths by easing a fear of arrest by those who need help.

The policy approved by federal officials doesn't legalize the substances, but Canadians in the Pacific coast province who possess up to 2.5g of illicit drugs for personal use will not be arrested or charged.

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Stalked by hunger but fighting obesity: Kenya’s hidden food crisis

Posted: 31 May 2022 12:30 AM PDT

Three million Kenyans face hunger, yet by 2030 it is thought 1.4 million of the country's children will be obese. Meet the professionals tackling the problem

The children of Bees Haven kindergarten are about 15 minutes into their weekly taekwondo class when their instructor has some stern words for them. "You guys are not panting," says Lizzanne Adhiambo, with a grin. "I want to see the power! Let's punch!"

Aside from a certain amount of confusion over left and right hands, Adhiambo's pupils obey. With alternating arms they punch out in front of them, 15 four- to six-year-olds, wearing white training uniforms , shouting "Yeah!" as the instructor counts from 1 to 10.

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Taiwan scrambles jets after China makes largest incursion into air defence zone since January

Posted: 30 May 2022 10:36 PM PDT

China has almost doubled its incursions this year, as it attempts to keep island under pressure

China has made the second largest incursion into Taiwan's air defence zone this year with Taipei reporting 30 jets entering the area, including more than 20 fighters.

Taiwan's defence ministry said late on Monday it had scrambled its own aircraft and deployed air defence missile systems to monitor the latest Chinese activity.

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Mongolia under pressure to align with Russia and China

Posted: 31 May 2022 02:51 AM PDT

Landlocked state is pursuing neutrality despite neighbours' efforts to create triangle of anti-western cooperation

Mongolia, a squeezed outpost of democracy in north-east Asia, is under renewed pressure from its authoritarian neighbours, Russia and China, to shed its independence and form a triangle of anti-western cooperation in the wake of the war in Ukraine.

The country is doggedly pursuing a path of neutrality, coupled with a policy of economic diversification designed to keep its unique culture and still relatively recent independence alive, according to Nomin Chinbat, its culture secretary.

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Rohingya refugee deported from Kashmir to Myanmar reunited with family

Posted: 31 May 2022 10:30 PM PDT

Separated in March, Hasina Begum's family have now settled in Bangladesh as India continues to deport Rohingya despite UN refugee status

A Rohingya woman deported to Myanmar from Indian-administered Kashmir in March has been reunited with her family in Bangladesh.

Hasina Begum, 37, was deported from Jammu despite having UN refugee status, leaving her husband and three children behind in Kashmir. She was the first Rohingya refugee to be deported from among 170 who were detained by authorities in the region in March 2021.

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Scorpions say they changed Wind of Change lyrics as song ‘romanticised Russia’

Posted: 31 May 2022 03:56 AM PDT

German rockers' most famous song now includes lyrics: 'Now listen to my heart / It says Ukrainia'

The lead singer of the German hard rockers Scorpions has revealed he changed the lyrics of Wind of Change because he no longer wanted to "romanticise Russia" with his chart-topping perestroika power ballad, after Putin's war of aggression in Ukraine.

"To sing Wind of Change as we have always sung it, that's not something I could imagine any more," Klaus Meine told Die Zeit. "It simply isn't right to romanticise Russia with lyrics like: 'I follow the Moskva / Down to Gorky Park … Let your balalaika sing'".

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EU embargo on Russian oil will cut 90% of imports, says Ursula von der Leyen – video

Posted: 31 May 2022 04:27 AM PDT

The EU has agreed to an embargo on most Russian oil imports after late-night talks at a summit in Brussels. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said the ban would 'effectively cut around 90% of oil imports from Russia to the EU by the end of the year' because Germany and Poland had committed to renounce deliveries via a pipeline to their territory. The sanctions package also targeted Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, and three Russian state broadcasters

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Justin Trudeau announces handgun freeze in Canada and five-round limit on magazines – video

Posted: 31 May 2022 01:01 AM PDT

Canada's government will legislate for a national freeze on handgun ownership that would stop people buying and selling them anywhere in the country. 'The day this legislation goes into effect, it will no longer be possible to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns in Canada,' said the prime minister, Justin Trudeau. 

The government will also require long-gun magazines to be altered so that they can hold no more than five rounds, and will ban the sale and transfer of large-capacity magazines

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Footage released by Russia purports to show separatist soldiers in Sievierodonetsk – video

Posted: 30 May 2022 04:41 PM PDT

Russian state television has aired footage showing what it says are separatist soldiers in the city of Sievierdonetsk, the largest city in Donbas still held by Ukraine. Witnesses say Russian tanks and troops have begun advancing towards the centre of the city, while artillery barrages have destroyed critical infrastructure and damaged 90% of the buildings

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Protesters clash with police as tensions rise in Iran – video

Posted: 30 May 2022 10:08 AM PDT

People took to the streets in Abadan, south-west Iran, over the collapse of a building last Monday that killed at least 31 people. The protesters shouted down Ayatollah Mohsen Heidari AleKasir, an emissary sent by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which led to clashes with riot police. The protest challenged the government's response to the disaster as pressure rose in Iran over rising food prices and other economic problems amid the unravelling of its 2015 nuclear deal.

Authorities acknowledged that the building's owner and corrupt government officials had allowed construction to continue despite concerns over poor workmanship

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Mona Lisa smeared in cake in apparent climate protest – video

Posted: 30 May 2022 05:04 AM PDT

The Mona Lisa escaped unharmed when a visitor to the Louvre in Paris tried to smash the glass protecting the world's most famous painting before smearing cake across its surface in an apparent climate-related publicity stunt.

The perpetrator was a man disguised as an elderly woman who jumped out of a wheelchair before attacking the glass.

'Maybe this is just nuts to me,' @klevisl007 posted on Twitter, along with a video of the incident's aftermath that shows a member of staff at the Louvre cleaning the glass

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Watch the birdie: framing our feathered friends – in pictures

Posted: 31 May 2022 11:00 PM PDT

From wild parrots in the streets of Tokyo to charismatic pigeons and locked-down penguins, Gemma Padley invites us to look anew at life in the air by bringing together the world's best bird photography

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American wage slaves: the sadness of life in the 70s – in pictures

Posted: 30 May 2022 11:00 PM PDT

In photographing tired, unfulfilled US workers as they attempted to relax, Chauncey Hare depicted their domination by multinational corporations

The big picture: Chauncey Hare, the pursuit of happiness in Playland

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New York celebrates first Manhattanhenge of 2022

Posted: 30 May 2022 11:43 PM PDT

Twice a year, the sunset lines up between blocks in New York City, creating a phenomenon known as Manhattanhenge that is beloved by locals

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