[ { "id": "02573b4b1ae73916625528f1abe7812211092624", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/c6f40319454f2a4e3538ebf898b2511d53c5aeb9\/0_55_6000_3600\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Kyren Wilson holds 11-6 lead in World Snooker Championship final", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/kyren-wilson-jak-jones-world-snooker-championship-final-day-one-report", "words": "756", "section": "Sport", "date": "2024-05-05T15:23:33Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/c6f40319454f2a4e3538ebf898b2511d53c5aeb9\/0_55_6000_3600\/1000.jpg", "author": "Aaron Bower at the Crucible", "description": "Kyren Wilson leads Jak Jones 11-6 after two sessions of the World Snooker Championship final", "text": "Nothing is ever decided on day one of the World Snooker Championship final. Far from it, in fact. But if it is Kyren Wilson, who leads 11-6, \u00adlifting snooker\u2019s most prestigious prize on Monday evening instead of the courageous Welshman Jak Jones there is no doubting the three hours of chaos on Sunday afternoon will have been the difference.\n\nJones deserves immense credit for rallying in Sunday\u2019s evening session to make this year\u2019s final seem in the \u00adbalance going into the second and final day. Trailing 7-0 at one stage earlier in \u00adproceedings, we were genuinely entering historic territory.\n\nNot since 1993 has a final been decided with a session to spare but when Wilson won the first seven frames without reply, it was hard not to wonder what legends of the past those in attendance on Monday \u00adevening would be seeing square off in an \u00adexhibition to fill the slot.\n\nHowever, Jones has at least likely ensured the final will reach on Monday \u00adevening after battling back \u00admagnificently. He raised his fist to the crowd with apparent sarcasm in the afternoon after winning his first frame to avoid an opening \u00adsession whitewash.\n\nHe would have \u00adenvisaged doing the same again at the \u00adculmination of the evening \u00adsession but this time with belief he could win against all the odds. However, you cannot help but wonder just how significant the final frame on Sunday evening could prove to be.\n\nBoth players had their chances to win it. If Jones had prevailed, he\u2019d have trailed by just three. However, Wilson not only claimed the frame to move five ahead overnight, but the momentum too \u2013 and he is now hot favourite to win his first world title.\n\nThe only other two players to be 7-0 behind after the opening seven frames of a final were Jimmy White in 1991, who ultimately lost to John Parrott \u2013 and Dennis Taylor, who went 8-0 behind in 1985. And we all know what happened that year.\n\nPerhaps it was the fact Jones had to play until late on Saturday evening against Stuart Bingham while his opponent had already got the job done earlier in the day. There is no question that Jones, who has had to play over 20 hours more snooker than Wilson to get to the final, looked jaded on Sunday afternoon.\n\nPerhaps it was Wilson\u2019s prior \u00adexperience of a final \u2013 having \u00adadmitted in the buildup he drank too much beer and ate too much pizza the night before his 2020 final defeat to Ronnie O\u2019Sullivan \u2013 which helped him settle quicker. But whatever the reason, the first final to be contested by two players both bidding for a first world title in almost 20 years was only heading one way at 5pm on Sunday.\n\nNow, its at least slightly more in the balance, but Wilson is heavy favourite, leading 11-6. Wilson was as magnificent as Jones was indifferent on Sunday afternoon. Two century breaks and four more over 50 pushed him 7-0 ahead but there were undisputed frames Jones could, and perhaps should, have won.\n\nThe history books were being rewritten as Wilson moved 7-0 ahead but, when Jones claimed the last frame of the session to narrow the gap to six, it at least felt as though there was something to build upon. But the pair split the opening four frames of the evening session, leaving Wilson in control at 9-3.\n\nHowever, Jones responded well in the final frames of that session. He won three of the next four to make it 10-6; a commanding lead for Wilson, yes, but one that could have been far worse given how proceedings began earlier in the day. The final frame of the day was huge: arguably the most important of both players\u2019 careers to this point.\n\nIt was the difference between a five or three-frame lead overnight, and it was stacked with tension. Jones left Wilson needing a snooker, which Wilson got before clearing the colours to the black. However, Wilson missed it, leading to an absorbing and nerve-shredding safety exchange.\n\nThe winner of this frame may not necessarily have held the lead overnight, but they would have undoubtedly had the momentum. And both players clearly knew it given how edgy their play was. And when Jones attempted a risky double, he could only leave the black over the pocket.\n\nWilson took full advantage and this time, it was he who fist-pumped the Crucible crowd. Come Monday evening, that frame could prove to be the most important of them all.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "defec610b413daa99f910ff83eace15b48375e55", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/34b1d485db383f3174eb7f3d1226213efb937782\/0_160_4787_2872\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Lando Norris wins F1 Miami Grand Prix for historic maiden victory", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/lando-norris-wins-f1-miami-grand-prix-for-historic-maiden-victory", "words": "876", "section": "Sport", "date": "2024-05-05T22:28:01Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/34b1d485db383f3174eb7f3d1226213efb937782\/0_160_4787_2872\/1000.jpg", "author": "Giles Richards in Miami", "description": "Lando Norris won the Miami Grand Prix for McLaren in a historic first victory for the British driver", "text": "Finally then, the grand spectacle in the sunshine which is how the Miami Grand Prix sells its high-end extravaganza of excess and expense delivered on the hype, as did the star of the show as Britain\u2019s Lando Norris scored his first Formula One win.\n\nIt has been a long time coming but Norris deserved it and delivered definitive notice that given the machinery he is more than capable of putting world champion Max Verstappen to the sword.\n\nThis was the Superbowl-esque event in a destination city which Formula One\u2019s owners crave and for the spectators dancing and drinking with abandon in the noisy fan zones it met the criteria. Norris was exceptional, he took some good fortune from the timing of a safety car but then had to deliver for 24 laps with flawless precision, as the triple world champion Verstappen loomed in his mirrors.\n\nNorris not only held his nerve but demonstrated, as he has made clear in the past, he has no fear of taking on Verstappen as long he is in a straight head to head fight. This was the moment and Norris had to deliver through perhaps the most intense, pressurised, 24 laps of his life.\n\nIt has been some time coming, the debut win for the 24-year-old from Glastonbury was taken at his 110th grand prix after he made his debut at the Australian GP in 2019. He has claimed eight second places and might have had a win in Russia in 2021 only to be unlucky with late rain but he has repeatedly demonstrated the skill and verve to compete with the best at the very front.\n\nFor Norris then, who has long shown exceptional promise, this was the vindication for a driver who is much admired. Verstappen had looked to be in control out front until the race was turned on its head around the mid point. McLaren had taken a chance on leaving Norris out long before his pit stop and from where he inherited the lead.\n\nVerstappen had pitted on lap 24 and when Logan Sargeant crashed out, tangling with Kevin Magnussen on lap 29, it prompted a safety car under which Norris gained a free stop, ensuring he emerged once more in the lead from Verstappen.\n\nHe duly held his lead at the restart on lap 33 as Verstappen struggled to bring his tyres up to speed and Norris opened a gap with his fresher rubber but it was impossibly tense as the British driver put in a series of flawless laps he knew were vital.\n\nA series of fastest laps followed, they began ticking away and as unlikely as it seemed, Verstappen it appeared had nothing more to bring, complaining he lacked grip. For once it was Norris in complete command at the front, delivering on what he has always said he could do.\n\nThe safety car had fallen in his favour but Norris held his nerve with an absolute iron will to close out like a champion. The lead grew as the laps counted down until he took the flag and a historic first victory by 7.6 seconds from Verstappen.\n\nHis laughter and shrieking celebration from the cockpit was exultant and he was sportingly clapped by Lewis Hamilton as the seven-time champion drew level with him on the in-lap.\n\n\u201cI love you all, thank you so much. We did it Will,\u201d he bellowed to his race engineer Will Joseph. \u201cI guess that\u2019s how it\u2019s done, finally. I knew it when I came in this morning, I said today is the day for opportunities. Thanks Mum, thanks Dad, this one\u2019s for my grandma.\u201d He then threw himself upon his team, crowdsurfing into their welcoming arms.\n\nThe crowd too stood to acknowledge his feat with absolutely raucous approval. For three years the fans have been coming to the track which winds its way round the Hard Rock stadium in Miami Gardens and they have yet to see anyone but Verstappen take victory here. That the Dutchman\u2019s stranglehold was broken by a driver so popular in the US and in making history as he did so was the sporting drama they appreciated with enormous acclaim.\n\n\u201cI am very happy for Lando it\u2019s been a long time coming and its definitely not going to be his last one, he deserved it today,\u201d said Verstappen, who nonetheless extended his lead in the title race to 35 points from Red Bull teammate Sergio P\u00e9rez who was fifth.\n\nBy the time the champagne was flowing, that the fans had a good time was palpable. Finally a new winner in Miami and proof positive there is a place for bopping about in a bikini while quaffing cocktails in F1 just as there is a place for standing in a waterproof in sheets of rain on a grassy knoll at Spa, as long as there is a great show on track and for the first time both Miami and Norris delivered in spades in that department.\n\nFerrari\u2019s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were third and fourth. P\u00e9rez was fifth for Red Bull, Hamilton and his teammate George Russell sixth and eighth for Mercedes, Yuki Tsunoda seventh for RB, Fernando Alonso ninth for Aston Martin and Esteban Ocon tenth for Alpine.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "23780b395f7c2e6b50355bebf58174cbe1b44fa4", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/1aa2fd635b9f1dc73d19c99ee7b201af34fb2fd0\/0_42_3936_2362\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "SNP activist abandons leadership bid and endorses John Swinney", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/snp-activist-abandons-leadership-bid-and-endorses-john-swinney", "words": "514", "section": "Politics", "date": "2024-05-05T22:23:22Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/1aa2fd635b9f1dc73d19c99ee7b201af34fb2fd0\/0_42_3936_2362\/1000.jpg", "author": "Mabel Banfield-Nwachi and Severin Carrell", "description": "Graeme McCormick said he had enough support to run but is backing former Scottish deputy first minister as sole official candidate", "text": "A Scottish National party activist has pulled out of the race to become its new leader and has endorsed John Swinney as Scotland\u2019s next first minister.\n\nGraeme McCormick, who stood to become SNP president in 2023, earlier claimed he could gather the 100 signatures needed from 20 different party branches to mount a challenge for the leadership.\n\nHowever, McCormick\u2019s decision not to pursue a leadership bid leaves Swinney, the former deputy first minister of Scotland, as the only official candidate after Humza Yousaf announced he is stepping down. The deadline for nominations is noon on Monday.\n\nMcCormick said he reached the nomination threshold of 100 signatures but chose to back Swinney after a \u201clengthy and fruitful conversation\u201d, and said this could be a \u201cfresh start\u201d.\n\nIn a statement on Sunday night, he said: \u201cJohn and I agreed the challenges which the SNP, our government and our people face, and explored new thinking on a range of issues which I am confident, as they are advanced, will inspire activists both within the SNP and wider independence movement in the following weeks and months.\n\n\u201cThis is a fresh start for our members and our politicians, and I\u2019m sure that John\u2019s determination to deliver independence will be rewarded at the forthcoming general election.\n\n\u201cI have therefore concluded that I shall not proceed with my nomination for party leader but instead support John Swinney\u2019s nomination for party leader and first minister of Scotland.\u201d\n\nMcCormick\u2019s supporters had argued it would have been undemocratic for the party\u2019s leader to win an unopposed coronation and insist that Swinney ought to face a contest. He won applause from hardliners when he denounced the SNP\u2019s caution over mounting a second independence referendum without Westminster\u2019s approval as \u201cflatulence in a trance\u201d during last year\u2019s party conference.\n\nOne of McCormick\u2019s backers, Iain Lawson, earlier attacked Swinney for criticising the planned challenge, and in another post accused Swinney of being entitled and \u201craging\u201d that an ordinary member was going up against him.\n\nSwinney, who described himself as the candidate to unite the party after a \u201cdifficult\u201d few years, said an election contest would delay the SNP\u2019s essential rebuild. But he signalled he would win any potential contest, telling Sky News that party members \u201cprobably know the outcome\u201d between the two potential candidates.\n\nHis call for SNP members to realise the urgency of the need to restore public confidence in the party was underlined by a poll by Norstat for Sunday Times Scotland, which said support for the party in a Westminster election had slumped to 29%.\n\nThe poll, the first to be carried out since Yousaf suddenly quit last week, put Labour on 34% and the Scottish Conservatives on 16%. Those figures suggest the SNP could lose 28 Westminster seats, a fall from 43 MPs at present to 15. Labour, which has only two Scottish seats, would win 28.\n\nOnce Swinney is named the next SNP leader he will have to win a subsequent vote in Holyrood later in the week to become Scotland\u2019s first minister.\n\nThe SNP said it does not comment on such matters.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "7605fed75ba4959628b5d00486f8763b6a70a4e0", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/0439af786781e11d1ae4b456b8d983360317551a\/0_448_6720_4032\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "The Incredibly Talented Lucy review \u2013 a sparkling story, with an enraging twist ending", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tv-and-radio\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/the-incredibly-talented-lucy-review-a-sparkling-story-with-an-enraging-twist-ending", "words": "806", "section": "Television & radio", "date": "2024-05-05T22:20:21Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/0439af786781e11d1ae4b456b8d983360317551a\/0_448_6720_4032\/1000.jpg", "author": "Jack Seale", "description": "This moving documentary is as much about The Piano winner\u2019s teacher, Daniel, as it is about her remarkable rise. While their relationship is wonderful to watch, the difficulties they face prove a rotten problem in society", "text": "The makers of Channel 4\u2019s reality\/talent show The Piano probably thought they had a hit on their hands when they coined the format, but the moment they knew they had cracked it must have been when they found Lucy, a 13-year-old girl from Halifax, West Yorkshire. Blind, neurodivergent and given to throwing her head from side to side during performances in the manner of Stevie Wonder, Lucy was exactly what The Piano \u2013 which invited amateurs from around the country to play railway concourse pianos, then arranged for the best ones to do a gig at the Royal Festival Hall \u2013 was looking for.\n\nInevitably, Lucy now stars in a spin-off documentary where we learn more about her and see what happened next. We duly watch Lucy at home and at school, delight in hearing her play a lot more piano \u2013 Debussy, Duke Ellington, Bach \u2013 and are introduced to her wonderful, loving mother and the teachers and classroom assistants who encourage her every day in matters besides music. But The Incredibly Talented Lucy is not primarily a film about Lucy. It\u2019s about Daniel.\n\nDaniel is Lucy\u2019s music teacher and has been for more than a decade; viewers of The Piano saw him guide her to the keyboard and watch tenderly over her as she performed. He taught Lucy by placing his hands on hers to show how to turn the music in her head into a sound others could hear, giving a girl with limited speech access to a priceless, boundless means of self-expression. We see how important their relationship is to Lucy in her use of Daniel\u2019s name: \u201cDaniel!\u201d she says when reminded of an upcoming lesson. \u201cDaniel!\u201d she exclaims, when they meet. \u201cDaniel!\u201d is the cry when playing a piece brings her joy.\n\nJittery and a little dishevelled but sparkling when Lucy plays well, which she usually does, Daniel is the archetype of the obsessively dedicated music teacher. We see him valiantly pursuing the hopeless task of conducting a school orchestra who sound like a fire in a bagpipe shop; more rewardingly, he also has one-on-ones with kids who have disabilities or challenges similar to Lucy\u2019s, and who are lighting up under his tutelage, just as she does.\n\nWe also speak to Daniel\u2019s concerned wife, who worries about the unsustainable amount of extra hours he works every week, because he knows these kids need him. The funding required to meet their needs properly is long gone. During filming, the final episode of The Piano is broadcast \u2013 when Daniel is interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live, he makes sure to crowbar in a plea for more money for musical education for all. Later in the show, Daniel opens up about the toll the responsibility he places on himself has taken in the past: he, it turns out, was not Lucy\u2019s saviour. They were each other\u2019s.\n\nIf their bond is pseudo-parental, Daniel is honest about the challenge that poses. While his own jazz trio plays to handfuls of people in Halifax, he is guiding someone who could become a celebrated concert pianist. He is keen that Lucy be moulded into a serious musician, not \u201can exhibit\u201d \u2013 the problem is whether this will be more rewarding for her, or for him. At home, Lucy has learned to make a smart speaker play the sound of a cheering crowd, but she cannot as yet articulate how much performing in public on a regular basis would mean to her. Around halfway through documentaries like this, there is often a low-key triumph to set us up for a bigger one later on, but here a gig where Lucy subs in for Daniel in his trio is derailed by her playing when she wants to, which isn\u2019t always when the drummer and bassist expect.\n\n\u201cI project my musical life on to Lucy, that\u2019s the problem,\u201d a distraught Daniel says backstage. The thwarted adult living vicariously through a gifted child is, however, a problem we trust this sensitive man to work through successfully, as is the fact that Lucy\u2019s own musical life cannot realistically be lived in its entirety with Daniel at her elbow, painful as this is for him to admit.\n\nThe finale is Lucy\u2019s appearance by invitation of the royal family, to play the Coronation gig at Windsor Castle in May 2023. Minutes before she walks on to the stage, there is a twist that the writer of any future Lucy movie will not need to finesse; it calls back to the theme of her growing up and leaving Daniel behind while also hinting quietly at something rotten and enraging in our society, enhancing the underlying motif of the nation\u2019s Daniels and Lucys being stomped on and left behind. They need and deserve more help than a heartwarming documentary can provide.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "ac259696b44a769b1025d01c4265471384e807de", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/b6b464103525c28bd60fba8659f9e44f729086a9\/0_193_5392_3235\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Anti-monarchy group holds rally ahead of anniversary of king\u2019s coronation", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/anti-monarchy-group-holds-rally-in-london-ahead-of-anniversary-of-kings-coronation", "words": "741", "section": "UK news", "date": "2024-05-05T15:56:48Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/b6b464103525c28bd60fba8659f9e44f729086a9\/0_193_5392_3235\/1000.jpg", "author": "Emily Dugan", "description": "About 100 people attended Republic rally in central London, with parallel events in Edinburgh and Cardiff", "text": "A 15ft dinosaur called \u201cChuck the Rex\u201d was the centrepiece of a rally calling for the abolition of the monarchy ahead of the first anniversary of King Charles\u2019s coronation.\n\nIt will be a year since the king\u2019s coronation on Monday, when gun salutes across the capital will commemorate his reign.\n\nAbout 100 people attended Sunday\u2019s rally in Trafalgar Square in central London, which was organised by the campaign group Republic, alongside parallel events in Edinburgh and Cardiff.\n\nProtesters chanted \u201cAbdicate, abdicate\u201d in front of two large yellow banners that read \u201cAbolish the monarchy\u201d and \u201cChange the country for good.\u201d\n\nGraham Smith, the chief executive of Republic, said the group had brought the enormous puppet dinosaur to represent the anachronism of monarchy. \u201cThe fossilised remains should be in a museum where we can have a look at it and then we can enjoy actually living in a modern democracy,\u201d he said.\n\nSmith and other Republic members were arrested last year for taking part in a pre-agreed protest on the day of the coronation. Smith was detained for 14 hours and launched a legal action against the Metropolitan police last year.\n\nHe told the crowd the action was continuing. \u201cWe need to challenge the monarchy and the royals because it is a corrupt institution \u2013 they are a lazy people, they have not earned their position and they need to be kicked out,\u201d he said.\n\nHe continued: \u201cWe want a constitution and a system and a democracy that actually celebrates our very best principles and values. This won\u2019t just be a matter of principle, it will change the way we govern ourselves and therefore change the society and the way that we see ourselves, not as subjects but as citizens.\u201d\n\nSmith said the public was \u201cforced to compromise our values and principles\u201d and compared the scrutiny of politicians to that of the monarchy.\n\n\u201cWe criticise MPs for spending thousands of pounds on second homes \u2026 but we don\u2019t criticise [Prince] William for spending \u00a34.5m of our money on doing up not his second home, or his third home, but his fourth,\u201d he said.\n\nSmith told the Guardian that the first year of Charles\u2019s reign had seen a surge in interest in the idea of abolishing the monarchy.\n\n\u201cWe have grown enormously in the last 12 months, we\u2019ve got more money, more members, more activists. There\u2019s no way we could have organised this two years ago. Charles is not the queen [Elizabeth]. I mean, the queen was the monarchy for a lot of people.\u201d\n\nWhile polling published on Sunday suggested an increase in support for King Charles, it also indicated a rise in people believing the UK should become a republic.\n\nIpsos polling for the Mail on Sunday found 56% believe Charles is doing a good job as king, up from 49% last year. It also found that 28% of people supported Britain becoming a republic, compared to 22% four months before Queen Elizabeth\u2019s death in 2023.\n\nThe human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who has supported Republic for decades, was one of the speakers. He told the Guardian: \u201cMonarchy symbolises elitism, privilege and deference. It\u2019s totally incompatible with a modern 21st-century democracy.\n\n\u201cThe royals have between them 23 palaces and residences, 700 servants and a combined personal wealth of \u00a32bn.\u201d\n\nTatchell said that support for the monarchy was \u201cslipping\u201d, pointing to the enthusiasm for republicanism among young people. The latest Ipsos polling found a third of young people said it \u201cwould be better\u201d if the monarchy was abolished, compared with just one in six of older people.\n\nShortly after the rally, the archbishop of Canterbury praised King Charles\u2019s \u201csense of duty\u201d as he returned to public events following his cancer diagnosis.\n\nIn a statement released to coincide with the anniversary of the coronation, Justin Welby said it had been \u201cthe privilege of a lifetime\u201d to anoint the king and queen in the ceremony.\n\nThe king attended three events last week as he resumed royal engagements with the public. His first was meeting cancer specialists and patients receiving chemotherapy at University College hospital\u2019s cancer centre in London.\n\nReflecting on Charles\u2019s handling of his ill health, Welby said: \u201cThe past year has presented the king with some great personal challenges. But I have been struck by his continued sense of duty, having recently returned to royal engagements following treatment.\n\n\u201cHis openness in sharing his condition has been characteristic of his willingness to help and support others.\u201d\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "7a018abbc72e91b7e594f91baf9ca03fa2b91e35", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/96892e8c199e00bb0d639c84cd3017c6387c922e\/0_0_3578_2148\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Manchester United have met with Jadon Sancho during loan, Erik ten Hag reveals", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/manchester-united-jadon-sancho-dortmund-ten-hag", "words": "602", "section": "Football", "date": "2024-05-05T21:30:20Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/96892e8c199e00bb0d639c84cd3017c6387c922e\/0_0_3578_2148\/1000.jpg", "author": "Jamie Jackson", "description": "Manchester United have met with Jadon Sancho during his loan spell at Dortmund and Erik ten Hag is hopeful their conflict can be resolved", "text": "Manchester United have met with Jadon Sancho during his loan spell at Borussia Dortmund, with Erik ten Hag revealing his dispute with the forward will be resolved in the close season.\n\nThe 24-year-old joined Dortmund in January on a temporary basis having not played for United since August after he fell out with Ten Hag who left him out of the squad for the 3-1 loss at Arsenal in early September.\n\nImmediately afterwards, Ten Hag claimed Sancho was absent because he had not trained to the standard required before the game. Sancho responded with a tweet that disputed this and, in essence, called Ten Hag a liar. Sancho then refused to apologise to the Dutchman, so was excluded by him.\n\nThe England winger was among Dortmund\u2019s best performers in Wednesday\u2019s 1-0 victory against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League semi-final first leg. Ten Hag was asked whether Sancho would be reinstated in the United squad if he apologised, and if the player is being monitored at Dortmund.\n\n\u201cWe are close in that process,\u201d the Manchester United manager said. \u201cWe are visiting games, not only [Wednesday] \u2013 [I] will not say all the games, but we have seen more games from Dortmund where Jadon was performing. We had a visit with him, we talked with him, and we will keep going with this process.\u201d\n\nIt is understood that John Murtough, the former football director at United, and Matt Hargreaves, the director of player negotiations, were the club representatives who travelled to Dortmund for discussions with the player.\n\nTen Hag was pressed regarding the apology. \u201cThere was a conflict and let\u2019s finish the season first,\u201d he said. \u201cSo stay away from this issue now \u2013 it is not important. He has the return [leg] of the semi-final, in the league it is not going that well for them. We have four important games in the league and the FA Cup final and then we will see.\u201d\n\nLast week, Bruno Fernandes discussed his future at United with Dazn Portugal. \u201cObviously, it doesn\u2019t just depend on me, does it?\u201d he said. \u201cA player always has to want to be here, but at the same time, you have to want him to stay. At the moment, I feel there\u2019s that on both sides.\u201d\n\nTen Hag is confident the captain will remain at United for the last two years on his contract. \u201cDefinitely,\u201d he said. \u201cI know he is Manchester United and he is very happy to be here.\u201d\n\nFernandes is an injury doubt for United\u2019s trip to Crystal Palace on Monday but the manager said he would \u201cfight\u201d to be fit. Ten Hag was then asked if he was hinting that other players in his squad are less inclined to battle to be available when nursing minor problems.\n\n\u201cIt is also a very subjective criteria,\u201d the manager said: \u201cOne [thing] is sure, Bruno is a real fighter. Last year for instance when we played Brighton [in the FA Cup] semi-final, he played with an ankle that was so thick [swollen] it was unbelievable. What is fair enough [to say] is that Bruno is a very good example for other players.\u201d\n\nHarry Maguire was yesterday ruled out of the visit to Selhurst Park with a muscle injury that will rule him out for three weeks. Maguire\u2019s absence adds to United\u2019s injury crisis in central defence, where midfielder Casemiro has been filling in for recent matches.\n\nMaguire will likely not return for United in the league this season but will hope to be fit for the FA Cup final against Manchester City on 25 May and for the Euros this summer.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "7d8c2074064595d051058ebd32a2a0846d7d5646", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/4f96a9aadc7b3e4b8f383a544c1ba5aa8c7587eb\/0_400_6000_3600\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Chaos & Decline: Labour\u2019s spoof stitches together 14 years of Tory low points ", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/chaos-decline-labours-spoof-stitches-together-14-years-of-tory-low-points", "words": "523", "section": "Politics", "date": "2024-05-05T21:30:20Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/4f96a9aadc7b3e4b8f383a544c1ba5aa8c7587eb\/0_400_6000_3600\/1000.jpg", "author": "Rachel Hall", "description": "Trailers for fake five-episode series use broadcast clips to poke fun at Conservative prime ministers", "text": "Chaos, drama, sleaze and scandal \u2013 it sounds like the background to a prestige TV show, but it could also describe 14 years of Conservative government.\n\nIt\u2019s this overlap that Labour is riffing on as the party releases trailers for Chaos & Decline, a spoof five-episode series stitching together broadcast clips of low moments under Conservative rule that pokes fun at Tory MPs while telling the story of the damage wreaked on UK society and the economy under the party\u2019s five prime ministers.\n\nA new season trailer video will air each day on a fake streaming platform, Conflix.uk, starting from Monday at 7am. The site states: \u201cAfter 14 years, Chaos & Decline is coming to an end. If you vote for it to.\u201d\n\nJonathan Ashworth, Labour\u2019s shadow paymaster general, said: \u201cThe Tory chaos over the last 14 years has been like a tragic soap opera where every episode brings more psychodrama, scandals and broken promises. There is a real cost to this, and it\u2019s paid by the British people every day.\n\n\u201cAt every opportunity these five prime ministers put Conservative internal politics first and country second. Now they\u2019re asking for another five years on the air with a prime minister who is a product of this exact chaos and who is willing to repeat the Truss-style economic catastrophe with his \u00a346bn threat to the state pension.\n\n\u201cAfter 14 long years of Tory chaos, the country needs change. With Keir Starmer, Labour has been put back into the service of working people and we are ready to turn the page and finally give Britain its future back.\u201d\n\nThe first season trailer is set against a backdrop of a rose garden, with David Cameron pledging to deliver \u201cstrong, stable, determined leadership\u201d. It will then show how this led to the decimation of public services, from police officers taken off the streets to A&E and cancer waiting time targets missed. The episode will culminate in Cameron getting into hot water for using his contacts for a lobbying company that paid him millions.\n\nThe second trailer looks at Theresa May\u2019s rule, including her \u201chapless attempts at controlling her own party\u201d. It will explore how this distraction led to the NHS winter crisis becoming a permanent feature of the health service and to the eruption of the Windrush scandal.\n\nThe third season is characterised by sleaze and scandal during the Covid pandemic. \u201cWhen the whole country was making sacrifices, Boris Johnson acted as if he was above the rules. And while he was hosting parties in Downing Street during lockdown, his government was spending millions on overpriced gloves and masks from their Tory mates which were completely unusable,\u201d Labour says.\n\nThis is followed by \u201ca short and devastating affair\u201d in the fourth season, as Liz Truss\u2019s premiership ends 49 days after beginning, after she \u201ccrashed the economy and set mortgage rates soaring\u201d.\n\nThe fifth and, Labour suggests, \u201chopefully final season\u201d of this chaotic drama examines Rishi Sunak, who is \u201cas out of touch as he is weak\u201d. It looks at his \u201c\u00a346bn unfunded spending plan\u201d and warns that it could be \u201ceven more dangerous than Liz Truss\u2019s mini-budget\u201d.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "d46fc925b5f0d071eede25003229d7886c6bc735", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/cb434b423d893807850b16c66075b7840b5e3814\/199_0_4602_2764\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "The Responder series two review \u2013 another total TV triumph", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tv-and-radio\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/the-responder-series-two-review-another-total-tv-triumph", "words": "745", "section": "Television & radio", "date": "2024-05-05T21:00:19Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/cb434b423d893807850b16c66075b7840b5e3814\/199_0_4602_2764\/1000.jpg", "author": "Lucy Mangan", "description": "Martin Freeman returns in the exquisitely painful study of a police officer\u2019s breakdown \u2013 and it\u2019s a rare second run that\u2019s just as riveting and vital as the first", "text": "Two years ago, the former police officer and debut screenwriter Tony Schumacher gave us five of the most riveting and harrowing hours of television there have been for many years. The Responder was the story of Chris Carson (a career-best performance from Martin Freeman), a man slowly being driven to despair by the pressures of his job as a frontline officer answering emergency calls on night shift and the futility of trying to hold back the tide of crime perpetuated mostly by people who are desperate, destitute or mentally ill. \u201cIt\u2019s like playing whack-a-mole,\u201d he said. \u201cExcept the moles wear trackies. Every night, there\u2019s blood on my boots and spit on my face and it never, ever stops.\u201d\n\nThere was a compelling, perfectly worked plot involving a missing bag of drugs and Chris\u2019s corrupt connection with a local drug dealer who was murdered in pursuit of the vanished stash. But the meat of the thing, its genius, was the credible deterioration of Chris and the portrait the series painted of a society at the point of breakdown.\n\nNow, Chris is back in that rarest of things: a second season that feels earned by the quality of what went before and also unforced. The original ended neatly, but credibly, without anyone\u2019s personal stories ending. The new five-part drama feels natural and \u2013 given the unspent potential \u2013 necessary.\n\nIt starts about six months on from the original events. Chris is still separated from his wife, Kate (MyAnna Buring), still on the oppressive night shift and desperately trying to get the day job that would stop Kate moving to London with their daughter for a better quality of life. He is attending weekly group therapy. The sessions are exquisitely painful vignettes of frustration, emblematic of the dearth of help available to people with mental health problems (and the perpetual inadequacy of good intentions).\n\nWhen he learns that he is essentially barred from the day job he has told Kate he has already got, Chris becomes reluctantly embroiled with his old partner Deb Barnes (Amaka Okafor), who promises him a day job in her office if he helps her with a drugs case. This grey area rapidly darkens to deepest black. In addition, he is forced to re-engage with his estranged, abusive father (Bernard Hill, in quietly mesmerising mode) and you can practically see the memories corroding Chris further at every meeting.\n\nMost of the rest of the superb supporting cast from season one is back, too. There are the chaos magnets Casey (Emily Fairn) and Marco (Josh Finan), this time dreaming of making their fortunes as drug dealers and still nowhere near savvy or ruthless enough to pull it off, even with the help of Carl Sweeney\u2019s fearsome widow, Jodie (Faye McKeever). Most affectingly, there is the return of Chris\u2019s on-off patrol partner Rachel (Adelayo Adedayo), who becomes more involved in Chris\u2019s rapidly-escalating-to-criminal activities than she did in season one, while also trying to cope with the effects of the domestic abuse we saw her endure last time.\n\nAs written and as played, it is a fine, fine depiction of where such experiences leave the victims \u2013 of how many ways such trauma can manifest itself, from detachment to obsessive thoughts to self-harm, all while presenting a reasonable face to the world. Rachel has failed the sergeant\u2019s exam since we last saw her and, like Chris, is desperate to get off night shifts. Her plot line may be secondary, but all the psychological astuteness and attention to detail that is paid to Chris\u2019s unravelling is rightly and refreshingly paid here, too.\n\nSchumacher maintains his tight control everywhere. The Responder unfolds as the first season did, like a classical tragedy, with the unswerving sense of inevitability. There are so many ways for people to be trapped and the claustrophobia builds with virtually every scene. The bleakness is shot through with great, funny lines (Jodie\u2019s hatred of the children in the ice-cream parlour she set up in an effort to go straight could fuel a spin-off sitcom), but it remains a study in harm. The harm we do to ourselves, to our children and to a society when we deprive it, little by little, year after year, generation after generation, of everything that is necessary for it to thrive. It\u2019s another matchless piece, in other words. A triumph for all involved.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "94c315572caa98e9d97126078d3156971ca089fb", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/dd042bd7769ae95493ec137060231c6df88ff15c\/0_93_2976_1787\/500.jpg", "title": "Morning Mail: grim find in Mexico sheds light on missing surfers; budget help for student work placements; Israel shutters Al Jazeera", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/article\/2024\/may\/06\/morning-mail-monday-ntwnfb", "words": "1055", "section": "Australia news", "date": "2024-05-05T20:59:43Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/dd042bd7769ae95493ec137060231c6df88ff15c\/0_93_2976_1787\/1000.jpg", "author": "Charlotte Graham-McLay", "description": "Three men found dead in a well in Baja California killed by gunshots to the head; Facebook turns off the news tap for Australians", "text": "Good morning. Mexican authorities say three men found dead in a remote well in Baja California \u2013 believed to be the two Australians and an American who disappeared on a surfing holiday \u2013 were killed by gunshots to the head. The bodies are expected to be formally identified today by family members. Guardian Australia will bring you the latest through the day as we learn more.\n\nMeanwhile, there\u2019s money in the budget to pay students on mandatory work placements, Facebook is turning off the news tap for Australians (and replacing it with memes), and Israel has shut down the local offices of Al Jazeera.\n\nAustralia\n\nWhale song | Australian scientists who spent two decades listening to the distinctive songs and calls of Antarctic blue whales \u2013 the largest that have ever lived \u2013 are delighted by hints of a resurgence in the species after numbers dwindled to just a few hundred.\n\nPlacement payment | Student teachers, nurses, midwives and social workers will receive a $320 weekly payment during their mandatory placements under a new cost-of-living measure in this month\u2019s budget.\n\nSocial media | Amid fears Meta might again enact a ban on news content on Facebook, Guardian data analysis suggests that engagement with posts from news organisations is already dead, as memes fill the space.\n\nDeportation bill | The Greens are out to kill the controversial deportation legislation they hate while the opposition is yet to finalise its position \u2013 it could be a budget week blockbuster, writes Paul Karp.\n\nCustomer data | The Australian privacy commissioner warned that third-party suppliers are \u201ca real weak spot\u201d for protecting customer privacy after Australian user details were compromised in a leak of supplier data held by NSW and ACT clubs.\n\nWorld\n\nAl Jazeera | Israeli authorities shut down the local offices of Al Jazeera, hours after a government vote to use new laws to close the satellite news network\u2019s operations in the country.\n\nMurder in Mexico | The three bodies believed to be those of the two Australians and an American who went missing in Baja California were killed with gunshots to the head. Mar\u00eda Elena Andrade Ram\u00edrez, the state\u2019s attorney general, said the missing men may have been attacked by people who wanted to steal their car.\n\nGaza ceasefire | Israeli officials ramped up pressure on Hamas, threatening a new onslaught on Gaza \u201cin the very near future\u201d if the militant organisation did not accept newly proposed terms for a ceasefire.\n\nRishi Sunak | The UK prime minister will face pressure to adopt hard rightwing policies such as an immigration cap and scrapping European human rights law this week, with one of his MPs, Suella Braverman, saying he needs to \u201cown and fix\u201d disastrous local election results.\n\nUS politics | \u201cI\u2019m tired of politicians pretending to be what they\u2019re not,\u201d said the South Dakota governor and Republican vice-presidential hopeful, Kristi Noem, as she defended her admission that she once killed a dog.\n\nFull Story\nWhy are Australian schools failing children with disabilities?\n\nThe number of disabled students recognised as needing greater learning support has grown to almost 1 million nationally. But these children are increasingly being suspended from schools, including some as young as five. Investigative reporter Sarah Martin explains to Jane Lee how Australia\u2019s education system has reached crisis point.\n\nIn-depth\nThe 5,614km dog fence that runs from South Australia to southern Queensland has a 32km gap, and work to bridge it has prompted discussion about whether the tool to keep wild dogs and dingoes out is still essential and should even been extended \u2013 or is past its usefulness.\n\nFor farmers, the fence has become part of the landscape, a key plank in protecting livestock against dingoes and wild dogs. But some ecologists say the fence is a colonial legacy that is doing more harm than good \u2013 and it should be taken down.\n\nNot the news\nFor the past five years, bragging rights over the world\u2019s longest baguette have belonged not to the residents of a small village or a city in France, but rather (sacr\u00e9 bleu!) to a clutch of bakers 500 miles away in Como, Italy. It was an affront to France, where 320 baguettes are sold every second.\n\nOn Sunday a crop of 12 bakers from France set out to settle the score, spending 14 hours kneading, shaping and baking their way back to victory. The world record now stands at 140.53m. Hopefully they also had a really big bit of cheese.\n\nThe world of sport\n\nAFL | As the Demons handed the Cats their first loss of the AFL season, Melbourne entertained as much as contained to beat Geelong with their own game, writes Jonathan Horn for Sportblog.\n\nPremier League | Liverpool beat Tottenham 4-2 in a match marred by a half-time row between Spurs defenders that Ange Postecoglou claims not to be worried by. Chelsea beat West Ham 5-0; Brighton beat Aston Villa 1-0.\n\nAthletics | A squad anchored by Australia\u2019s fastest woman Torrie Lewis smashed the national 4x100m record for the second time this year to claim an automatic spot at the Paris Olympics.\n\nClimate crisis | Here\u2019s how the climate crisis is changing global sport, with nations such as Kenya among those worried about the effects of global heating \u2013 not only for their countries but also for their athletes.\n\nMedia roundup\nThe Herald Sun previews Victoria\u2019s state budget on Tuesday. Private school boys in Melbourne were suspended after ranking female classmates, the Age reports.\n\nWhat\u2019s happening today\n\nDavid McBride | The war crimes whistleblower will be sentenced after pleading guilty.\n\nMeteor shower | If you missed it today, early morning tomorrow should be a good time to see the Eta Aquariids, the first of the year\u2019s two main southern hemisphere meteor showers, when the moon won\u2019t be brightening the sky.\n\nSign up\nIf you would like to receive this Morning Mail update to your email inbox every weekday, sign up here. And finish your day with a three-minute snapshot of the day\u2019s main news. Sign up for our Afternoon Update newsletter here.\n\nPrefer notifications? If you\u2019re reading this in our app, just click here and tap \u201cGet notifications\u201d on the next screen for an instant alert when we publish every morning.\n\nBrain teaser\nAnd finally, here are the Guardian\u2019s crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.\n\nQuick crossword\n\nCryptic crossword\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "6525af345380e9159aa8bf2b1029ee15e69f0658", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/704622334595fec86553087cc72cde949ee8e417\/0_200_6000_3600\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Police dismantle Palestinian solidarity encampment at USC", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/police-palestinian-solidarity-camp-usc", "words": "850", "section": "US news", "date": "2024-05-05T20:45:56Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/704622334595fec86553087cc72cde949ee8e417\/0_200_6000_3600\/1000.jpg", "author": "Maya Yang", "description": "Officers in riot gear raid encampment at dawn as university warns demonstrators that failure to leave could", "text": "Police have dismantled the student-led Palestinian solidarity encampment at the University of Southern California.\n\nAbout 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 \u201cpeople who don\u2019t leave could be arrested\u201d.\n\nSpeaking to KTLA, members of the student-run newspapers the Daily Trojan and Annenberg Media said: \u201cWe were just sitting here, camping out. We saw a peaceful encampment. They\u2019ve been eating food, having teach-ins \u2026 and then they eventually went in their tents later in the night and then at around 4[am] actually, we saw dozens of DPS cars [department of public safety] come in and then from there, they started bringing in the officers.\u201d\n\n\u201cBefore they came in, it was very peaceful. People were sleeping, in fact,\u201d another member said, adding: \u201cAt 4am was when \u2026 we saw dozens of LAPD officers sort of come in, essentially in trucks, standing on the trucks. I think there were about four trucks, each of them had about a dozen or so police officers \u2026 Along with that, we also had DPS come in.\u201d\n\nVideos posted online by the Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation at USC showed dozens of riot police marching throughout campus as others stood guard with multiple zip ties hanging from their belts.\n\nAround them, anti-war student protesters chanted: \u201cFree, free Palestine!\u201d Others chanted, \u201cWho do you protect?\u201d and \u201cFascists, fascists, you can\u2019t hide! We charge you with genocide.\u201d Some also chanted: \u201cWhy are you in riot gear? I don\u2019t see no riot here!\u201d\n\nAnother video captured during the raid showed USC journalism professor Alan Mittelstaedt arguing with a police officer over media access as the police officer attempted to cordon media to an area far from the encampment.\n\nAt one point, the police officer raises his voice and says, \u201cBy law, you gotta get outta the way! Listen to me!\u201d\n\nIn a statement following the raid, USC president Carol Folt said: \u201cI requested the LAPD to assist DPS in removing the encampment as peacefully and safely as possible. At 4.10 am, an order to disperse was issued, providing the trespassers one last opportunity to leave voluntarily. In 64 minutes, the encampment was abandoned and cleared. The operation was peaceful with no arrests. We will not tolerate illegal encampments of any kind at USC.\u201d\n\nHours later, some Democrats defended police actions taken across the country to dismantle campus encampments and even arrest protesters. Arizona senator Mark Kelly said on NBC\u2019s Meet the Press it was appropriate for police to get involved when protests turn into \u201cunlawful acts\u201d.\n\n\u201cWhen they cross a line and when they commit crimes, they should be arrested,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cThat\u2019s the appropriate thing to do.\u201d\n\nJoe Biden, who had been silent on the university campus protests, confronted the issue on Thursday. \u201cDissent is essential for democracy,\u201d Biden said in an address at the White House. \u201cBut dissent must never lead to disorder.\u201d\n\nThe president added: \u201cVandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campus, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation \u2026 none of this is a peaceful protest.\u201d\n\nSaturday\u2019s pre-dawn raid marked the second on USC\u2019s campus after police dismantled an earlier encampment and arrested 93 anti-war protesters on 24 April.\n\nThe USC encampments, along with multiple encampments across US college campuses in recent weeks, were set up by students in calls for the university to divest from companies \u2013 including weapons manufacturers \u2013 with ties to Israel.\n\nThe encampments also come in response to Israel\u2019s deadly war on Gaza since Hamas\u2019s 7 October attacks that killed more than 1,100 Israelis. Since October, Israeli forces have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians across Gaza while leaving 2 million survivors displaced across the narrow strip amid a famine caused by Israeli restrictions on aid.\n\nIsrael has also destroyed every university in Gaza, in addition to killing at least 5,479 students, 261 teachers and 95 university professors, according to the UN, which has condemned Israel\u2019s actions as \u201cscholasticide\u201d.\n\nUSC has received significant backlash from students, faculty and alumni in recent weeks over its administration\u2019s crackdown on the student encampments, as well as its decision to cancel the valedictorian speech of Asna Tabassum, a Muslim student who has expressed solidarity for Palestine.\n\nThe Council of American Islamic Relations (Cair), the US\u2019s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, condemned USC\u2019s decision as \u201ccowardly\u201d while Tabassum accused the university of attempting to \u201csilence my voice\u201d.\n\nOn Friday, USC faculty staged a walkout in support of the anti-war student demonstrators and their encampment. Meanwhile, over 1,500 USC alumni have signed an open letter in support of the USC Divest from Death coalition.\n\nFollowing Saturday\u2019s raid, USC law professor Jody David Armour wrote on X: \u201cMy heart is heavy but my spirits are high as I grieve the loss of the \u2066USC\u2069 students\u2019 encampment but celebrate their courageous & conscientious fight against our complicity in mass graves, collective punishment, forced starvation, & the killing of more than 14,000 children.\u201d\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "010dbaa942ded56d7316970ccb25fe54220b2273", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/c8f46554e9b888e12300c764e095c98ea31ffe7d\/65_0_1800_1080\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "I Kissed a Girl review \u2013 the sweetest, most touching reality TV in a long time", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tv-and-radio\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/i-kissed-a-girl-review-the-sweetest-most-touching-reality-tv-in-a-long-time", "words": "791", "section": "Television & radio", "date": "2024-05-05T20:45:19Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/c8f46554e9b888e12300c764e095c98ea31ffe7d\/65_0_1800_1080\/1000.jpg", "author": "Daisy Jones", "description": "Like a lesbian Love Island, singles flirt, cry and snog on the terrace while openly communicating their feelings. It\u2019s heartwarming stuff \u2013 but there is still plenty of drama and endless partner swaps", "text": "First, let\u2019s start with the premise: 10 singles are sent to a villa \u2013 sorry, masseria \u2013 in Italy in the hopes of finding love. They\u2019re each coupled up \u2013 in this case, sealed with a kiss from a total stranger \u2013 before staying together in a big group bedroom. As the days go on, new cast members enter the masseria. If they don\u2019t recouple in time, someone has to leave. When they\u2019re not taking part in challenges designed to reveal more about their interior lives, they\u2019re plopped around on bean bags gossiping. Sound familiar? Yes, BBC Three\u2019s I Kissed a Girl, presented by Dannii Minogue, is essentially the same premise as Love Island except \u2013 and this is the crucial bit \u2013 it\u2019s for queer women only.\n\nWhen my friends and I used to imagine what a \u201clesbian Love Island\u201d might look like, we used to joke \u2013 affectionately, excitedly \u2013 that it could easily spiral into chaos. Maybe they\u2019d become attached too quickly and never recouple, making the format redundant (a stereotype known as \u201cU-hauling\u201d). Maybe they\u2019d swap exes constantly (something we tend to do more than our straight counterparts, due to smaller dating pools). Or maybe they\u2019d never be sure if they were friends or lovers, lovers or friends, each caught in a cycle of grey area \u201cWhat are we?\u201d until the show wound to a close (another stereotype attached to young queers new to the dating scene).\n\nWhat we\u2019re presented with, however, is the sweetest, most touching reality TV dating to have hit UK screens in some time. The cast members, mainly in their early to mid-20s, are careful with each other, constantly communicating their feelings even when those feelings are new, uncomfortable or undesirable. \u201cI think it\u2019s nice that she told me, because she doesn\u2019t owe me anything,\u201d 23-year-old Demi tells the camera in the second episode, after being gently turned down. \u201cI do have a bit of insecurity regarding the fact that I haven\u2019t been with a lot of women \u2026 It can be really frustrating, and I shouldn\u2019t let that happen. I should be able to explore my queerness to the full extent that I want to, and not cage myself in.\u201d\n\nIt is hard to pinpoint what makes the show so wildly different to its buffed up, heterosexual ITV counterpart \u2013 despite sharing such a similar format. Perhaps the lack of straight male contestants makes the show less of a breeding ground for misogynistic tropes (in 2022, Love Island drew 1,500 Ofcom complaints over alleged misogyny). There\u2019s no \u201cboy code\u201d, no shaming women for their \u201cbody count\u201d, no casual sexism. Even when contestants behave in ways that are messy, or less than ideal, as we all can, their actions never feel imbued with the nastiness that plagues Love Island in its lowest moments. \u201cIt worries me just a smidge,\u201d says one cast member when the person she\u2019s coupled with flirts with someone else, before the two of them discuss where they\u2019re at in a calm, face-to-face conversation.\n\nMaybe it feels a little simplistic to claim that the show\u2019s sweetness comes purely from a lack of straight male energy or heterosexual dynamics. These are young queer women, some of whom have only recently come out, some who live in small UK towns, who are now living in a whole house of queers of a similar age. You can feel the excitement; they\u2019re happy to be there, swapping coming-out stories and whether they\u2019re into butches or femmes or whether they\u2019re keen to try something new. When the first contestant leaves, she thanks the whole house: \u201cI feel a lot more secure in my sexuality, I don\u2019t feel confused, I don\u2019t feel shame, I got to meet a bunch of fit girls! I\u2019ve got a cool queer group. Honestly, I don\u2019t regret anything.\u201d\n\nI Kissed a Girl isn\u2019t completely saccharine or devoid of drama. There are spats, tears, moments of jealousy, contestants going behind other contestants\u2019 backs for a cheeky kiss on the terrace (yes, like Love Island, there is also a terrace), endless partner swaps and moments in which you want to shake some of these baby lesbians through the TV (you don\u2019t need to protect yourself so ferociously!). But there are no out-and-out villains, no scenes that you know they\u2019ll come to regret later, no moments in which you wince at a contestant\u2019s cruel treatment \u2013 whether by other contestants or via the challenges on the show.\n\nInstead, what you\u2019ve got is a fun, pacy reality show with plenty of laughs, tears and intrigue throughout. Three years after Love Island\u2019s creators claimed that LGTBQ contestants would bring logistical difficulties, it is heartwarming and cool to see that, actually, what was all that fuss about?\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "5f9cbc6e199b2d2a81c18f6de7a8394d346153ec", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/494f63524cc861da55945daf9894a4e72a08fca6\/0_0_8640_5184\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Israel tells Hamas to accept ceasefire terms or risk new onslaught \u2018in near future\u2019", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/israel-tells-hamas-to-accept-ceasefire-terms-or-risk-new-onslaught-in-near-future", "words": "1220", "section": "World news", "date": "2024-05-05T15:30:18Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/494f63524cc861da55945daf9894a4e72a08fca6\/0_0_8640_5184\/1000.jpg", "author": "Jason Burke in Jerusalem", "description": "Netanyahu refuses demands of permanent ceasefire and also moves to shut down Al Jazeera network", "text": "Senior Israeli officials ramped up pressure on Hamas on Sunday, saying Israel would refuse any permanent end to hostilities and threatening a new onslaught \u201cin the very near future\u201d if the militant organisation did not accept recently proposed terms for a ceasefire.\n\nIn a televised address, Benjamin Netanyahu once more rejected Hamas\u2019s demands for a definitive end to the war in Gaza, saying that any permanent ceasefire would allow the group to remain in power and pose a continuing threat to Israel.\n\nSpeaking a day after thousands of people again rallied in Tel Aviv demanding a deal to free the remaining Israeli captives, Netanyahu also said that his government had \u201cbeen working around the clock to formulate an agreement that would return our hostages\u201d.\n\nHours later, Israel\u2019s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said Hamas did not appear to be serious about reaching a ceasefire deal. If a deal is not reached, he added, this would lead Israel to launch an often-threatened offensive into Rafah, a reported Hamas stronghold where about a million people displaced from elsewhere in Gaza have sought shelter, \u201cin the very near future\u201d.\n\nThe statements by Netanyahu and Gallant may dash recent hopes that Hamas and Israel are close to a deal to bring about an initial 40-day pause to hostilities and the release of dozens of hostages.\n\n\u201cHamas remains entrenched in its extreme positions, first among them the demand to remove all our forces from the Gaza Strip, end the war, and leave Hamas in power,\u201d Netanyahu said. \u201cIsrael cannot accept that \u2026 Hamas would be able to achieve its promise of carrying out again and again and again its massacres, rapes and kidnapping.\u201d\n\nA Hamas delegation which had arrived in Cairo on Saturday announced late on Sunday it was leaving to consult with its leadership. There has been no sign yet of a definitive response from the group to new terms proposed by mediators and accepted by Israel last week. Israel has yet to send a delegation to Cairo.\n\nIn a move unlikely to help the talks, Netanyahu\u2019s cabinet decided on Sunday to shut down Al Jazeera\u2019s operations in Israel for as long as the war in Gaza continues, claiming the Qatari television network threatens national security.\n\nAl Jazeera rejected the accusation as a \u201cdangerous and ridiculous lie\u201d that put its journalists at risk.\n\nThe network has been critical of Israel\u2019s military operation in Gaza, from where it has reported around the clock throughout the war. It is funded by the Qatari government, which until recently played a key role in ceasefire talks.\n\nThe war was triggered by surprise attacks launched by Hamas on southern Israel in October in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and about 250 hostages were taken.\n\nIsrael\u2019s ensuing military offensive has devastated much of Gaza, caused a humanitarian crisis and killed more than 34,600 Palestinians, mostly women and children. Israel has said that Hamas uses civilians as human shields, a charge the organisation has rejected.\n\nWitnesses on Sunday reported shelling and gunfire in the vicinity of Gaza City, helicopter fire in central and southern Gaza, and a missile strike on a house in the Rafah area. The UN has reported continuing bombardment every day for many weeks.\n\nCindy McCain, the head of the World Food Programme, said on Saturday there was \u201cfull-blown famine\u201d in northern Gaza, and appealed for an end to fighting.\n\nBoth Israel and Hamas portray the other as intransigeant but both are under pressure to agree a ceasefire.\n\nIsmail Haniyeh, Hamas\u2019s most senior political leader, said on Sunday the militant group was keen on reaching a comprehensive ceasefire that will end Israeli \u201caggression\u201d, guarantee Israel\u2019s withdrawal from Gaza and achieve a serious hostage-swap deal.\n\nIn his statement Haniyeh blamed Netanyahu for \u201csabotaging the efforts made through the mediators and various parties\u201d.\n\nNetanyahu has repeatedly vowed to invade Rafah regardless of whether a truce is reached and despite concerns from the US other countries and aid groups.\n\nAbout a million displaced Palestinians have fled to Rafah, which is also a major logistic hub for humanitarian assistance.\n\nAntony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said on Friday that without a credible plan to protect civilians in the city, Washington could not support \u201ca major military operation going into Rafah because the damage it would do is beyond what\u2019s acceptable\u201d.\n\nTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the chief of the World Health Organization, on Friday warned that \u201ca full-scale military operation in Rafah \u2026 could lead to a bloodbath\u201d.\n\nTalks between Israel and Hamas restarted in late December, just weeks after a brief ceasefire allowed 105 hostages to be exchanged for 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Successive rounds of negotiations have made incremental progress, though the most recent proposed deal remains very close to that discussed many months ago.\n\nNegotiators have proposed a series of phased pauses in fighting, with further hostage releases and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from much or all of Gaza. Israel has resisted a Hamas demand for permission for civilians to return to the devastated north of the territory for fear this would allow the organisation to re-establish control there.\n\nAid officials said the flow of aid into Gaza remains inadequate, despite recent improvement. On Sunday the Israeli military said it had been forced to close the recently reopened Kerem Shalom crossing at the southern end of Gaza to aid convoys after it came under mortar fire. Three Israeli soldiers were killed and three critically wounded, officials said on Sunday night.\n\nCritics in Israel have accused Netanyahu of seeking to prolong the war. The coalition he leads includes religious and ultra-nationalist parties which fiercely oppose any end to hostilities. A deal might lead these allies to quit government, threatening Netanyahu\u2019s grip on power.\n\nOn Sunday the Hostages and Missing Families Forum appealed directly to Netanyahu in a statement, telling him to \u201cdisregard all political pressure\u201d.\n\n\u201cHistory will not forgive you if you miss this opportunity\u201d, the statement said. About 128 hostages remain in Gaza, though between 30 and 50 are thought to have died in captivity.\n\nThousands of Israelis again rallied in Tel Aviv late on Saturday demanding a deal to free the remaining captives. They waved Israeli flags and placardswith messages reading \u201cBring them Home!\u201d\n\nMichael Levy, whose brother Or is among the hostages, said he tries not to think too much about a potential truce deal \u201cuntil this is real\u201d.\n\n\u201cWe hear those rumours about an upcoming deal pretty much since October 8,\u201d he said.\n\nIn what appeared to be a bid to defuse some of the criticism, Netanyahu addressed some comments on Sunday to those calling for the release of the hostages to be a priority.\n\n\u201cTotally contrary to [media] reports, in order to achieve this goal, we have given the negotiating team a very broad mandate to move forward on the release. We did so out of a deep commitment to the hostages, and in order to end the terrible suffering of the families,\u201d he said.\n\nThe war in Gaza has also triggered worsening violence in the occupied West Bank. Israel\u2019s army said on Saturday its troops killed five Palestinian \u201cterrorists\u201d during a 12-hour operation near Tulkarm.\n\nHamas confirmed that four of the men killed during the raid in Deir al-Ghusun village were from its al-Qassam armed wing.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "c3512df39a41a1a47bf588732a0dc364dbe0095c", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/62b6f19a134a788b16fb18e8086391bb59ede8e2\/0_102_2976_1786\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Men believed to be missing surfers died from gunshots, Mexican officials say", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/mexico-bodies-missing-men-police", "words": "409", "section": "World news", "date": "2024-05-05T20:35:15Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/62b6f19a134a788b16fb18e8086391bb59ede8e2\/0_102_2976_1786\/1000.jpg", "author": "Thomas Graham", "description": "Families of men presumed to be two Australians and American who went missing in Baja California arrive in Tijuana to identify bodies", "text": "The bodies believed to be those of the two Australians and an American who went missing in the Pacific coast state of Baja California showed the three men were killed with gunshots to the head, Mexican authorities said on Sunday.\n\nMar\u00eda Elena Andrade Ram\u00edrez, the state\u2019s attorney general, said the families of the missing men had arrived in Tijuana to verbally identify the bodies. Authorities expect to have official confirmation shortly.\n\nThe preliminary hypothesis of the investigation is that the missing men were attacked by people who wanted to steal their car.\n\nDr Ram\u00f3n \u00c1lvarez Mart\u00ednez said that the bodies displayed injuries that suggested resistance.\n\nThree Mexican nationals have been detained, one of whom has been charged with kidnapping.\n\nThe other two are being held for possession of crystal meth, though Andrade Ram\u00edrez did not discard the possibility that they were linked to the crime.\n\n\u201cIn fact, we are sure that more people took part in the attack,\u201d said Andrade Ram\u00edrez, who said officials would soon be able to provide more information about advances made in the investigation.\n\nPerth siblings Callum and Jake Robinson, both in their 30s, were travelling in the region on a surfing holiday, with their friend Jack Carter Rhoad, a US citizen. The trio were reported missing when they failed to check into pre-arranged accommodation near the city of Ensenada last weekend.\n\nFriends and family appealed on social media for any information on their whereabouts, saying it was \u201cout of character\u201d for them not to be in contact.\n\nThe missing men\u2019s tents and burned-out truck were found on Thursday, by a remote stretch of coastline.\n\nOn Friday, four bodies were found in a covered-up well on isolated ranch land six or seven kilometres from where the missing men\u2019s car was found.\n\nThree of the bodies had been there five to seven days before they were found on Friday. A fourth body was also found in the well, which was estimated to have been there 15 to 30 days.\n\nAndrade Ram\u00edrez said that authorities did not believe the attackers knew the victims were tourists, and emphasised that Baja California was still safe for tourists.\n\nIn 2023, Mexico saw more than 30,000 homicides for the sixth consecutive year. More than 100,000 people are also missing.\n\nIn 2015, Western Australian surfers Adam Coleman and Dean Lucas were murdered, believed to have been shot by gang members in the neighbouring Sinaloa region before their van and bodies were burnt.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "c9993f72b3ceb0deea69bc76b88dadd330127488", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/cf2fbe81771c930c45b12f74eabc59a280b7d562\/0_83_3857_2315\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Democrats rally to Biden\u2019s defense over response to pro-Palestinian student protests", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/democrats-biden-pro-palestinian-student-protests", "words": "960", "section": "US news", "date": "2024-05-05T15:33:17Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/cf2fbe81771c930c45b12f74eabc59a280b7d562\/0_83_3857_2315\/1000.jpg", "author": "Adam Gabbatt and Edward Helmore", "description": "Republicans accuse president of weak response, but prominent Democrats claim he \u2018has been very strong from the beginning\u2019", "text": "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\u2019s war on Gaza.\n\nRepublicans have seized on Biden\u2019s 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 \u201chas been very strong about this from the beginning\u201d.\n\nTheir support came as campus protests have seen an increasingly aggressive police response. An encampment at the University of Southern California was cleared by police in riot gear on Sunday morning, and a similar effort at the University of California, Los Angeles was shut down by police who reportedly used rubber bullets on Thursday. Scores of protesters were arrested at Columbia University on Tuesday night \u2013 a move which New York City\u2019s mayor defended in an interview on Sunday.\n\nAsked on CNN\u2019s State of the Union if Biden could have reacted differently to the protests, which have seen clashes between pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protesters as well as dueling accusations of antisemitism and Islamophobia, Landrieu said: \u201cThe president\u2019s been very clear about this. He\u2019s also been very strong about the need to stamp out antisemitism and Islamophobia. It\u2019s a very difficult time, [there are] very passionate opinions on both sides of this issue.\n\n\u201cThe president has been handling it I think very, very well and I think he will continue to do so.\u201d\n\nThousands of young people have protested at university campuses across the country in recent weeks, criticizing the Biden administration\u2019s continued support of Israel. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, and 2 million displaced, since Israel attacked the enclosed strip in response to Hamas terrorist attacks which killed more than 1,100 Israelis.\n\nSpeaking on NBC\u2019s Meet the Press, Mark Kelly, the Arizona senator, added his voice to Democrats who have voiced approval for police crackdowns on campus sit-ins, saying it is \u201cappropriate for police to step in\u201d when protests turn into \u201cunlawful acts\u201d.\n\n\u201cWhen they cross a line and when they commit crimes, they should be arrested,\u201d Kelly said.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s the appropriate thing to do.\u201d\n\nKelly said some of the university protests had \u201cbecome very violent, and students \u2013 especially Jewish students \u2013 have the right to feel safe on a campus, and they\u2019ve gotten out of control\u201d.\n\n\u201cEverybody has the right to protest peacefully. But when it turns into unlawful acts \u2013 and we\u2019ve seen this in a number of colleges and universities including here in Arizona \u2013 it\u2019s appropriate for the police to step in,\u201d he said.\n\nBiden had mostly stayed silent on the unrest at university campuses until he addressed the issue on Thursday.\n\n\u201cDissent is essential for democracy,\u201d Biden said in an address at the White House. \u201cBut dissent must never lead to disorder.\u201d\n\nBiden said some protesters had used \u201cviolent\u201d methods.\n\n\u201cViolent protests are not protected. Peaceful protest is,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos.\u201d\n\nThe president added: \u201cVandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campus, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation \u2026 none of this is a peaceful protest.\u201d\n\nOn Sunday, Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, defended how the police have handled protests in the city. About 280 people were arrested at Columbia University and the City University of New York last week.\n\n\u201cWhen those protests reach the point of violence, we have to ensure that we use a minimum amount of force to terminate what is perceived to be a threat,\u201d Adams told ABC News This Week.\n\nJohn Fetterman, the Democratic Pennsylvania US senator who is a vocal supporter of Israel, said the protests were \u201cworking against peace in the Middle East\u201d and reiterated his backing for the US sending aid to the country.\n\n\u201cI will never support any kind of conditions on Israel during this. And again, I would, I am going to continue to center \u2013 Hamas is responsible for all of that again, then,\u201d Fetterman said.\n\n\u201cAnd now if you\u2019re going to protest on these campuses, or now what, they\u2019re going all across America as well, too. I really want to, can\u2019t forget, that the situation right now could end right now, if Hamas just surrendered.\u201d\n\nHours after calling in state troopers to break up a quiet, rain-soaked encampment of anti-war protesters, the University of Virginia president, Jim Ryan, issued a public statement calling the episode \u201cupsetting, frightening and sad\u201d.\n\nRyan had been noticeably absent from the episode itself. His public statement Saturday evening, his first on the matter, came well after the encampment had been raided and the 25 demonstrators who had pitched tents on the patch of grass by the university\u2019s chapel were arrested.\n\nRyan called it unfortunate that a small group had chosen to break university rules after receiving repeated warnings.\n\n\u201cI sincerely wish it were otherwise, but this repeated and intentional refusal to comply with reasonable rules intended to secure the safety, operations, and rights of the entire university community left us with no other choice than to uphold the neutral application and enforcement of those rules,\u201d he wrote.\n\nNonetheless, the arrests were criticized by Jamaal Bowman, the New York progressive Democratic congressman who has been critical of Israel.\n\n\u201cI am outraged by the level of police presence called upon nonviolent student protestors on Columbia and CCNY\u2019s campuses. As an educator who has first hand experience with the over-policing of our schools, this is personal to me,\u201d Bowman wrote on X.\n\n\u201cThe militarization of college campuses, extensive police presence, and arrest of hundreds of students are in direct opposition to the role of education as a cornerstone of our democracy.\u201d\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "96f0528f289b2a201b559c98a19712d07a99ca8e", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/6c6b19ee406faa217a7aa4b0a1aaa60243c55683\/0_0_2642_1586\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "\u2018It shows they care\u2019: Ange Postecoglou defends Spurs duo after Anfield bust-up", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/tottenham-defenders-row-shows-they-care-says-ange-postecoglou", "words": "423", "section": "Football", "date": "2024-05-05T19:48:34Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/6c6b19ee406faa217a7aa4b0a1aaa60243c55683\/0_0_2642_1586\/1000.jpg", "author": "Andy Hunter at Anfield", "description": "Ange Postecoglou said the half-time row between Tottenham defenders Cristian Romero and Emerson Royal at Liverpool shows that the players care", "text": "Ange Postecoglou claimed he had no issues with the Tottenham defenders Cristian Romero and Emerson Royal becoming embroiled in a half-time row at Anfield as it showed \u201cthey care\u201d about the club\u2019s plummeting form.\n\nSpurs were well beaten by \u00adLiverpool in J\u00fcrgen Klopp\u2019s penultimate home game with Mohamed Salah, recalled to the starting lineup following a spat with his manager at West Ham, sparking the win.\n\nThe visitors were fortunate to be only two goals down at the break when Romero and Emerson squared up to each other on the pitch. The Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario sprinted over to intervene.\n\n\u201cI didn\u2019t see it but it shows they care,\u201d Postecoglou said. \u201cIt hurts them. They are not going to just be happy with the current situation because they care and they want to improve. There is nothing wrong with that as long as it is constructive. They care and they want to change the situation.\u201d\n\nSpurs\u2019 aims of Champions League qualification are almost certainly over following a fourth Premier League defeat in succession. The visitors trailed 4-0 after 59 minutes at Anfield, before the substitute \u00adRicharlison led a late rally, yet Postecoglou claimed their performance was an improvement on recent away defeats.\n\nThe Spurs manager said: \u201cHugely disappointing outcome, of course, but at least we were more like \u00adourselves today compared to \u00adNewcastle and Chelsea. Those results weren\u2019t great either, but we didn\u2019t try to play our football.\n\n\u201cIn the first half today some of our pressing was back to where it should be. We lacked a cutting edge and had nothing in the final third and that makes the opposition look \u00adcomfortable. At 4-0 we have a mountain to climb but when we play like ourselves we put pressure on the opposition. We scored two and could have had a couple more. At least we tried to play a version of ourselves.\u201d\n\nKlopp blamed his \u00adsubstitutions for contributing towards Spurs\u2019 late recovery and lavished praise on Salah on his return to Liverpool\u2019s starting lineup.\n\nThe Liverpool manager said: \u201cAnfield was a special place today again because the boys played outstanding, until we didn\u2019t. At 4-0 up I made the changes and we lost organisation definitely in that moment and then you could see how good Tottenham could be if we would have let them before. But we were good in pretty much all areas. \u201cThe goals were outstanding. Mo was outstanding and really happy for him that he could play the way he played today. We can see what he\u2019s capable of.\u201d\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "faad2c657e233f32d253a2e441e6a073cc7eb962", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/08281c08e18e902fcf93813d1c61bf62e03ddc0a\/0_194_6247_3748\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Clyburn hits out at Trump over Gestapo comment: \u2018Incredible but not surprising\u2019", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/james-clyburn-trump-gestapo-comment", "words": "505", "section": "US news", "date": "2024-05-05T19:14:04Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/08281c08e18e902fcf93813d1c61bf62e03ddc0a\/0_194_6247_3748\/1000.jpg", "author": "Edward Helmore", "description": "Democrat says country is going off track after Trump compares Biden administration to Germany\u2019s fascist secret police", "text": "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 \u201cincredible but it\u2019s not surprising\u201d.\n\nThe 83-year-old South Carolina Democrat added that Trump \u201cis given to hyperbole on every subject that he ever approaches \u2026 The country got off track after that 1876 election and we are approaching the same kinds of elements today.\u201d\n\nThe 1876 election between Republican Ohio governor Rutherford Hayes and Democrat Samuel Tilden was one of the most disputed ever, with widespread allegations of electoral fraud, violence and voter disenfranchisement.\n\nClyburn accused Trump of having an \u201cunderstanding of this country that I thought we left behind more than 100 years ago. But as I watch things happen in the country today, I\u2019ve been harkening back for some time now, to the 1876 presidential election, and how this country got off track after the civil war.\n\n\u201cThe words are different. But the meanings are the same,\u201d Clyburn added.\n\nOn Saturday, the former president hosted a private lunch for Republican donors and party leaders at his Mar-a-Lago club. The fundraiser also included many of those presumed to be on his list for a running mate, including the South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, who has been politically damaged by an admission in her memoir that she shot a 14-month-old hunting dog two decades ago. She is reported to have left the event early.\n\nOthers at the lunch included North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, Ohio senator JD Vance, New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik, South Carolina senator Tim Scott, Florida senator Marco Rubio and Congressman Byron Donalds.\n\nAccording to CNN, Trump singled out Stefanik, who he described as \u201can amazing talent\u201d, as well as Marco Rubio. NBC reported that Trump brought all the guests on stage \u2013 except Noem \u2013 including House speaker Mike Johnson.\n\nBut during an address that lasted over an hour, Trump likened the Biden administration to Hitler\u2019s feared secret police. \u201cThese people are running a Gestapo administration,\u201d Trump said, according to NBC News. \u201cIt\u2019s the only thing they have. And it\u2019s the only way they\u2019re going to win in their opinion.\u201d\n\nThe Republican governor Doug Burgum of North Dakota, appearing Sunday on CNN\u2019s State of the Union, essentially confirmed Trump\u2019s statement, but tried to diminish its importance.\n\n\u201cThis was a short comment deep into the thing that wasn\u2019t really central to what he was talking about,\u201d said Burgum, who is among the contenders to be Trump\u2019s running mate.\n\nBurgum affirmed that Trump drew the parallel as part of his accusation that Biden\u2019s White House is behind his legal troubles. \u201cA majority of Americans,\u201d Burgum said, \u201cfeel like the trial that he\u2019s in right now is politically motivated\u201d.\n\nTrump is due back in a Manhattan courtroom on Monday where he is facing 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree in relation to hush-money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "9bd301604d1ed6bdf0bb1b648a03da5c598f68d1", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/7641b3f81a985ac9f0b9f64680b0674571eb7a0a\/2_0_4996_3000\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Premier League weekend awards: Erling Haaland channels Michael Jordan", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/premier-league-weekend-awards-haaland-trossard-ange-postecoglou", "words": "1505", "section": "Football", "date": "2024-05-05T18:48:39Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/7641b3f81a985ac9f0b9f64680b0674571eb7a0a\/2_0_4996_3000\/1000.jpg", "author": "Oliver Connolly", "description": "From Arsenal\u2019s crucial goalscorer to another rudderless performance from Tottenham, we hand out honors (and dishonors) from the top-flight weekend", "text": "We 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.\n\nNot content with His Airness moment, Haaland added another three goals in City\u2019s 5-1 win over Wolves, taking his tally in club football to 200 in five seasons. \u201cNot bad,\u201d Haaland said after the game.\n\nIt was another ruthlessly efficient performance from City, with a smattering of Haaland induced magic. What remains so special about Pep Guardiola\u2019s side is how they can cross off crucial games in May like they\u2019re nondescript outings in October. There\u2019s a routine perfection to City at the end of the year. It doesn\u2019t matter if other contenders win, if things look tight at the top. They continue to chug along.\n\nWith precious few exceptions, great teams have life cycles. They gain experience, win a lot, age, and get bad. Not City. The depth of their squad is unrivalled. And now their star has returned to form. With three games to go, they\u2019re favorites to pick up a fourth title in a row.\n\nPlayer of the week In a league full of one-percenters, you\u2019re looking for whatever fraction of a percentage can turn an advantage. Leandro Trossard becoming the league\u2019s most diverse finisher is one such advantage.\n\nIt\u2019s no coincidence that Liverpool\u2019s title bid slipped away when Diogo Jota was knocked out of their lineup with an injury. Trossard for Arsenal is what Jota was for Liverpool: a crafty finisher who takes up smart spots in the penalty box. He bagged Arsenal\u2019s second in a 3-1 over Bournemouth to help his team keep pace with City at the top.\n\nLike Jota, Trossard scores every type of goal imaginable \u2013 and some that are hard to dream up. According to StatsBomb, Trossard has been the most two-footed finisher in the Premier League in the past five seasons. His impact extends beyond goals, though. He does a little bit of everything. He is a magnet to the ball. He makes incisive runs. He\u2019s tough to dispossess. He keeps Arsenal\u2019s possession ticking along. And then when a chance does open up in front of goal, he\u2019s lethal. He is producing more valuable chances this season than Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden and Cole Palmer. He\u2019s neck-and-neck with Kai Havertz in shot conversion percentage since the turn of the year, and his post-shot xG \u2013 the quality of his finishing \u2013 is tied for second in the league behind only Haaland.\n\nTrossard is the walking embodiment of Mikel Arteta\u2019s belief that Arsenal are at their best sharing goals around the group. The manager resisted the urge to go all-in on signing a ready-made central striker. Instead, Arteta banked on the development of Declan Rice, Gabriel Martinelli, Havertz, Saka and Trossard to share the responsibility.\n\nIt\u2019s worked. The movement of a mobile, amorphous front three has sliced defensive lines apart, carving open opportunities for wide players and midfielders driving into the box. Martin \u00d8degaard (16) and Rice (15) have racked up goals and assists, but it\u2019s been Trossard who\u2019s provided crucial finishes at the end of the season. He\u2019s scored in five of his last eight league games, and scored eight times since the start of 2024.\n\nSaturday was a year to the day that Arsenal surrendered top spot to Man City last season. They have held their own this year. City seem impervious to pressure, but Arsenal are doing their best to push the title race to the final day of the season.\n\nRelegation subplot of the week The race for Premier League survival may well be over. Nottingham Forest\u2019s 3-1 win over relegated Sheffield United moved them five points clear of Burnley and three ahead of Luton. Burnley were hammered 4-1 by Newcastle on Saturday, which all but guarantees they will play Championship football next season.\n\nWith two games to play, Luton could make up ground. But Forest\u2019s goal difference (11 clear of Luton) gives them a crucial advantage. Luton will have to pick up four more points than Forest in their final two games to ensure they stay up.\n\nThe remaining fixtures make that tricky. Forest will host Chelsea and head to Burnley on the final day of the season. Luton have a trip to West Ham and a home game against Fulham left to play.\n\nOn the field, the relegation spots look decided. The three teams that came up last season will probably head back down. The only lingering question: will the Premier League enforce further punishments on either Forest or Everton for violation of the league\u2019s profit and sustainability rules? To the courtroom!\n\nStat of the week Liverpool tore Tottenham apart in the opening hour at Anfield on Sunday, racing to a 4-0 lead. Spurs eventually pulled it back to 4-2, but the damage was already done.\n\nNo one apart from Drake has had a worse week than Ange Postecoglou. Tottenham lost the north London derby, were hammered by Chelsea in midweek and then limped in to a game against Liverpool despite still having an outside shot at picking up a top-four spot and securing Champions League football next season.\n\nPostecoglou is a pass-and-move, high-press zealot, but that has all come tumbling down over the past month. Since the start of April, they\u2019ve picked up four points, a worse run than anyone except Luton and Sheffield United. They have a minus-nine goal difference in that span, tied for the second-worst in the league.\n\nThat\u2019s relegation stuff. Spurs look lifeless with the ball and devoid of a plan once they lose it. On Sunday, Liverpool won possession in the final third eight times in the first half alone \u2013 more than any other opening 45 minutes in the Premier League this season, according to Opta.\n\nIt has become a familiar sight for the Tottenham inclined: Spurs can\u2019t create any real chances of their own, while conceding a big chance every time they go forward. Liverpool\u2019s fullbacks had more touches in the opposition\u2019s box than Spurs\u2019 entire team had in the first half.\n\nPostecolgou has drawn (fair) criticism for his unwillingness to adapt during games. Like Guardiola and Arteta, Postecoglou wants his side to stick to their principles, to sharply move the ball around, rather than pivot when things are going poorly. His preference is to switch personnel rather than alter his team\u2019s style. But adherence to dogma can sink you in tricky games on the road. At Anfield, they were outplayed, outfought and overrun until J\u00fcrgen Klopp made changes in the second half.\n\nPostecoglou has sharpened his teeth over the past week. First, blasting his side on the field against Chelsea, and then taking to a press conference to insist \u201cchange has to happen\u201d this summer. His players, pushed on to the hot-seat, fighting for a place next season, responded with another dud.\n\nAt some point, inconsistency is no longer a maddening habit holding you back from becoming what you should be. It\u2019s who you are.\n\nRough performance of the week A special mention to Tottenham\u2019s Emerson Royal, who was tormented by Mohamed Salah and the right side of Liverpool\u2019s attack at Anfield.\n\nHere\u2019s a back of the notebook accounting of his day:\n\nLost Salah for Liverpool\u2019s opening goal.\n\nHad to be pulled away from his own teammate on the pitch at half-time\n\nGifted the ball to Elliott to set-up Liverpool\u2019s third.\n\nPicked up a booking for a foul on Salah.\n\nMissed a headed clearance that wound up with Elliott for Liverpool\u2019s fourth.\n\nTaken off after 60 minutes for a central midfielder.\n\nEmerson, a right-winger masquerading as a fullback, was plopped on to the left side of the defensive line to cover for injuries. It was a disaster. It\u2019s hard to think of a player who\u2019s had a worse individual performance this season.\n\nThe Ned Stark award West Ham lost their heads \u2013 again \u2013 in a 5-0 defeat away at Chelsea. Chelsea were slick in attack, slicing apart a hapless West Ham team. There\u2019s a tendency to see such a performance as cutting against the David Moyes grain. This is not what a David Moyes team\u2122 looks like.\n\nYes it is. Moyes\u2019s side have become easy to play against. They lose away games in graceless, almost absurd fashion. West Ham have now conceded 70 Premier League goals this season, the worst figure for a Moyes side in a single league campaign and the fourth-worst mark of any team this season. In their last three games, they\u2019ve shipped 12 goals. Not what you want when your club is jetting in managers to potentially replace you.\n\nThe performance at Stamford Bridge on Sunday was a vintage \u201cone, two, three \u2026 Canc\u00fan\u201d display from a team who felt it had little else to play for the rest of the way \u2013 save, perhaps, the manager\u2019s job.\n\nThe win moves Chelsea up to seventh, one place ahead of Manchester United. Defeat for West Ham leaves Moyes on the outs. Time for Julen Lopetegui to start sizing up the carpets.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "b6d7c682c75636af6a7aba30e50de204d2f038e2", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/28fb7664b9de959ed74c1adefefdf311d06b4c8e\/0_300_5000_3000\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Little sign that Sunak will tack towards centre after local elections rout", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/rishi-sunak-conservative-party-local-elections-reform-uk-suella-braverman", "words": "632", "section": "Politics", "date": "2024-05-05T18:08:29Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/28fb7664b9de959ed74c1adefefdf311d06b4c8e\/0_300_5000_3000\/1000.jpg", "author": "Rowena Mason Whitehall editor", "description": "PM and allies seemingly intent on staying the course in face of conflicting calls on how to avoid wipeout when country goes to polls", "text": "As the terrible council and mayoral results rolled in for the Conservatives on Friday night, was there any part of Rishi Sunak that regretted sealing Boris Johnson\u2019s fate as prime minister by resigning as his chancellor less than two years ago?\n\nThis could have been Johnson\u2019s defeat, hurtling towards a Labour landslide at a general election, with Sunak and his allies plotting how to replace him thereafter.\n\nInstead, Sunak has almost 500 disappointed councillors, ousted Tory council leaders, panicking MPs and a scathing, sacked former cabinet minister, Suella Braverman, to contend with \u2013 on top of polls that suggest he is heading for certain defeat. Even his close ally Mark Harper could only muster an assurance that the general election was \u201cnot a foregone conclusion\u201d for Labour.\n\nAdding to Sunak\u2019s woes, the Sunday papers contained talk of Johnson brooding on a political comeback from his moated mansion in Oxfordshire, and whispers that the former prime minister\u2019s team has been talking to Nigel Farage about what happens next.\n\nThe one ray of light was Ben Houchen, a supporter of Johnson, holding on to the Tees Valley mayoralty with a reduced majority.\n\nSunak appeared alongside Houchen, who had \u201cforgotten\u201d his blue rosette, on Friday afternoon, but the re-elected mayor made it clear his success owed nothing to the Westminster government by making no mention of the prime minister in his victory speech.\n\nSunak\u2019s allies are intent on staying the course in the face of calls from both the right to tack in their direction to see off Reform UK and Nigel Farage, and MPs who believe a wipeout would be best avoided by moving back towards the centre ground.\n\nBut Sunak\u2019s plan, containing more of the same policies on getting flights to Rwanda off the ground and further tax cuts, seems at this point unlikely to make much difference either to voting intention or quelling his critics in the party.\n\nBraverman\u2019s wing argues that more hardline policies, such as capping migration and pledging to withdraw from the European convention on human rights, would help reduce the appeal of Reform UK, the party led by Richard Tice, with Farage hovering in the background.\n\nReform came within 150 votes of knocking the Tories into third place in Blackpool South, but failed to convert its poll share into more than two council seats. Nevertheless, the right has a case that, unlike its predecessor, Ukip, Reform is taking votes off the Tories rather than Labour.\n\nThe other side argues that the much greater threat comes from Labour and the Liberal Democrats, which are the principal opponents in all marginal seats the Tories are fighting, and that a swing to the centre makes more sense.\n\nThis was David Cameron\u2019s tactic in 2015, remaining largely squatted on the centre ground with major policies on housing and tax while throwing red meat to the anti-EU voters with the promise of a referendum. When polling time came, Ukip performed well in some areas but failed to make sweeping gains and was widely seen as squeezed by the major parties.\n\nThere is little sense, however, that Sunak, an instinctive rightwinger on the economy and Brexit, has an appetite to move to the centre, and every sign that the coming election will feature more anti-migrant policies and the rhetoric of culture wars.\n\nWriting in the Telegraph, Braverman called this weekend for Sunak to own the mess that the Tories are in, saying: \u201cThe hole to dig us out is the PM\u2019s, and it\u2019s time for him to start shovelling.\u201d The problem for the Tories, and with Braverman\u2019s mangled metaphor, is that Sunak appears to believe more of the same shovelling in the same direction is the right answer \u2013 digging himself and his party further into the hole, rather than attempting to climb out of it.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "c7e27acfa1d6fbc0e18cdf34cad67c83bde2894e", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/26c7cb9db1a00059e0eb6e5b4919e8e74f87c9d1\/652_101_2359_1416\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Labour to target south of England at general election, campaign chief says", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/labour-to-target-south-of-england-at-general-election-campaign-chief-says", "words": "1022", "section": "Politics", "date": "2024-05-05T18:04:13Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/26c7cb9db1a00059e0eb6e5b4919e8e74f87c9d1\/652_101_2359_1416\/1000.jpg", "author": "Rowena Mason Whitehall editor", "description": "Pat McFadden says local election results give the party confidence it can win \u2018blue wall\u2019 seats that are \u2018turning red\u2019", "text": "Labour is planning to target the south of England heavily at the general election as the local election results show some \u201cblue wall\u201d seats are turning red, Keir Starmer\u2019s election chief has said.\n\nThe shadow cabinet minister Pat McFadden said Labour was advancing in southern Tory heartlands and it was wrong to think the Lib Dems were the only challengers to the Conservatives in the south.\n\nSpeaking to the Guardian, he said it was now the case that Labour \u201ccontrols twice as many councils in the south-east as the Tories\u201d, pointing to gains in Rushmoor, Crawley, Swindon, Thurrock, Basildon and Southend. \u201cThe story of parts of the blue wall turning red is under-noticed,\u201d he said.\n\nThursday\u2019s local and mayoral elections had given Labour the \u201cconfidence and belief\u201d that it can win a general election convincingly, he said.\n\nRishi Sunak faces turmoil in his party after its heavy losses, as the rightwing former home secretary Suella Braverman said the prime minister\u2019s \u201cplan is not working\u201d and \u201cat this rate we will be lucky to have any Conservative MPs at the next election\u201d.\n\nSunak faces a schism over whether to swing to the centre to tackle the threat from Labour and the Lib Dems or the right to try to squeeze Reform UK\u2019s vote share.\n\nLabour\u2019s targeting of the south shows its spreading ambition after winning convincingly in the local elections across much of the \u201cred wall\u201d in the north and Midlands won by Boris Johnson in 2019. It had a landslide 26% swing at the Blackpool South byelection and took the mayoralties in the North East, East Midlands, West Midlands and York and North Yorkshire.\n\nThe Lib Dems made gains across the south and south-west, adding more than 100 seats and suggesting the party will do well in the home counties at a general election. Labour made advances in areas of Kent and Essex, as well as councils such as Rushmoor, which includes the garrison town of Aldershot.\n\nDowning Street insisted on Sunday that the prime minister would not be changing direction and wanted to stick to his plan.\n\nBraverman called for a campaign to leave the European convention on human rights and set a migrant cap, but acknowledging it was too late to oust Sunak while admitting she regretted having backed him for the leadership. Her ally, the Tory MP John Hayes, suggested a reshuffle was needed to bring back major figures from the right.\n\nThe transport secretary, Mark Harper, one of Sunak\u2019s supporters, pointed to analysis by the polling expert Michael Thrasher saying the local results showed Labour only had a nine-point lead. \u201cThere is a fight to be had,\u201d he told broadcasters. \u201cThe next election is not a foregone conclusion.\u201d\n\nSunak seized on the same analysis, urging the Tories to \u201ccome together as a party and show the British people we are delivering for them\u201d. The prime minister told the Times that a coalition of Labour, the SNP, the Lib Dems and the Greens \u201cwould be a disaster for Britain\u201d.\n\nOther experts, however, said it was not possible to translate the local election vote in England to national results across the whole of the UK because people vote for different parties at a general election. As there were no elections in Scotland, the analysis also assumes Labour would win a solitary seat north of the border as it did in 2019. Recent polling suggests the party could in fact take more than 20 seats.\n\nThe Conservatives lost almost 474 council seats compared with the last local election count, while Labour gained 186, the Lib Dems 104, the Greens 74 and independents 145.\n\nReform won just two council seats but got a high vote share in some areas where the party stood. It came within 150 votes of the Tories in Blackpool South.\n\nMcFadden said Labour had pursued a strategy that was \u201cruthlessly focused on the seats and the councils that will make a difference and there was no better example than in the West Midlands where we put a lot of resources in knowing it was on a knife edge. That organisational effort helped us get over the line.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m always the first person to say of course there\u2019s more work to do, but apart from the results which were tremendous and beyond our expectations one of the results of the last few days is to give us a confidence and belief that we haven\u2019t had for a long time.\n\n\u201cBecause Labour has got too used to losing, and even some of its own supporters and voters have said we support Labour but we always lose. But what the weekend\u2019s results show is that Labour doesn\u2019t have to always lose and the Tories are beatable \u2026 we go into it with more belief because of what\u2019s happened in the past few days.\u201d\n\nThe results were not uniformly positive for Labour. Parts of the country turned to independents and the Greens, particularly where some voters were disappointed with Labour\u2019s stance on Gaza. Labour lost its majority on Oldham council, and its vote share in the West Midlands was dented by support for the independent candidate Akhmed Yakoob.\n\nMcFadden said: \u201cI understand why people feel strongly about this issue because it\u2019s a humanitarian crisis and we want to help those people in Gaza who are affected by that. But two things have affected our position all the way along: one is defending Israel\u2019s right to defend itself in the face of what happened on October 7 and the second is working for a better future for the Palestinian people. Those two things will continue to inform our position.\u201d\n\nWith the Tories already claiming Labour could turn to other parties to form a pact in a hung parliament, McFadden said he was clear that would not happen. Asked on Sky News if he could imagine Labour and the SNP working together if his party did not win a majority at the general election, he said: \u201cOur aim is to win a majority, to govern, to meet the mood for change, and we\u2019re not planning any alliances or pacts with anyone.\u201d\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "4aa40121af95fb8dad80bc9fed095d58697ead7d", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/c57fce10e425280fe8ecf52c97a4c52204e0fdaf\/0_311_7887_4733\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Labour \u2018working to get support back\u2019 after losing votes over Gaza stance", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/labour-working-to-get-support-back-after-losing-votes-over-gaza-stance", "words": "715", "section": "Politics", "date": "2024-05-05T17:58:51Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/c57fce10e425280fe8ecf52c97a4c52204e0fdaf\/0_311_7887_4733\/1000.jpg", "author": "Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent", "description": "Analysis shows almost 18% drop in party\u2019s vote in areas of England where more than a fifth are Muslim", "text": "A senior Labour official has insisted the party wants better lives for Palestinian people as it prepares to shift its campaigning to win back voters opposing its position on Gaza.\n\nPat McFadden, the party\u2019s national election coordinator, said it would \u201cwork to get people\u2019s support back\u201d as analysis showed that despite huge gains in council seats, seizing the West Midlands mayoralty, and Sadiq Khan, the Muslim mayor of London, winning a third term, there was an almost 18% drop in the Labour vote in areas of England where more than a fifth of people identified as Muslim.\n\nAfter an analysis of 930 wards by Prof Will Jennings, of the University of Southampton, showed the scale of the protest vote over Labour\u2019s support for Israel over Gaza and the time the party took to call for a ceasefire, McFadden told the BBC\u2019s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that the situation in the Middle East was a \u201chigh foreign policy priority\u201d for Labour, adding: \u201cThe better lives that people want for the Palestinian people is something the Labour leadership shares.\u201d\n\nAs the party digested the results \u2013 which saw declines in the Labour vote in parts of Oldham, Bolton and Elswick in Newcastle \u2013 Ali Milani, the chair of the Labour Muslim Network, warned of \u201cpain in the hearts and the feeling of betrayal within the Muslim community\u201d.\n\n\u201cWe are now seeing the electoral consequence of that,\u201d Milani said. \u201cIf I was a Labour MP in Bradford or Birmingham or Leicester or parts of London or Manchester, I would be seriously concerned.\u201d\n\nLabour\u2019s candidate for West Midlands mayor, Richard Parker, only just beat the Conservative incumbent, Andy Street, partly because an independent candidate, Akhmed Yakoob, won nearly 43,000 votes after a campaign focused on Gaza \u2013 seizing vote share from Labour. If Yakoob had received just over 1,500 more votes, Parker would have lost.\n\nBut Jennings urged caution in mapping the swings on to a general election. \u201cWhat this highlights is certainly that Labour is in an uncomfortable position on Gaza,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it is not just Muslim voters.\n\n\u201cBut in a general election when we are looking at an anti-incumbent mood and there are fewer small parties and independents, we shouldn\u2019t expect the pattern to be repeated.\u201d\n\nA reduction in intensity of the war in the Middle East may help to curb the swings away from Labour by the time of the general election, which looks increasingly likely to happen in autumn.\n\nThere are 20 constituencies in the UK with a more than 30% Muslim electorate, according to analysis by the University of Essex. All of them elected a Labour MP at the 2019 general election, and an 18% drop in the Labour vote in several of these would still not be enough to let in a rival party.\n\nIn Birmingham Hodge Hill, 79% of voters backed the former Labour Treasury minister Liam Byrne in 2019. Naz Shah won with 76% in Bradford West, Sam Tarry won with 66% in Ilford South and John Ashworth, the shadow paymaster general, won with a similar majority of 67% in Leicester South.\n\nThe leaking of support from areas with larger than average Muslim populations may become more significant in the medium to long term if Labour finds the polls narrow once in government.\n\nOn Saturday, the senior Labour MP Ellie Reeves took some comfort from the view that \u201cindependents always tend to do better in local elections\u201d, but nevertheless insisted: \u201cWe have recognised the strength of feeling on this issue. We have called for an immediate ceasefire, we have also said there should absolutely be no ground offensive on Rafah.\u201d\n\nAsked if Labour regretted its earlier stance on the conflict, she said: \u201cKeir Starmer has always been clear that our position would always respond to what is happening there.\u201d\n\nThe party will hope that news from the region will increasingly focus on peace talks rather than the bloodshed of the last seven months.\n\nAt the weekend, Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said: \u201cI don\u2019t deny that there are people out there who are feeling let down and I want them to know that we\u2019ve heard. We will take that on the chin, and we\u2019ll work hard to win people\u2019s trust back at future elections.\u201d\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "1a0d17234539f037061c19868639da7fb137497d", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/e1e5e3f21b1f719f234db82fe89505e2ef36cdb5\/0_232_2936_1762\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Liverpool and Elliott turn on style as Tottenham\u2019s top-four hopes fade away", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/liverpool-tottenham-premier-league-match-report", "words": "862", "section": "Football", "date": "2024-05-05T17:44:03Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/e1e5e3f21b1f719f234db82fe89505e2ef36cdb5\/0_232_2936_1762\/1000.jpg", "author": "Andy Hunter at Anfield", "description": "Tottenham\u2019s hopes of a Champions League place were dealt a major blow after a late rally failed to prevent a 4-2 defeat at Liverpool", "text": "Ange Postecoglou found comfort in Tottenham \u201cat least trying to play a version of ourselves\u201d at Anfield. The assessment will be as disconcerting to Spurs supporters as the performance that yielded a fourth consecutive \u00adPremier League defeat. This version of Postecoglou\u2019s team was dreadful, and their top-four hopes were \u00adeffectively extinguished as Liverpool rediscovered their verve in J\u00fcrgen Klopp\u2019s penultimate home game.\n\nThe scoreline flattered the \u00adconquered. Liverpool cruised towards victory for 72 minutes until Spurs\u2019 substitute Richarlison and their captain Son Heung-min sparked a mini-crisis of confidence among Klopp\u2019s reshuffled pack. It passed. For the second Sunday in succession Spurs performed only when staring at a comprehensive pounding but, just like the north London derby, their late flurry fooled no one. Their manager\u2019s post-match optimism did not convince either. Liverpool were richly deserving of a win delivered by the recalled Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson, Cody Gakpo and Harvey Elliott.\n\nSpurs came into the contest with a glimmer of Champions League \u00adqualification following Aston Villa\u2019s defeat at Brighton. The problem for Postecoglou is Spurs are not a \u00adChampions League team, and that was made abundantly clear at Anfield. Incentive alone cannot compensate for flimsy defensive organisation and a largely ineffective forward line.\n\nThe visitors started sharply but, while tidy in possession, they were hopeless out of it. With Salah back in the Liverpool starting lineup \u00adfollowing his petulant row with Klopp at West Ham and granted the freedom of the right wing by Emerson Royal, the hosts were able to enjoy the comforts of home after a few damaging results on the road.\n\nPostecoglou\u2019s team struggled at the first sign of Liverpool pressure. The only fight in a quite pathetic first-half performance from Spurs came in a half-time bust-up between Cristian Romero and the lazy Emerson. The goalkeeper, Guglielmo Vicario, had to intervene as a peace-maker.\n\nSalah, giving a rousing reception when the teams were announced before kick-off, struck the crossbar from Liverpool\u2019s first attack of note, curling an effort with the outside of his boot over Vicario and against the woodwork. A desperate clearance by Micky van de Ven prevented the recalled striker pouncing on Gakpo\u2019s header as Spurs struggled to hang on. Desperate is a fitting description of their defensive efforts. Static, slow, weak and careless are also applicable.\n\nVicario saved from Salah when the Egypt international was put through on goal by Elliott, who swept the rebound beyond the visiting keeper only for Romero to block on the line. The opportunity stemmed from a dreadful touch in central midfield by Pape Sarr. It would not be his last.\n\nThe inevitable breakthrough came from an inevitable source. Wataru Endo switched play out to Gakpo on the left and the in-form forward floated a delightful cross into the space that Emerson regularly left behind him for Salah to head home. Vicario was left exposed once again but could have done more to prevent the header crossing the line.\n\nLiverpool were back to their old selves in terms of intensity, pressing and dominance although their wastefulness in front of goal was also on display prior to Robertson pouncing on the stroke of half-time. Salah, \u00adElliott and Trent Alexander-Arnold all fired over before Liverpool\u2019s left-back gave the scoreline a fairer reflection of his team\u2019s superiority. Alexander-Arnold supplied his fellow full-back with a pin-point cross to the back post. Robertson squared to Salah and, though Vicario got down well to save the striker\u2019s first time shot, the loose ball rolled perfectly for the Scotland captain to tap home. The sight of Robertson walking the ball home summed up how easy the first half was for Liverpool, as well as the pitiful efforts from Spurs.\n\nPostecoglou\u2019s half-time team talk had no galvanising effect. Liverpool were soon three up when Elliott took the ball off Emerson and centred for Gakpo to steer a textbook header into the bottom corner. Four \u00adfollowed swiftly, and superbly, when \u00adEmerson headed a Robertson cross into the path of Salah and he teed up Elliott. The midfielder cut inside and curled a stunning 20-yard shot into Vicario\u2019s top right corner.\n\nThe Spurs manager rang the changes in the face of a one-sided embarrassment with Richarlison, James Maddison and Oliver Skipp arriving just after the hour. Now the visitors improved. It helped that Klopp utilised his substitutes\u2019 bench too, with a detrimental impact on \u00adLiverpool\u2019s rhythm.\n\nRicharlison punctured Alisson\u2019s designs on a clean sheet when \u00adturning in Brennan Johnson\u2019s low cross. That appeared to be the extent of \u00adLiverpool\u2019s problems until the \u00adformer Everton favourite assisted a second for Son, turning Skipp\u2019s \u00addelivery into the path of his captain who \u00adproduced a clinical finish. Anfield was \u00adsuddenly on edge, especially when Salah missed a gilt-edged chance to restore a comfortable lead from two yards out.\n\nFrom coasting Liverpool were now in danger every time Spurs ventured forward. Alisson saved brilliantly from \u00adRicharlison, with Joe Gomez preventing Johnson converting the rebound, while Alexander-Arnold made a vital interception to prevent the Brazil international claiming his second of the game. Spurs\u2019 late rally was not enough. It would have been a travesty had it conjured anything. The top four should be beyond them.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "2c48b435edb4c9e40e0440937765335130355e75", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/dc51a692543c12feb6bbe5620853e52005c1e59e\/29_0_1881_1129\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Mains water begins returning to 32,500 East Sussex properties after pipe burst", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/mains-water-begins-returning-to-32500-east-sussex-properties-after-pipe-burst", "words": "419", "section": "UK news", "date": "2024-05-05T17:39:33Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/dc51a692543c12feb6bbe5620853e52005c1e59e\/29_0_1881_1129\/1000.jpg", "author": "Mabel Banfield-Nwachi", "description": "Southern Water says supplies coming back to St Leonards-on-Sea and Hastings now that rupture in woodland area has been fixed", "text": "Water has started to return to more than 30,000 homes in East Sussex after a main burst three days ago.\n\nSouthern Water said in an update on Sunday afternoon that supplies were \u201cgradually being restored\u201d to about 32,5000 properties in St Leonards-on-Sea and Hastings.\n\nHowever, the company said 3,500 homes in the east of Hastings would lose supply temporarily from Sunday afternoon to preserve water for the area of the town including the hospital while the network was \u201crecharged\u201d.\n\nIt added that it expected supplies in these areas to return on Monday.\n\nSouthern Water said on Sunday afternoon: \u201cThis phased return of supplies to homes and businesses will see lower-lying areas and those nearest to Beauport coming back into supply first, with the remainder following as pressure increases in the pipes between now and tomorrow morning.\n\n\u201cSpecifically, west and central areas of St Leonards-on-Sea, west Hastings and rural areas around Westfield should see supplies return gradually during the rest of Sunday.\n\n\u201cHowever, it will take longer for areas north of Hollington and east Hastings and rural areas east of Hastings to return to supply; we expect these to have supply from Monday morning.\u201d\n\nFour bottled-water stations have been set up and Southern Water has delivered bottled supplies to more than 6,000 customers on its priority services register. The company has also delivered water to vulnerable customers.\n\nThe burst main was repaired on Saturday and the network was being recharged but the service had to be \u201crestarted\u201d, Southern Water said. Schools, a leisure centre and a theatre in the area have been forced to close.\n\nThe company said the main was in Keeper\u2019s Wood, near the A21, \u201cdeep in woodland\u201d, which had made it difficult for crews and machinery to reach it.\n\nThe burst occurred on the same weekend as the annual four-day Jack in the Green festival and the May Day bike run, when thousands of people usually flock to the seaside town.\n\nThe East Sussex county councillor Godfrey Daniel said the impact on businesses in Hastings would be \u201cdrastic\u201d.\n\nA spokesperson for Southern Water said on Saturday the company was \u201cdeeply sorry\u201d for the loss of supply and that it had been \u201cworking around the clock to not only fix the issue\u201d but also to do all it could to help customers, especially those who were vulnerable.\n\nSouthern Water said households might notice a \u201ctemporary change in what comes out their taps\u201d as water started to return, and that they should expect low water pressure and discoloured water.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "e9102078319d2d5cc0e393c42588f785c4a81592", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/6d22850873468bc781daf6f9b573fbf64a685fd1\/51_0_1027_616\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "US man has brain damage, mother says, after allegedly being pushed into lake", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/louisiana-man-brain-damage-lake", "words": "547", "section": "US news", "date": "2024-05-05T17:31:05Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/6d22850873468bc781daf6f9b573fbf64a685fd1\/51_0_1027_616\/1000.jpg", "author": "Maya Yang", "description": "Yolanda George, mother of Christopher Gilbert, calls on police to make arrest after incident in Louisiana in April", "text": "The 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.\n\nChristopher Gilbert\u2019s family\u2019s pleas came after he nearly drowned on 14 April while at a lakefront restaurant by Lake D\u2019Arbonne in the northern Louisiana town of Farmerville.\n\nSpeaking to the local news station KSLA, Gilbert\u2019s mother Yolanda George said: \u201cA friend of his called. She was hysterical, crying on the phone. She told me that Chris had [fallen] into the lake, and he had been underwater for 20 minutes or so.\u201d\n\nGeorge said her son \u2013 an aspiring medical doctor \u2013 was rescued and taken to a nearby hospital. She added: \u201cThe doctor called us in and told me that at that time, he was brain-dead, pretty much, and the rest of his organs were starting to fail, and that we had 72 hours on\u201d life support, though Gilbert later regained consciousness and the ability to eat on his own.\n\nAn attorney for Gilbert\u2019s family, Claudia Payne, told KSLA that the friend group initially told police that he had fallen into the lake. But further investigation, he said, found that a female friend had pushed him into the water.\n\n\u201cShe actually admitted to [Gilbert\u2019s] mom \u2013 as well as the police officers \u2013 that she pushed him into the lake,\u201d Payne said. \u201cIn the legal field, we categorize things the way we see fit, so of course they are saying horseplay. We are saying that it was a criminal intentional push into the lake.\u201d\n\nShe added that one of the friends from the group attempted to pull Gilbert out, but it was ultimately a restaurant customer who rescued him.\n\nDescribing her reaction upon seeing her son for the first time at the hospital, George said: \u201cI was devastated. I felt like my life had ended in that moment.\n\n\u201cMy son is aspiring to be a medical doctor \u2013 my son is going to be a medical doctor. He got his master\u2019s last year in biological science. He\u2019s preparing for medical school so for this to have happened to him \u2026 I was just devastated.\u201d\n\nGeorge recalled the conversation she had with the friend who pushed Gilbert into the lake. She remembered asking, \u201cWhy would you push my son in the lake, knowing he couldn\u2019t swim?\u201d\n\nIn response, the friend reportedly said: \u201cWell ma\u2019am, I didn\u2019t know that man couldn\u2019t swim.\u201d\n\nGilbert replied: \u201cWho is \u2018that man?\u2019 This is supposed to be amongst a group of friends. Who is \u2018that man?\u2019 Chris? Everybody knows he can\u2019t swim.\n\n\u201cEven when we went to the restaurant, the owner of the restaurant even stated, \u2018Everybody knows Chris can\u2019t swim.\u2019 He\u2019s been coming here for two years. He\u2019s always joking about it.\u201d\n\nAccording to Payne, Gilbert\u2019s family wants police to arrest the person who allegedly pushed him into the lake. They are also seeking for the restaurant owner to be held liable for not keeping Chris safe as a patron of the establishment.\n\nA change.org supporting the Gilbert family\u2019s wishes had collected more than 2,600 signatures as of Sunday.\n\nGilbert had woken up as of Friday, was able to eat on his own and had been temporarily taken off life support, KNOE reported.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "195a2a7c0c135ff06f9fad53d39d9638f856372b", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/67b917c55fa5a6829f624761332d85fa3ddba6af\/0_135_4000_2401\/500.jpg", "title": "The Guardian view on transnational repression: dissidents need safety in their new homes", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/the-guardian-view-on-transnational-repression-dissidents-need-safety-in-their-new-homes", "words": "598", "section": "Opinion", "date": "2024-05-05T17:30:15Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/67b917c55fa5a6829f624761332d85fa3ddba6af\/0_135_4000_2401\/1000.jpg", "author": "Editorial", "description": "Editorial: Authoritarian governments are extending their pursuit of critics far beyond their borders", "text": "Forty-five years ago, the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was killed in London with a poison-tipped umbrella as he made his way home from work. The horrifying case transfixed the British public.\n\nSo transnational repression is not new, including on British shores. But unless its target is unusually high-profile, or it uses startling tactics such as those employed by Markov\u2019s killers \u2013 or in the attempt to assassinate Sergei Skripal \u2013 much of it passes with minimal attention.\n\nFor political opponents, journalists, civil society activists and others, fleeing their homeland may offer only limited protection, even if they win recognition as refugees. The veteran journalist Can D\u00fcndar survived an assassination attempt in Turkey and escaped to Berlin in 2016, but has faced threats even there: \u201cI have to be careful about the coffee I drink, where I live,\u201d he told the Guardian this week.\n\nLast month, Pouria Zeraati, of the television channel Iran International, was stabbed outside his London home. Colleagues had previously been warned of credible threats to their lives. The suspicion is that the regime in Tehran hired proxies to assault its critics abroad. As protests swept the nation in October 2022, Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, warned international media to \u201cwatch out, because we\u2019re coming for you\u201d.\n\nIn We Will Find You, a report released earlier this year, Human Rights Watch noted: \u201cTransnational repression is not new, but it is a phenomenon that has often been downplayed or ignored and warrants a call to action.\u201d The US-based not-for-profit organisation Freedom House argues that the problem is actually spreading. While countries including Russia have long been associated with such activities, others have more recently been linked to high-profile killings and more general harassment.\n\nThe White House last week described reports that the Indian intelligence service was responsible for two assassination plots in the US and Canada as \u201ca serious matter\u201d. On Friday, Canadian police charged three men with the murder of the prominent Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia. Justin Trudeau said last year that \u201ccredible allegations\u201d potentially linked India to his killing. Hong Kong activists living in the UK, and students from elsewhere in China, have both complained of surveillance and harassment on British soil. In some cases, their families back home have been challenged about their activities abroad. Last year, Hong Kong placed bounties on the heads of several exiles, including three now living in the UK.\n\nRegimes are finding new ways to terrorise those who have left. In 2021, Belarusian authorities used a fake bomb threat to force a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius to land in Minsk \u2013 then detained the opposition blogger Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega. Three years later, many people have only a blurry memory of the case. But for Belarusian dissidents \u2013 and those who have fled other authoritarian states \u2013 it looms large. Such actions are not only a threat to the lives and freedoms of the individual activists involved. They also have a chilling effect, deterring others from speaking out.\n\nHuman Rights Watch has called for a new UN rapporteur to focus on the issue. This would be a step forward in understanding and addressing this problem. Faced with increasingly brazen tactics, other countries must also be bold in calling out transnational repression and holding governments to account for it.\n\nDo 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.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "577b724ecddb88c734d95e912ef732efeb9d98ad", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/83e218dc21d077de002cf629a70bda7325ae85d9\/0_577_8660_5196\/500.jpg", "title": "The Guardian view on YA literature: an adventure for teenagers, a comfort blanket for adults", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/the-guardian-view-on-ya-literature-an-adventure-for-teenagers-a-comfort-blanket-for-adults", "words": "559", "section": "Opinion", "date": "2024-05-05T17:25:15Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/83e218dc21d077de002cf629a70bda7325ae85d9\/0_577_8660_5196\/1000.jpg", "author": "Editorial", "description": "Editorial: A new survey revealing that three-quarters of readers of books for teens are over 18 has one message: read anything you like \u2013 but read", "text": "Childhood has meant many different things over the centuries. The transitional years of adolescence, in particular, have come a long way since they just meant smaller, cheaper, more biddable adults capable of factory work and helping out on family farms. It is only in the last 80 years or so that the teenager has come into existence, as a demographic with whole industries devoted to serving its interests \u2013 and mopping up its pocket money.\n\nOne of those industries was publishing, which responded in the 1960s by developing a market that had been identified by librarians more than two decades earlier: young adult (YA) literature. This highly profitable sub-sector, aimed at filling the gap between childish and grown-up reading, has been around long enough now to offer valuable insights into shifts in social attitudes.\n\nSo research released last week, which suggested that 74% of YA readers were over 18 years old \u2013 and that 28% were over 28 \u2013 is worthy of attention. The report puts the continuing appeal of YA down to reading for comfort, as a defence against the stresses and strains of \u201cemerging adulthood\u201d, among a generation that is taking longer to reach \u201cadult\u201d life.\n\nNearly a third of the readers were aged between 18 and 22, thus falling well within the new parameters of adolescence suggested by advances in brain science. Another third were aged 23 to 34, so benefited from the boom years of child and YA fiction, when the unparalleled success of JK Rowling\u2019s Harry Potter series inevitably distorted the picture. The sector as a whole has since shrunk.\n\nWhat qualifies as YA has always been approximate and market driven, to the extent that some books \u2013 such as Mark Haddon\u2019s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time \u2013 have been simultaneously published in both adult and teenage editions. Film, stage and TV adaptations, meanwhile, have drawn older readers to the work of crossover writers such as Neil Gaiman, Malorie Blackman or \u2013 more recently \u2013 the graphic novelist Alice Oseman.\n\nBut these caveats don\u2019t mean that YA literature has nothing to tell us about the world \u2013 as was made clear by two top 100 lists published six years apart by Time Magazine. Editors of the lists admitted that when they published the first ranking, in 2015, they had no idea \u201chow drastically the category \u2013 what it represents, who it serves and whose voices it centres \u2013 was about to shift\u201d. So in 2021, they booted out half of the previous entries to reflect the impact of the #ownvoices movement, hugely increasing the representation of previously marginalised groups. Out went Charlotte\u2019s Web and The Hobbit. In came a slew of more recent novels.\n\nIt remains to be seen which of the two lists will seem more relevant in a decade\u2019s time. Their coexistence makes the point that older readers may not only be reading YA novels for different reasons to younger ones, such as solace rather than exploring their identity, but also may be embracing a significantly different body of literature. Nostalgia can buttress older titles against the caprices of the market.\n\nWhat is undeniably true is that books discovered in adolescence often stay with readers, becoming part of their emotional and intellectual scaffolding. The important thing at any age is not so much what you read, however, as having access to all the benefits of being a reader.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "81922eabc185bde2bb16976262fa26a876ffa811", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/57e58ebcf18f57737d1ec3ed26c4fc4a776eaac3\/0_219_3500_2100\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Bromley book EFL place for first time after sinking Solihull Moors in shootout", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/bromley-solihull-moors-national-league-playoff-final-match-report", "words": "711", "section": "Football", "date": "2024-05-05T17:20:39Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/57e58ebcf18f57737d1ec3ed26c4fc4a776eaac3\/0_219_3500_2100\/1000.jpg", "author": "Sam Dalling at Wembley", "description": "Bromley will play in the EFL for the first time next season after beating Solihull Moors 4-3 in a penalty shootout at Wembley", "text": "It is a popular misbelief that there is a first time for everything. But there are, undoubtedly, first times for some things. And, come August, that will be the case for Bromley who, after 132 years of under-the-radar \u00adexistence, can proudly call themselves \u00admembers of the English Football League.\n\nSome things even happen more than once. Take goalkeeper Grant Smith, for example. Twelve months ago, he was also exiting Step One. Back then it was a case of sliding helplessly down the relegation snake with Yeovil. Now? Smith\u2019s pair of penalty shootout saves \u2013 first from Tyrese Shade and then Joss Labadie \u2013 gave Bromley a firm foot up the ladder.\n\nAll that remained was for the Bromley captain, Byron Webster, to complete a personal triptych. Webster, twice a League One playoff final winner, coolly dispatched his \u00adspot-kick. Promotion was sealed.\n\n\u201cIn that moment you want the man that is cool as ice \u2013 he slotted it away lovely,\u201d said the beaming Bromley manager, Andy Woodman. \u201cRelief is the first word that springs to mind. It\u2019s a massive step. I\u2019m just delighted it went our way.\u201d\n\nFor opponents Solihull Moors, it was cruel. They had more than played their role in choreographing a three-part drama worthy of the occasion. First, a sedate opening, a tad cagey, but not unwatchable; next a high-octane, chaotic middle act; then, finally, the tense conclusion.\n\nBromley twice led, the National League\u2019s record goalscorer Michael Cheek scoring either side of half-time. Solihull twice levelled, via Joe Sbarra and then the captain, Jamey Osborne. Finally, for Woodman et al, came penalty delight.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s relentless to get out of this league,\u201d Woodman said. \u201cGetting this football club [promoted] has become a bit of an obsession, a little bit of an unhealthy one.\u201d\n\nAt times, Bromley are not overly pleasing on the pupils. Will Woodman care? Not one jot. It is just over three years since he left the relative cosiness of a \u00adsenior goalkeeping role at Arsenal for the rollercoaster that is non-league football. In that time, Woodman has refined a precisely distilled blend of pragmatism, an ability to swerve defeat, and short, sharp, blow-your-opponents-apart bursts.\n\nAfter an unassuming opening, part two commenced slightly ahead of schedule. Just before the break, Alex Whitmore appeared to have a through ball aimed in Cheek\u2019s general direction under control. Then he fell. The referee, James Durkin \u2013 son of the former World Cup official, Paul \u2013 deemed Cheek\u2019s contact with Whitmore\u2019s foot above board. \u201cIt was a foul,\u201d said the Solihull manager, Andy Whing. He then warmly congratulated Bromley.\n\nWoodman, trademark cap plonked on his head, hands deep in pockets, had remained near \u00adfrozen until Cheek\u2019s first. He has been here before, winning the FA Trophy two years ago. He has also twice \u00adexperienced post-season heartbreak. But on Cheek\u2019s strike rippling the net, Woodman joined the near 20,000 Ravens dancing delightedly.\n\nSoon after the break, though, the worthiest of scorers levelled. Owing to a heart defect clocked by a \u00adroutine scan, Sbarra missed six months of training and began his season in December. Half a year on, he found himself at Wembley hurtling joyously toward a small, yet dedicated, pocket of delirious Moors fans.\n\nThe glee lasted 10 minutes. Kyle Morrison will not want to rewatch the unpressured back pass he attempted to his goalkeeper Nick Hayes. Undercooked? More like blue. Cheek nipped in, Hayes felled him, and the resulting penalty was a formality.\n\nAfter Osborne equalised, the game\u2019s flow faded. Twice in extra time, the Bromley substitute Alex Kirk struck the woodwork. Still, after 132 years, another half-hour was a \u00adrelative flash. \u201cThese boys embraced the chance to make history,\u201d Woodman said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to enjoy it tonight. We are going to go overboard, and do the things they say not to do.\u201d\n\nAnd then? For starters, Bromley must rip up their artificial pitch. Work begins this week. And Woodman does not simply want to survive \u2013 he is aiming higher. To those that doubted his credentials? Woodman reiterated that he had served a \u201c37-year apprenticeship. Hopefully people will now start taking me seriously as a football manager.\u201d\n\nFinally, to those who sniff at occasions such as these being hosted at this venue, save your sinuses. Full seats? Perhaps not. Full hearts? Most definitely.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "26376d2d2ee8c096cf5dea8b52deb0ec84285050", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/95492b240797d2251017d2a54d4dc4443dcc502b\/0_0_3500_2101\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "SNP activist aims to challenge John Swinney for party leadership", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/snp-activist-graeme-mccormick-john-swinney-leadership-contest", "words": "562", "section": "Politics", "date": "2024-05-05T17:10:44Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/95492b240797d2251017d2a54d4dc4443dcc502b\/0_0_3500_2101\/1000.jpg", "author": "Severin Carrell Scotland editor", "description": "Graeme McCormick claims he will gather requisite number of signatures to force contest instead of unopposed coronation", "text": "John Swinney could face a leadership contest before he becomes Scottish National party leader after an activist said he expected to win enough nominations to stand.\n\nGraeme McCormick, a well-known party activist who stood to become SNP president in 2023, claimed he would gather the 100 signatures needed from 20 different party branches to mount a challenge for the leadership.\n\nHis supporters argue it would be undemocratic for the party\u2019s leader to win an unopposed coronation and insist that Swinney ought to face a contest. If one does take place, Swinney will not be appointed as first minister until late May.\n\nOne of McCormick\u2019s backers, Iain Lawson, posted on X on Sunday that he had already obtained the 100 signatures required and was planning to hand them in to the SNP \u201cin person\u201d.\n\nLawson also attacked Swinney for criticising the move, and in another post accused Swinney of being entitled and \u201craging\u201d that an ordinary member was challenging him.\n\n\u201cSo Graeme McCormick has succeeded in getting the nominations he needed. Disappointed that JS [Swinney] has already had a dig at him before nominations even close for daring to challenge him. He is to give ordinary members the chance to question the new leader. New idea?\u201d\n\nMcCormick, some of whose allies want the Scottish government to mount a second independence referendum without Westminster\u2019s approval, won applause from hardliners when he denounced the SNP\u2019s caution as \u201cflatulence in a trance\u201d during last year\u2019s party conference.\n\nNominations to succeed Humza Yousaf as SNP leader close at noon on Monday. If another candidate crosses the nominations threshold and forces a contest, Yousaf is expected to remain in post and as Scotland\u2019s first minister until a winner is declared.\n\nMcCormick was very confident he would gather the signatures before the deadline after canvassing for support at an independence rally in Glasgow organised by All Under One Banner, the Sunday Herald newspaper reported.\n\nSwinney, who has been expecting to be confirmed as the new SNP leader on Monday afternoon and be voted in as first minister this week, warned on Sunday that a contest would delay his efforts to rebuild the party and put its deep divisions on public display.\n\n\u201cI think it would be better if we just got on with things, that we started the rebuilding of the SNP and its political strength,\u201d he told BBC Scotland\u2019s Sunday Show. \u201cWe had a lot of strains around a couple of issues in parliament and I think we\u2019ve just had a rough couple of years.\n\n\u201c[The] SNP has not looked cohesive; the SNP has not looked together. The central point of my message is we\u2019ve got to get ourselves together.\u201d\n\nAn unopposed coronation would not be the SNP\u2019s first: Nicola Sturgeon succeeded Alex Salmond in November 2014 without a contest.\n\nSwinney\u2019s call for SNP members to realise the urgency of the need to restore public confidence in the party was underlined by a poll by Norstat for Sunday Times Scotland, which said support for the party in a Westminster election had slumped to 29%.\n\nThe poll, the first to be carried out since Yousaf suddenly quit last week, put Labour on 34% and the Scottish Conservatives on 16%. Those figures suggest the SNP could lose 28 Westminster seats, a fall from 43 MPs at present to 15. Labour, which has only two Scottish seats, would win 28.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "031628c6c3457c279f81c9f16b9c3fcd1f71f1e0", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/c300214a0835d6747c5f28d9d1daa09302cf7f40\/216_175_4459_2675\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "O\u2019Brien team still in dark over \u2018wonder colt\u2019 City Of Troy\u2019s dismal Guineas run", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/silvestre-de-sousa-lands-1000-guineas-with-elmalka-on-first-classic-ride-since-betting-ban-horse-racing", "words": "787", "section": "Sport", "date": "2024-05-05T15:10:33Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/c300214a0835d6747c5f28d9d1daa09302cf7f40\/216_175_4459_2675\/1000.jpg", "author": "Greg Wood at Newmarket", "description": "Co-owner reports the horse was \u2018fit and well\u2019 on his return home but \u2018will see if anything comes to light\u2019", "text": "Aidan O\u2019Brien\u2019s Ballydoyle stable headed away from Newmarket after the Guineas meeting on Sunday with the favourite for next month\u2019s Oaks and two of the top three in the betting for the Derby, but that does not really tell the tale of a difficult weekend here for Ireland\u2019s most powerful yard.\n\nThe main positive for O\u2019Brien was the sight of Ylang Ylang running a fine trial for the Oaks as she stayed on into fifth in a blanket finish to the 1,000 Guineas behind the surprise 28-1 winner, Elmalka. There are still no further clues to explain the bitterly disappointing performance of City Of Troy, the odds-on favourite, in Saturday\u2019s 2,000 Guineas, however, or any indication of whether last year\u2019s champion juvenile will head to Epsom for the Derby in four weeks\u2019 time.\n\nO\u2019Brien was not at Newmarket on Sunday but Paul Smith, from the Coolmore Stud syndicate which supplies Ballydoyle\u2019s firepower, reported that City Of Troy was fit and well on his return home.\n\n\u201cHe seems fine this morning,\u201d Smith said. \u201cHe got a little bit fractious at the start and Ryan [Moore, his jockey] was never happy. So we\u2019ll let the dust settle, take stock, see if anything comes to light and work back from there.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ve been here before. Aidan knows what to do and we\u2019ll see if anything comes to light. If it doesn\u2019t, he\u2019s a good horse and one bad run and one mishap doesn\u2019t make him a bad one, so we\u2019re all systems go.\n\n\u201cHe\u2019d taken his work well, his temperament was fine and he loved his work [before the Guineas], he did everything very easily and there was no sign at all [of any issue]. It was a big disappointment but onwards and upwards, we\u2019ll get to the bottom of it, I\u2019m sure we will, and we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d\n\nElmalka\u2019s unexpected success in the 1,000 Guineas on Sunday was a significant triumph for both Roger Varian, who also trained the winner\u2019s dam, Nahrain, and in particular Silvestre de Sousa, her jockey, who has only recently returned to the saddle after picking up a 10-month ban a year ago for \u201cfacilitating a bet\u201d for a fellow jockey in Hong Kong.\n\nThe Hong Kong stewards accepted that de Sousa had not had a bet himself or failed to ride his horse to achieve the best possible placing, but their penalties for any betting-related activity are famously severe.\n\nFor a jockey in his early 40s, a 10-month ban could have been potentially career-ending, but de Sousa\u2019s famous work ethic, which carried him to the British Flat jockeys\u2019 championship in 2015, 2017 and 2018, has ensured that he has swiftly picked up the threads of his British career.\n\nElmalka\u2019s victory looked highly unlikely as she trailed the field in the early stages of the race, and Ramatuelle, from Christopher Head\u2019s yard in Chantilly, traded at 1-5 in running after she hit the front and opened a useful lead with two furlongs to run. Her stamina was untested at a mile, however, and as her stride started to shorten with the post in sight, de Sousa delivered Elmalka with a perfectly-timed run to beat Porta Fortuna by a neck, with Ramatuelle a short-head away in third.\n\nDe Sousa\u2019s championship-winning seasons were based on quantity as much as quality, and this was the first Classic success of his career and only his 12th in all at the highest level.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve been trying to win a Classic for so long and it\u2019s just an amazing feeling,\u201d he said. \u201cI haven\u2019t had that feeling for a long time. Especially when you\u2019ve had time off and you come back, it was just unbelievable.\n\n\u201cI love British racing so much. To me it\u2019s my base. This is the place where it starts and I hope this is the place where I\u2019m going to finish one day. I\u2019ve been working hard behind the scenes and just want my opportunities back and I\u2019m still capable. I\u2019ll just work hard and see how the season goes.\u201d\n\nVarian expects to keep Elmalka at around a mile and the Falmouth Stakes, at Newmarket\u2019s July meeting, is an option later in the campaign.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s not a surprise because I wouldn\u2019t have run her if I didn\u2019t think she was going to run well,\u201d Varian said, \u201cbut you don\u2019t come into these races thinking you\u2019re going to win.\n\n\u201cShe ran a big race at Newbury [in April]. We weren\u2019t set on running in the Guineas that day but the turnaround in the last fortnight has been quite incredible. I was in two minds whether to run her because I didn\u2019t want to do the wrong thing but that\u2019s why we\u2019re here, right, to have a go?\u201d\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "d52bf7da46ec81a0a7cc51ea3f8c3654d84b522c", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/fbdf7fe27bb141cdcf4f3b21765a286b3dcd3688\/702_11_2984_1790\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Yorkshire apostrophe fans demand road signs with nowt taken out", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/north-yorkshires-dropped-apostrophe-for-street-signs-upsets-residents", "words": "418", "section": "UK news", "date": "2024-05-05T17:07:08Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/fbdf7fe27bb141cdcf4f3b21765a286b3dcd3688\/702_11_2984_1790\/1000.jpg", "author": "Mabel Banfield-Nwachi", "description": "Council says punctuation mark must go to suit computer databases, but grammar purists see signs of falling standards", "text": "A council has provoked the wrath of residents and linguists alike after announcing it would ban apostrophes on street signs to avoid problems with computer systems.\n\nNorth Yorkshire council is ditching the punctuation point after careful consideration, saying it can affect geographical databases.\n\nThe council said all new street signs would be produced without one, regardless of whether they were used in the past.\n\nSome residents expressed reservations about removing the apostrophes, and said it risked \u201ceverything going downhill\u201d. They urged the authority to retain them.\n\nSam, a postal worker in Harrogate, a spa town in North Yorkshire, told the BBC that signs missing an apostrophe \u2013 such as the nearby St Mary\u2019s Walk sign that had been erected in the town without it \u2013 infuriated her.\n\n\u201cI walk past the sign every day and it riles my blood to see inappropriate grammar or punctuation,\u201d she said.\n\nThough the updated St Mary\u2019s sign had no apostrophe, someone had graffitied an apostrophe back on to the sign with a marker pen, which the former teacher said was \u201cbrilliant\u201d.\n\nShe suggested the council was providing a bad example to children who spend a long time learning the basics of grammar only to see it not being used correctly on street signs.\n\nDr Ellie Rye, a lecturer in English language and linguistics at the University of York, said apostrophes were a relatively new invention in our writing and, often, context allows people to understand their meaning.\n\n\u201cIf I say I live on St Mary\u2019s Walk, we\u2019re expecting a street name or an address of some kind.\u201d\n\nShe said the change would matter to people who spend a long time teaching how we write English but that it was \u201cless important in [verbal] communication\u201d.\n\nNorth Yorkshire council said it was not the first to opt to \u201celiminate\u201d the apostrophe from street signs. Cambridge city council had done the same, before it bowed to pressure and reinstated the apostrophe after complaints from campaigners.\n\nThere was also an outcry from residents when Mid Devon district council considered making it a policy to do away with apostrophes to \u201cavoid potential confusion\u201d.\n\nA spokesperson from North Yorkshire council added: \u201cAll punctuation will be considered but avoided where possible because street names and addresses, when stored in databases, must meet the standards set out in BS7666.\n\n\u201cThis restricts the use of punctuation marks and special characters (eg apostrophes, hyphens and ampersands) to avoid potential problems when searching the databases as these characters have specific meanings in computer systems.\u201d\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "91e740ad06d47896de8f350de05d62736b92a6c5", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/1143ee63cb151fa623a3e5192704e97b0b3f557e\/59_0_1800_1080\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices in \u2018dark day for the media\u2019 ", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/israel-shuts-down-local-al-jazeera-offices-in-dark-day-for-the-media", "words": "710", "section": "World news", "date": "2024-05-05T16:53:31Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/1143ee63cb151fa623a3e5192704e97b0b3f557e\/59_0_1800_1080\/1000.jpg", "author": "Jason Burke in Jerusalem", "description": "Foreign Press Association decries move under new law based on claim network is a threat to national security", "text": "Israeli authorities shut down the local offices of Al Jazeera on Sunday, hours after a government vote to use new laws to close the satellite news network\u2019s operations in the country.\n\nCritics called the move, which comes as faltering indirect ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas continue, a \u201cdark day for the media\u201d and raised new concerns about the attitude to free speech of Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s hardline government.\n\nIsraeli officials said the move was justified because Al Jazeera was a threat to national security. \u201cThe incitement channel Al Jazeera will be closed in Israel,\u201d the country\u2019s prime minister posted on social media after the unanimous cabinet vote.\n\nA government statement said Israel\u2019s communications minister had signed orders to act immediately to close al Jazeera\u2019s offices in Israel, confiscate broadcast equipment, cut the channel off from cable and satellite companies and block its websites.\n\nThe network, which is funded by Qatar, has been critical of Israel\u2019s military operation in Gaza, from where it has reported around the clock throughout the seven-month war.\n\nAl Jazeera said the accusation that it threatened Israeli security was a \u201cdangerous and ridiculous lie\u201d that put its journalists at risk.\n\n\u201cAl Jazeera Media Network strongly condemns and denounces this criminal act that violates human rights and the basic right to access of information,\u201d the company said in a statement. \u201cAl Jazeera affirms its right to continue to provide news and information to its global audiences.\u201d\n\nA pre-recorded \u201cfinal report\u201d listing the restrictions placed on the network by a reporter in Jerusalem was broadcast on the network after the ban came into effect.\n\nAl Jazeera has previously accused the Israeli authorities of deliberately targeting several of its journalists, including Samer Abu Daqqa and Hamza Al-Dahdouh, both killed in Gaza during the conflict. Israel has rejected the charge and says it does not target journalists.\n\nThe office of the UN high commissioner for human rights also criticised the move. \u201cWe regret cabinet decision to close Al Jazeera in Israel,\u201d it said on X. \u201cA free & independent media is essential to ensuring transparency & accountability. Now, even more so given tight restrictions on reporting from Gaza. Freedom of expression is a key human right. We urge govt to overturn ban.\u201d\n\nIsrael\u2019s parliament ratified a law last month that allows for the temporary closure of foreign broadcasters considered a threat to national security.\n\nThe law allows Netanyahu and his security cabinet to shut Al Jazeera\u2019s offices in Israel for 45 days, a period that can be renewed, so it could stay in force until the end of July or until the end of major military operations in Gaza.\n\nWhile including on-the-ground reporting of the war\u2019s casualties, Al Jazeera\u2019s Arabic-language service often publishes verbatim video statements from Hamas and other militant groups in the region, drawing sharp criticism from Israeli officials.\n\nA campaign of judicial reform led last year by Netanyahu\u2019s coalition government, the most rightwing in Israel\u2019s history, prompted great opposition and accusations of authoritarianism. Recent crackdowns on protesters against the Gaza war in Israel have also raised new concerns for free speech.\n\nThe Foreign Press Association, a NGO representing journalists working for international news organisations reporting from Israel, the West Bank and Gaza accused Israel of joining a \u201cdubious club of authoritarian governments\u201d.\n\n\u201cThis is a dark day for the media. This is a dark day for democracy,\u201d it said in a statement.\n\nThere was also some political opposition in Israel to the move, or at least its timing. The National Unity party, a centrist member of the ruling coalition, said that coming as ceasefire talks appeared close to failing, it could \u201csabotage efforts\u201d to free Israeli hostages in Gaza.\n\nQatar established Al Jazeera in 1996 to build influence around the Middle East and further afield.\n\nThe small Gulf state, where several Hamas political leaders are based, was a key mediator in the talks but has been marginalised in recent weeks, which may have encouraged the Israeli government to act.\n\nIsrael has barred foreign journalists from entering Gaza to cover the conflict, which was triggered by Hamas attacks into southern Israel on 7 October last year in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed. Israel\u2019s ensuing offensive has killed more than 34,000 people, mostly women and children.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "44f72c58c746748cc70f10480ee2d31bf67de4f6", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/5976302b7285ca651fd7964835628e47a10e60bd\/241_929_961_576\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Momentum\u2019s future hangs in balance after co-chair resigns and quits Labour", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/momentum-future-in-balance-co-chair-hilary-schan-resigns-quits-labour", "words": "693", "section": "Politics", "date": "2024-05-05T16:40:22Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/5976302b7285ca651fd7964835628e47a10e60bd\/241_929_961_576\/1000.jpg", "author": "Aletha Adu Political correspondent", "description": "Exclusive: Party insiders say departure of Hilary Schan could mark start of end for grassroots leftwing group", "text": "Momentum\u2019s future is \u201changing in the balance\u201d after the leftwing grassroots group\u2019s co-chair resigned and quit Labour to campaign for the Green party and independent candidates.\n\nHilary Schan said she had begun contemplating her role within Labour in October when councillors first expressed their frustrations over the leadership\u2019s \u201cunwillingness to show value to the humanity of Palestinian lives\u201d.\n\nSchan took over from Jon Lansman with co-chair Kate Dove in 2022. Her departure from the group after four years to many Labour insiders marks \u201cthe beginning of the end of hardline stubborn leftwingers\u201d within Labour, but also the start of a new coalition of leftwing voices outside Labour.\n\n\u201cMomentum\u2019s future looks pretty bleak without Hilary and will be hanging by a thread,\u201d a leftwing Labour source said. \u201cWe should\u2019ve campaigned for a Fabian-style membership model. The energy is not in the parliamentary sphere of the party. Momentum will be less combative to the leadership and have less of a public presence.\u201d\n\nSchan said she had waited until the end of the local elections campaign as she was supporting the Worthing Labour council leader, Beccy Cooper, and did not want to disrupt efforts to get the public voting.\n\n\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt there\u2019s been a purge of left voices in Labour. They\u2019ve felt the impact in Oldham, for example. Keir Starmer stood on a pledge of uniting the party, by doing this he\u2019s alienating a large element of the party who are considering looking elsewhere ahead of the general election.\u201d\n\nSchan is joining the We Deserve Better campaign, which she believes will help build an alternative by electing candidates who, along with socialist Labour MPs, can \u201cpressure Starmer to finally listen to progressive voters he has taken for granted\u201d.\n\nWe Deserve Better, launched by the columnist Owen Jones, is seeking to mobilise the more than 200,000 people who have left Labour to campaign for socialist and pro-Palestine Green and independent candidates.\n\nKeir Starmer on Saturday said he was determined to win back the trust of those who had rejected his party in the local elections as a result of his stance on Gaza.\n\n\u201cI have heard you. I have listened. And I am determined to meet your concerns and to gain your respect and trust again in the future,\u201d he said.\n\nThe party failed to regain control of Oxford after a string of prominent defections over its messaging on the Middle East crisis, and, in a similar blow, lost control of Oldham council in Greater Manchester to independents.\n\nLabour also lost council seats to independents in Blackburn with Darwen and Bradford, while the Workers\u2019 party gained from it in Rochdale.\n\nIn Manchester, the Labour deputy leader of the council, Luthfur Rahman, lost his seat to Shahbaz Sarwar of George Galloway\u2019s Workers\u2019 party.\n\nMomentum insiders believe at least 50 councillors linked to the group were elected during the local elections, and there remains a \u201csignificant minority\u201d of leftwingers who are also Labour members \u201cwho can still get their voices heard\u201d within the party.\n\nThe Guardian understands Momentum has faced internal battles on how much the group publicly criticises the party, its policies and its disciplinary and complaints process.\n\nVoicing support for Jeremy Corbyn after he was blocked from standing as a Labour MP last year became a huge source of conflict but a number of leftwingers have expressed their shock at Momentum\u2019s initial hesitance to express support for Diane Abbott and the length of her suspension, noting even Labour MPs who aren\u2019t leftwingers have voiced their support for her.\n\nA Momentum spokesperson said they\u2019re proud to have \u201cled the resistance to Starmer\u2019s purge on and crackdown on party democracy including standing with Diane and Jeremy from the very beginning\u201d.\n\n\u201cAs Hilary leaves Momentum, we\u2019d like to place on record our thanks for her leadership and dedicated service to our movement.\n\n\u201cMomentum remains focused on organising for a democratic Labour party which views its members and core voters as an asset, not an inconvenience. We will keep campaigning for real Labour policies which deliver the country the transformative change it is crying out for, instead of constant U-turns and corporate-friendly policies.\u201d\n\nThe Labour party declined to comment.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "f3081cabef4b9c5c669dce6086aec18d95878eed", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/9a50b995a87b7bc4f0cf6dc743908c74cad54565\/0_0_3500_2100\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Rishi Sunak to face pressure to shift right after disastrous election results", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/rishi-sunak-to-face-pressure-to-shift-right-after-disastrous-election-results", "words": "845", "section": "Politics", "date": "2024-05-05T16:34:13Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/9a50b995a87b7bc4f0cf6dc743908c74cad54565\/0_0_3500_2100\/1000.jpg", "author": "Rowena Mason Whitehall editor", "description": "Suella Braverman says Conservative party will be lucky to have any MPs unless it adopts harder line on immigration and rights", "text": "Rishi Sunak will face pressure to adopt hard rightwing policies such as an immigration cap and scrapping European human rights law this week, with Suella Braverman saying he needs to \u201cown and fix\u201d a disastrous set of local election results.\n\nSunak\u2019s allies were on Sunday insisting he wanted to stick to his current plan and that it was working, as plotters against his leadership accepted they did not have the support to challenge him.\n\nBut Braverman issued an extraordinary broadside against Sunak on a BBC news programme, saying she regretted voting for him to be leader but it was too late to get rid of him. She also said the party would be \u201clucky to have any MPs\u201d if it continued on the same path.\n\nUrging him to change course, she called for more conservative policies such as withdrawing from the European convention on human rights \u2013 a move that would be hugely unpopular with moderate Conservatives.\n\nBraverman told the BBC\u2019s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: \u201cI love my country, I care about my party and I want us to win, and I am urging the prime minister to change course, to \u2013 with humility \u2013 reflect on what voters are telling us, and change the plan and the way that he is communicating and leading us.\u201d\n\nAsked about whether she wanted to see a change in leader, Braverman said: \u201cI just don\u2019t think that is a feasible prospect right now, we don\u2019t have enough time and it is impossible for anyone new to come and change our fortunes to be honest. There is no superman or superwoman out there who can do it.\u201d\n\nInstead she called on Rishi Sunak to \u201cown\u201d the result, adding: \u201cTherefore he needs to fix it.\u201d One of her allies, John Hayes, called for a reshuffle to bring her back into the cabinet.\n\nRobert Jenrick, the former immigration minister and communities secretary, along with ex-minister Neil O\u2019Brien are to publish a pamphlet this week urging more action to bring down migration before the election.\n\nHowever, Sunak is looking at a schism in the party, as other senior Conservatives dismissed Braverman\u2019s diagnosis that a swing further to the right was needed. Some Tories believe the prime minister needs to tack to the centre to take votes from Labour and the Lib Dems in marginal seats, while others believe the best strategy is squeezing the Reform UK vote on the right.\n\nAndy Street, the former West Midlands mayor who narrowly lost to Labour on Saturday, said: \u201cThe thing everyone should take from Birmingham and the West Midlands is this brand of moderative, inclusive, tolerant conservatism, that gets on and delivered, has come within an ace of beating the Labour party in what they considered to be their back yard \u2013 that\u2019s the message from here tonight.\u201d\n\nRobert Buckland, a Tory MP and former justice secretary from the One Nation wing of the party, told GB News that the British public are \u201cputting their fingers in their ears\u201d about the Conservatives because they are engaged in too much infighting.\n\n\u201cThe more that we talk about factions and ideology and the less we focus on business, on growth, on jobs, on housing, all those issues that actually people are talking about \u2026 then I think we\u2019ve become an irrelevant rump,\u201d he said.\n\n\u201cThe Conservative party wins elections, not by being soft and mushy but by reflecting the views of the British public, by being in alliance with them. The coalition that we need is with the British people. We\u2019ve been the party of the nation for generations. I believe we can get back to that, but we need to focus on what people are talking about.\u201d\n\nSunak has been largely absent from the airwaves over the weekend, apart from appearing at Ben Houchen\u2019s Tees Valley victory on Friday \u2013 a sole pocket of good news for the Conservatives.\n\nHowever, Mark Harper, the transport secretary and a longtime supporter of Sunak, gave a round of broadcast interviews insisting the prime minister\u2019s plan is working. He said the party still had \u201ceverything to fight for\u201d and pointed to there being only nine points between the Tories and Labour in the vote share in England.\n\nAnother option being floated by some Conservative MPs is whether to give Boris Johnson a role in the election campaign, despite his difficult relationship with Sunak, his successor as prime minister after Liz Truss.\n\nAndrea Jenkyns, a Conservative on the right of the party and a supporter of Johnson, told Sky News\u2019s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: \u201cI would like to see real commonsense conservatism, honouring our manifesto commitments. I would like to see the return of Boris on the frontline of politics, whether that\u2019s going for a seat in the next election and being front and centre of our election campaign.\u201d\n\nA report in the Sunday Times suggested this weekend that there had been contact between Johnson\u2019s team and Nigel Farage\u2019s camp about the possibility of reuniting the right of politics after the election although the two men are not understood to have spoken directly.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "e49c709808ca93a5a222b1cdb4f0fcebbb952230", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/9389e4d443ba60bee53aea1a73a62fd7c47aab71\/0_180_5430_3260\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": " \u2018I will kill myself on arrival\u2019: Syrian asylum seeker fears Rwanda will not be safe ", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/i-will-kill-myself-on-arrival-syrian-asylum-seeker-fears-rwanda-will-not-be-safe", "words": "832", "section": "World news", "date": "2024-05-05T16:06:27Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/9389e4d443ba60bee53aea1a73a62fd7c47aab71\/0_180_5430_3260\/1000.jpg", "author": "Diane Taylor", "description": "Khaled is waiting to be deported from the Colnbrook centre where, he says, many are struggling to cope with what lies ahead", "text": "A Syrian asylum seeker who is locked up in a detention centre awaiting deportation to Rwanda says he will kill himself on arrival because he does not believe it will be a safe country for him.\n\nKhaled, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, spoke exclusively to the Guardian from his cell in Colnbrook immigration removal centre. He arrived here in June 2022, and has a history of suffering torture and imprisonment. He said that he and the other asylum seekers \u201cof many nationalities\u201d he is detained with are not coping with being locked up because of the imprisonment and persecution many have previously experienced.\n\n\u201cEveryone is so stressed in here because of Rwanda. We can\u2019t eat and we can\u2019t sleep. I was displaced in Syria for nine years and was imprisoned there and I was also detained and tortured in Libya. Being in detention is very triggering for me. What matters to asylum seekers is to be safe. I will not be safe in Rwanda. If they manage to send me there I will kill myself on arrival in that country.\u201d\n\nHe said when he found out about Rwanda in February 2023 he became \u201cvery scared\u201d.\n\n\u201cI went to report last week in Birmingham. They arrested me and put me in handcuffs in a police cell. The same thing happened to two other people who were reporting \u2013 Iraqi Kurds. After we were taken out of the cell we were handcuffed again and taken in a van to the detention centre. I have been trying to see a doctor in the detention centre because of an infection in my leg I need antibiotics for but so far I haven\u2019t managed to get an appointment.\u201d\n\nA second asylum seeker from Sudan, who was fearful to give his real name, also spent time detained in Libya. He fled Darfur, a longstanding conflict zone in the country.\n\nHe arrived in the UK in June 2022 after managing to raise the money to pay his captors in Libya to free him, travelled in a boat which almost sank across the Mediterranean and reached Italy.\n\n\u201cI would have been happy to claim asylum in Italy but Italian officials did not fingerprint me and told me to move on to France. There I was told it would be four years before they could consider my asylum claim so I waited in the jungle in Calais to cross to the UK. Crossing the Channel in an overcrowded boat was even more terrifying than crossing the Mediterranean.\n\n\u201cWhen I heard about the government\u2019s plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda at the beginning of 2023 I was very frightened. I escaped from an African country because it was not safe and I am very scared to be deported to another African country because I know it will not be safe for me.\u201d\n\n\u201cI was arrested last week when I went to report in Newcastle. They didn\u2019t mention Rwanda until I reached the detention centre and at first just said \u2018We are deporting you to a safe third country\u2019.\u201d\n\nBoth men said there are long queues to access fax machines and computers to contact legal representatives and to try to meet the seven-day deadline the Home Office has given asylum seekers to oppose notices of intent for Rwanda.\n\nAccording to the charity Detention Action at least one man detained for Rwanda has embarked on a hunger strike. He said: \u201cI am damaging my body and my health to get help and to get my voice heard.\u201d\n\nA letter seen by the Guardian given to people detained for Rwanda by the Home Office states that if agreement to send asylum seekers to a safe third country cannot be reached \u201cwithin a reasonable time your protection claim will be considered by the Home Office\u201d suggesting that not everyone detained for Rwanda will actually be sent there to have their asylum claims processed.\n\nMore than 100 people are understood to have been detained so far. The charity Care4Calais circulated data about the nationalities of those detained with the majority coming from conflict zones.\n\nHannah Marwood, the head of legal access at Care4Calais, said: \u201cThe people detained have not had their asylum claims processed, and it\u2019s clear from the first cohort we are in contact with that if their claims were processed they would probably be granted refugee status in the UK. It reaffirms how shameful the Rwanda plan is and why it must be stopped.\u201d\n\nPat McFadden, Labour\u2019s national campaign coordinator, said he doubted that if they are elected, Labour would bring asylum seekers sent to Rwanda back to the UK.\n\nA Home Office spokesperson said:\u201cWe take the welfare of people in our care extremely seriously. There are robust safeguarding measures in place to ensure everyone is treated with dignity and has the support they need.\n\n\u201cAll detained individuals have access to a mobile phone, internet and landline telephones so they can keep in contact with friends, family and other support.\u201d\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "5304ed52027e7955c8635a864d0b7af3cbd85c62", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/8ecd0656a8b3280a39f07779cf84d8e191b06bb4\/0_48_3500_2101\/500.jpg", "title": "Labour can be proud of its local election results, but there\u2019s still a way to go", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/labour-can-be-proud-of-its-local-election-results-but-theres-still-a-way-to-go", "words": "685", "section": "Politics", "date": "2024-05-05T16:02:11Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/8ecd0656a8b3280a39f07779cf84d8e191b06bb4\/0_48_3500_2101\/1000.jpg", "author": "The Guardian", "description": "Letters: Bernie Evans bemoans the party\u2019s centre-right policies and lack of radicalism to really inspire voters. Plus letters from Lyn Dade, Keith Flett, Jimmy McCluskey and Dr Mark Wilcox ", "text": "Keir Starmer\u2019s party has not only, as Jonathan Freedland says, sought \u201cto reassure Tory switchers\u201d that they have nothing to worry about, in doing so it has remoulded itself into a centre-right conservative Labour party, with policies so moderate that they\u2019re in danger of Tory adoption prior to the election (Triumphant Starmer already seems like the prime minister. Now his troubles really begin, 3 May). Like the effect of Joe Biden\u2019s weak stance over Gaza, the real danger is that many voters will \u201ccast their ballots for alternatives to Sir Keir\u201d (The Guardian view on local elections: voters aren\u2019t listening to Tories, but are hearing Labour, 3 May).\n\nDoes Freedland seriously believe that if the Gaza situation is \u201csufficiently calmed\u201d come election day, voters are so fickle that they will have forgotten Starmer\u2019s refusal to support an immediate ceasefire, or his hesitation about whether Israel has the right to withhold power and water from Gaza?\n\nHe also says that \u201cthere is not enough money\u201d for a Labour government to fix what the Tories have spent 14 years breaking, when Starmer and Rachel Reeves have refused all advice to tax wealth and its owners fairly, equalise capital gains and income tax, impose windfall taxes on all profiteering companies, and close the tax gap completely rather than by a meagre \u00a35bn in five years. Too right they will be \u201ccut little slack\u201d, and quite rightly, too. If the problems facing the next Labour government \u201ccould hardly be more daunting\u201d, it is of their own making: the country is ready for and needs transformative policies, not simply a change in the holder of the keys to No 10.\nBernie Evans\nLiverpool\n\nAs a progressive I would welcome that. This country needs radical democratic and economic reform, and a hung parliament would be an opportunity to bring proportional representation front and centre. This would open the door to other much-needed reforms and a new politics of debate and consensus-building rather than the tawdry mud-slinging that currently passes for it.\nLyn Dade\nTwickenham, London\n\nIf Labour is to win a victory at this year\u2019s general election, Starmer urgently needs to resume services at the broad church.\nKeith Flett\nTottenham, London\n\nJimmy McCluskey\nEnfield, London\n\nDr Mark Wilcox\nHolmfirth, West Yorkshire\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "8a624d0b2785ffdef0c21b61852daa3666f2ceda", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/55ebd4fa1e01e588595770e6e531f213546679d8\/0_0_3799_2280\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "What happens if a US presidential candidate dies?", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/what-happens-presidential-candidate-trump-biden-dies", "words": "2078", "section": "US news", "date": "2024-05-05T16:00:14Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/55ebd4fa1e01e588595770e6e531f213546679d8\/0_0_3799_2280\/1000.jpg", "author": "Lauren Gambino", "description": "Joe Biden and Donald Trump are the two oldest candidates in US history. If either needs to be replaced, what next?", "text": "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.\n\nConcerns 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.\n\nIf Biden, as the sitting president, were suddenly unable to serve, either through incapacity or death, the vice-president, Kamala Harris, would immediately assume the powers of the presidency under the 25th amendment. But replacing Biden or Trump as their party\u2019s presumptive nominees for president \u2013 a prospect that is entirely hypothetical \u2013 is more complicated. In the event of an unforeseen vacancy, party rules, state and federal election laws and the US constitution would guide what would undoubtedly be a messy process.\n\nWhat happens if Biden or Trump needs to be replaced? The answer, experts say, depends largely on when the vacancy arises. Is it after the party\u2019s nominating convention? Before election day? What if the winning candidate is no longer able to take the oath of office? The timing matters.\n\nIf the unexpected occurs, the job of replacing the presidential candidate would fall to \u201c10,000 people who no one has ever heard of\u201d, according to Elaine Kamarck, a member of the Democratic National Committee rules committee and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Collectively they represent convention delegates, members of the parties\u2019 national committees, the 535 members of the electoral college and the 435 members of the House of Representatives.\n\nEach plays a relevant role at different stages of the election process.\n\nWhat if it happens before a party\u2019s convention? Biden and Trump have secured enough delegates to be their parties\u2019 nominee in mid-March, but neither will be formally selected until the conventions this summer. The Republican national convention will take place in Milwaukee in mid-July. The Democratic convention will take place a month later in Chicago.\n\nBefore then, state parties will continue to hold primaries, caucuses and conventions, electing delegates to send to conventions.\n\nIf Biden or Trump were to withdraw or die before being formally nominated, their delegates would arrive at the convention in Milwaukee or Chicago largely uncommitted. A replacement nominee would then likely be chosen at the convention in a messy floor fight. Imagine frantic horse-trading, back-room dealing and public speech-making.\n\nDemocrats also have a system of \u201csuperdelegates\u201d \u2013 unpledged senior party officials and elected leaders whose support is limited on the first ballot but who could play a decisive role in subsequent rounds.\n\nWould the running mate automatically move to the top of the ticket? The short answer is no. Neither Harris, nor Trump\u2019s eventual vice-presidential pick, would automatically become the nominee, according to DNC and RNC rules.\n\nBut delegates tend to be people with a degree of loyalty to the candidate or party. So in all likelihood, the running mate would emerge as a strong contender for the nomination.\n\nPresumably a Biden delegate would be open to supporting Harris, who, in the event Biden has died or fallen critically ill, would already be serving as president. Nevertheless, if a vacancy emerges, it is possible alternative candidates would step forward \u2013 imagine California governor Gavin Newsom or Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer.\n\nOn the Republican side, Trump has yet to choose a running mate. The runner-up for the Republican nomination, Nikki Haley, proved deeply unpopular with the party\u2019s base and could struggle to win over Trump\u2019s delegates if he were not the nominee.\n\nHas this happened before? Many Americans will have no memory of the 1968 Democratic primary, when President Lyndon Johnson announced he would not seek re-election after only narrowly winning the party\u2019s New Hampshire primary contest in March. Weeks prior, Senator Robert F Kennedy had launched his campaign for the party\u2019s presidential nomination. He was assassinated in June, after winning the California primary.\n\nJohnson\u2019s vice-president, Hubert Humphrey, eventually accumulated enough delegates through the support of party insiders to win the Democratic nomination. But the convention that year was so disastrous for the party, which went on to lose the presidential election, it prompted an overhaul of the entire primary system, resulting in the contest-driven nominating process in place today.\n\nWhat if a vacancy arises after the convention but before election day? Here again the political parties would play a central role.\n\nThe Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee have slightly different rules guiding how they would replace the deceased presidential nominee by majority vote.\n\nAccording to party rules, the DNC has the power to fill the vacancy on their party ticket after the chair consults Democratic governors and congressional leaders. The RNC, according to its rules, could reconvene a national convention or select the alternative candidate itself.\n\nFor simplicity, the parties would likely consider the running mate, but there is no guarantee.\n\nIf there were enough time, the replacement candidate might appear on the ballot. But states have different ballot filing deadlines and several states begin mailing their ballots as early as September.\n\nIn states where ballots have already been printed or mailed, the party could instruct voters \u2013 and electors \u2013 to treat the names at the top of the ticket \u201cas hieroglyphics\u201d, said Derek Muller, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame.\n\n\u201cIf it says Biden-Harris, you should interpret that as Harris-Booker,\u201d he said, offering the hypothetical example of an alternative Democratic ticket with New Jersey senator Cory Booker as Harris\u2019s running mate.\n\nHas this ever happened before? No. But there are some examples of how this might play out.\n\nIn 1972, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, Senator Thomas Eagleton, was forced to withdraw from the ticket after the convention following reports that had been treated for mental illness. The Democratic National Committee convened a meeting in Washington to select Eagleton\u2019s replacement, Sargent Shriver.\n\nExperts also point to 2000, when the Democratic candidate for a Senate seat in Missouri, the state\u2019s governor, Mel Carnahan, died weeks before the election. The state\u2019s lieutenant governor, a Democrat who ascended to the governorship, committed to appointing Carnahan\u2019s wife, Jean, to the seat if he won posthumously, which he did. She was then appointed to fill her late husband\u2019s seat.\n\n\u201cThe electorate can learn about these things if given the cues to do so,\u201d Muller said.\n\nCould Congress delay the election? It is possible but improbable. The date of the election is set by federal law, the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, which is 5 November.\n\nBoth chambers of Congress would have to approve a measure delaying the election, and the president would have to sign it, unlikely in a divided government.\n\nEven if it were to happen, Congress could only push the election by a matter of weeks because the constitution states that a president\u2019s term \u201cshall end at noon on the 20th day of January\u201d.\n\nWhat happens if the candidate is incapacitated, not dead? Timing would still matter. The rules and laws would still apply. But the scenario takes on a new degree of complexity.\n\n\u201cAll of these questions become much more complicated in situations where you have a disability or you\u2019re physically unable to take the oath,\u201d Muller said. \u201cThere are just more contingencies in place that you don\u2019t have when it comes to death.\u201d\n\nWhat if the winning candidate dies after election day? It is important to remember how the presidential election process works. To win the White House, a candidate must accumulate a majority of electors \u2013 270 \u2013 in the electoral college. In each state, political parties choose slates of electors and voters cast their ballot for a party\u2019s electors.\n\n\u201cWhen you vote for president, you\u2019re actually not voting for Joe Biden or Donald Trump,\u201d Kamarck said. \u201cYou are voting for a slate of electors who have been chosen in that state as part of the electoral college.\u201d\n\nAfter the election, the winning presidential candidate\u2019s slate of electors, generally party loyalists vetted by local party leaders for the role, meet in their states to cast their votes for president and vice-president. This year, that occurs on 17 December.\n\nSome states \u201cbind\u201d electors to vote for the winner of the election in their state, laws that were upheld by the supreme court in a 2020 ruling, but other states allow electors more independence to cast \u201cfaithless votes\u201d. The upreme court justice Elena Kagan added in a footnote that \u201cnothing in this opinion should be taken to permit the states to bind electors to a deceased candidate\u201d.\n\nIf the electors haven\u2019t met when the vacancy occurs, they would be strongly incentivized to coalesce around a replacement candidate designated by the party. The running mate would be an obvious choice, but, again, not the required one.\n\nThe electors could also decide to back the deceased candidate and under the 20th Amendment the vice-president elect would become the president-elect. More on this later.\n\nWhat happens if the winning candidate dies before Congress declares a winner? A newly elected Congress will meet on 6 January to certify the results of the presidential election by counting the electoral votes. Traditionally this has been a ceremonial affair. But in 2020, a violent mob of Trump supporters overran the US Capitol in a failed attempt to prevent Congress from certifying Biden\u2019s victory.\n\nIn this polarized and charged environment, there are concerns about how elected officials in Congress would handle a situation in which the winner of the electoral college vote cannot assume the presidency. Reforms made after the 6 January insurrection on the Capitol made it harder for members of Congress to object to the counting of certain electoral votes, a partisan practice.\n\nBut Congress would be operating in uncharted territory.\n\nIs there a precedent? No. No winning presidential candidate has died in the period between election day at the start of November and the inauguration on 20 January.\n\nBut there is one example of a losing presidential candidate dying after election day. In 1872, Democratic presidential candidate Horace Greeley died after losing the election to Ulysses S Grant but before the casting of the electoral college votes. Although his death did not affect the outcome, there was a debate over what to do with the 66 electoral college votes he had won. Most electors chose to cast their votes for another candidate and Congress chose not to count the three votes cast for the deceased Greeley.\n\nSome experts say Congress\u2019s decision not to count the votes should not necessarily be taken as precedent, especially because it occurred before the 20th amendment was ratified. Others argue that members of Congress may have decided the matter differently if the votes would have affected the outcome.\n\nSo what does the 20th amendment say? Section 3 of the 20th amendment states: \u201cIf, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice-President elect shall become President.\u201d\n\nBut there is some debate over when a winning candidate becomes president-elect. Is it after the electors vote on 17 December or not until a joint session of Congress counts the electoral votes on 6 January?\n\n\u201cThe balance of scholarly opinion holds that the president- and vice-president-elect are chosen once the electoral votes are cast,\u201d according to a 2020 Congressional Research Service memo. But the law itself leaves some ambiguity.\n\nHow will it look to voters? Amazingly, these are only some of the hypothetical scenarios that could unfold.\n\nIf the unexpected occurs, parties will jockey for political advantage and bad actors would likely try to seize on the chaos. This will be especially true in the event the election results are contested, as Trump is laying the groundwork to do, or in the \u201cnightmare scenario\u201d neither candidate earns 270 electoral votes.\n\nWith the election expected to be narrowly decided, there is no doubt an unexpected vacancy would jolt a system already rattled by an onslaught of spurious claims and political misinformation.\n\nHolly Idelson, a policy advocate with the nonpartisan group Protect Democracy, said education and public awareness will be critical to defuse the potential for a \u201ccrisis atmosphere\u201d in the circumstance of a presidential candidate\u2019s death or withdrawal.\n\n\u201cYes, there are unprecedented scenarios that could arise, and yes, there may be genuine questions about how to apply the law, but in many cases there is law to apply,\u201d she said. \u201cWe should focus our efforts on promoting regular order rather than undue alarm.\u201d\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "ba67ec9bd41110232ef053d1b676e5141d9911d9", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/747a91e12ec17d8fb1035a5cc4fa0835406d97fa\/0_80_5509_3305\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": " May Contain Lies by Alex Edmans review \u2013 fake news rules\u2026 and that\u2019s a fact", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/may-contain-lies-how-stories-statistics-and-studies-exploit-our-biases-alex-edmans-review", "words": "1073", "section": "Books", "date": "2024-05-05T16:00:13Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/747a91e12ec17d8fb1035a5cc4fa0835406d97fa\/0_80_5509_3305\/1000.jpg", "author": "Will Hutton", "description": "In our age of misinformation, this unsparing study of the many ways in which we can be deceived and how to counter the pernicious effects couldn\u2019t be more timely", "text": "\u201cWhat is truth, said jesting Pilate \u2013 and would not stay for an answer.\u201d Thus philosopher Francis Bacon dramatised the opening of his famous Of Truth essay. Every human being alive, he thought, was prey to the bewitching temptation to disregard truth even to the point of deceiving ourselves, and to believe what it pleased us to believe \u2013 certainly disregarding truths put to us by others. In Pilate\u2019s view, both Jesus Christ and the high priests urging his crucifixion were no more than partisans of their own particular truths \u2013 just like all of us. But, writing more than 400 years ago, Bacon thought that was not good enough. It was crucial, he said, to be honest and have shared truths, and for that he looked to the methodologies being pioneered by science. There were no partisan truths in nature \u2013 only immutable laws and facts awaiting discovery.\n\nToday the temptation to believe our own truth to the point of collectively deceiving ourselves, hugely intensified by social media and its accompanying polarisation, has become an everyday talking point \u2013 the enemy of democracy and, arguably, civilisation itself. Bacon may have had faith in scientific facts to be the foundations of truth, but alarming proportions of educated people in western democracies do not share his faith even in science, distrusting what it has to say about everything from climate change to vaccination. If a message, especially political or cultural, is uncongenial, retreat to your own truth. Americans approach the 2024 presidential election with mounting foreboding that it will be characterised by industrial-scale misinformation \u2013 and there are parallel fears in Britain. Winston Churchill once said a lie can be halfway around the world before the truth can get its pants on \u2013 and that was before social media. False stories on X are 70% more likely to be retweeted than true ones \u2013 and true stories take six times longer to reach a sample of 1,500 than false ones.\n\nThere are a host of proposals in response, usually involving some mix of tougher policing of content by regulators and social media platform providers, supplemented by the creation of a public service digital platform committed to the posting of factual information. But the appetite for change is as yet hardly a tidal wave \u2013 and there is much more we as individuals can do to identify lies and facts bent out of kilter to support the advocacy of whatever cause.\n\nEnter Alex Edmans. May Contain Lies is a wonderful litany of the myriad ways in which we can be deceived, and deceive ourselves, including sometimes well-known academic researchers as they try to stand up their theory. There are no sacred cows for Edmans. Whether it\u2019s the authors of 2009\u2019s famous The Spirit Level, which purported to show that inequality drives bad health outcomes, or the 1994 business book Built to Last, which influenced a generation with its apparent proof that visionary companies outlast their non-visionary peers, Edmans is unsparing. To test the famous result that it is inequality rather than poverty that causes bad health outcomes, you must statistically remove poverty from the data and run rigorous comparisons: when you do, says Edmans, you discover that the relationship is much weaker. Poverty remains a formidable cause of bad health. Equally the authors of Built to Last were pulling off the oldest trick in the book \u2013 selecting data that proved their point, in this case a collection of companies they knew were enduring, then retrofitting their character to prove their point. Small wonder so many of those visionary businesses have collapsed since the book\u2019s publication.\n\nEdmans is no less hard on himself. He tells the story of how he repeated for some years in his business school lectures the great Malcolm Gladwell statement that perfection requires 10,000 hours of practise. Then he inspected the data behind the statement and found that almost nothing did. (Here I should declare an interest: I know Edmans personally through our work on the Purposeful Company business thinktank and have experienced first-hand the full force of his demands for rigour. He practises what he preaches.)\n\nSo it goes on \u2013 the unconscious bias, the deceptive quest for statistics and facts that support your pre-rehearsed position, the exacting standards that must be met to prove a thesis and which so rarely are, and the dangers of \u201cgroupthink\u201d. Edmans tells an engaging story of how President Kennedy, after the fiasco of the attempted invasion of Cuba in the Bay of Pigs, was determined not to make the same mistake again. So when 18 months later the Soviet Union started sending nuclear missiles to Cuba, he established as wide a group of advisers as possible to examine all the possible options \u2013 and not just the military\u2019s favoured one of launching airstrikes. He went for a blockade, secured Khrushchev\u2019s agreement to withdraw on the promise that the US would not invade Cuba, and nuclear war was averted. The more diverse a group you have deliberating whatever decision, the more likely you are to come to the right answer. Thus we escaped a third world war.\n\nGiven that we are increasingly engulfed by a sea of misinformation and bad public policy informed by self-deception, Edmans\u2019s message could hardly be more timely. He urges us to follow Aristotle\u2019s maxim: it is the mark of an educated mind to entertain a thought without necessarily accepting it. His advice is to stay open to the notion that you may be wrong, because you find the truth by testing your ideas against those who think differently. Always beware anyone who says they have found the holy grail in any field; they usually haven\u2019t. Look out for the credentials of those spinning whatever line: have they an incentive not to be truth-tellers? Journalists, be vigilant about eye-catching research: it will have been released to achieve impact, so check that it is sound. And social media users, pause and reflect before you retweet. Are you sure this information is right? If we are all more wary, it may start to make a difference.\n\nThis Time No Mistakes: How to Remake Britain by Will Hutton is out now (Apollo, \u00a325)\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "d4d5a5c6a014ddbeb3d0feed18af7e79ad75174e", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/af068fde2d275f8f014cd9227b7e9041e4df848c\/0_286_5101_3061\/500.jpg", "title": "I agree that Britain is a work in progress. But let\u2019s be wary of distorting the past", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/i-agree-that-britain-is-a-work-in-progress-but-lets-be-wary-of-distorting-the-past", "words": "346", "section": "World news", "date": "2024-05-05T15:57:03Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/af068fde2d275f8f014cd9227b7e9041e4df848c\/0_286_5101_3061\/1000.jpg", "author": "The Guardian", "description": "Letter: Shyamol Banerji responds to an article by Mihir Bose on the country coming to terms with its colonial past", "text": "Mihir Bose\u2019s experiences in the UK resonate somewhat with my own (I came to Britain from India, fulfilled a dream, and I say this: we\u2019re a great country, but a work in progress, 30 April). In 1966, as a 14-year-old, I arrived at Tilbury Docks on a cold foggy morning aboard the SS Himalaya. My father, on temporary assignment in the UK, was able to get me admission to Westminster City grammar, a five-minute walk from Buckingham Palace. I was the only Indian; the racism I faced was not vicious but muted, often manifested through jokes and accent mimicry.\n\nThere is a certain advantage to being a minority of one versus a group. People are more accommodating. However, I still remember the first joke from school: \u201cDid you hear about the Indian who lived with a cow?\u201d\n\n\u201cReally, what about the smell?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo problem, the cow got used to it.\u201d Having never lived with a cow, I struggled to understand it at the time, but felt the peer pressure to join in the laughter anyway.\n\nNow, after spending most of my life abroad and residing between Bengaluru and London, I too perceive Britain as a work in progress, but experience it as well ahead of the other mature democracies in the west, at least in the context of diversity. Although I agree with Bose on the need to come to terms with the past, I dread to think how impractical it could turn out to be. We live in a world where not only do we have the online tools to confabulate the present, but also to instantly reframe our past.\n\nFor those determined to edit the past with skewed narratives just to endorse their own agendas, this has now become a dangerous weapon of mass distortion. Distortion of our past seemed much more manageable when it was confined to just history books.\nShyamol Banerji\nBengaluru, India\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "d493721ae2215b36fd7044988a849e7558700adf", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/49016fefeb3b14378b4143708c420b4bc29711a9\/0_0_4727_2836\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "France reclaims world record after baking baguette measuring 140.53m ", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/france-tries-to-claim-back-record-of-worlds-largest-baguette", "words": "439", "section": "World news", "date": "2024-05-05T12:46:06Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/49016fefeb3b14378b4143708c420b4bc29711a9\/0_0_4727_2836\/1000.jpg", "author": "Ashifa Kassam", "description": "Parisian bakers have claimed victory over rivals in Italy who created a baguette almost 133 metres long in 2019", "text": "For the past five years, bragging rights over the world\u2019s longest baguette have belonged not to the residents of a small village or a city in France, but rather to a clutch of bakers 500 miles away in Como, Italy.\n\nOn Sunday a crop of 12 bakers from France set out to rectify this, spending hours kneading, shaping and baking their way back to victory.\n\nSome 14 hours later, their efforts were declared a success. \u201cThe world record for the longest baguette has been broken,\u201d the municipality of Suresnes, in the western suburbs of Paris, wrote on its social media account. \u201cThe baguette made today in Suresnes measures 140.53m!!!!\u201d\n\nThe bakers had begun toiling at 3am in the hope of beating the standing record of 132.62 metres.\n\nAlthough about 320 baguettes are thought to be sold every second in France, the 2019 feat by Italy was not the first time the country had laid claim to the title of longest baguette; in 2015 a 122-metre baguette baked at the Milan Expo was certified as record-breaking.\n\n\u201cIn Italy?\u201d one local told newspaper Le Parisien this week as he emerged from a bakery, baguette firmly tucked under his arm. \u201cThat\u2019s crazy. If there\u2019s one record that should belong to us in France, it\u2019s that one.\u201d\n\nThe sentiment was echoed among the bakers who gathered at Suresnes\u2019 Terrasse du F\u00e9cheray observation deck, where their record-breaking attempt unfolded against a backdrop of sweeping views of Paris and the Eiffel Tower.\n\n\u201cI hope that we\u2019ll be able to recover the record for France,\u201d Sylvain Lecarpentier, one of those taking part, had written in a post on social media in the lead up to the event.\n\nIn a statement publicising the event, organisers laid out the gruelling challenge that the bakers were up against. \u201cThe dough will be kneaded, shaped on site, and then baked in front of the public in a rolling oven under a tent,\u201d it said. \u201cIt will be made according to the rules of the art, with wheat flour, water, yeast and salt as the only ingredients.\u201d\n\nThe baguette, which had to be at least 5cm thick along its entire length, was expected to take about eight hours to bake, the statement added.\n\nSome 13 hours after the bakers began, the municipality said the baguette was complete. \u201cNow the big question is: how big is our #baguette?,\u201d it asked on social media, adding in a photo of the baguette as it was being measured.\n\nThe baguette will now be cut up to be shared among the public, as well as distributed to people living on the streets of Suresnes.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "c3f107d83d30862e6871ae8ca3f78de71f76a4c6", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/464b79937e88534d2ac300413749f594abeae0e6\/0_293_6000_3600\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Gaza war surgeon feels \u2018criminalised\u2019 after being denied entry to France ", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/gaza-war-surgeon-ghassan-abu-sitta-feels-criminalised-denied-entry-france", "words": "653", "section": "World news", "date": "2024-05-05T15:55:23Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/464b79937e88534d2ac300413749f594abeae0e6\/0_293_6000_3600\/1000.jpg", "author": "Geneva Abdul", "description": "Prof Ghassan Abu-Sitta says Schengen-wide ban imposed by Germany appears to be attempt to silence witness testimony", "text": "A London surgeon who provided testimony on Israel\u2019s war in Gaza after operating during the conflict has said he feels criminalised after being denied entry to France over the weekend.\n\nProf Ghassan Abu-Sitta, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon was due to speak about the war to the French parliament\u2019s upper house on Saturday. However, after arriving at Charles de Gaulle airport north of Paris on a morning flight from London, he was informed by French authorities that Germany had enforced a Schengen-wide ban on his entry to Europe.\n\nAbu-Sitta said he had no knowledge that German authorities, who had previously refused his entry to Berlin in April, had put an administrative visa ban on him for a year, meaning he was banned from entering any Schengen country.\n\n\u201cWhat I find most difficult to accept is this complete criminalisation,\u201d Abu-Sitta said on Sunday, adding that he was previously told by authorities he would be unable to enter Germany for the month of April.\n\n\u201cI was put in a holding cell and marched in front of people at Charles de Gaulle with armed guards and then handed over to the staff in the plane, all so that I\u2019m unable to give evidence,\u201d he said.\n\nInstead of taking part in a conference at the French senate to speak about Gaza, on invitation from Green party parliamentarians, Abu-Sitta was stripped of his possessions and taken to a holding cell. Before being deported to the UK, he was able to attend the conference via video on his lawyer\u2019s phone from the detention centre.\n\n\u201cIt was critical for me that we do this, that they\u2019re unable to silence us,\u201d said Abu-Sitta, who has worked in Gaza since 2009, as well as in wars in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.\n\nDuring October and November 2023, at the beginning of Israel\u2019s war in Gaza, which has since killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, Abu-Sitta operated from al-Shifa and al-Ahli hospitals. During his 43 days, he described witnessing a \u201cmassacre unfold\u201d in Gaza and the use of white phosphorus munitions, which Israel has denied.\n\nAbu-Sitta has since provided evidence to Scotland Yard and the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague. He intends to challenge his entry ban in the German courts and is considering going to the European court of human rights.\n\nIn April, Abu-Sitta travelled to Berlin to participate in the Palestine Congress forum, where he was denied entry by authorities because they \u201ccould not ensure the safety of attendees in the conference\u201d, he said. The German federal police have been approached for comment.\n\nHis lawyer, Tayab Ali, said the German government issued the Schengen-wide ban without any consultation with Abu-Sitta, and without disclosing the information the ban is based on.\n\n\u201cIt is clear to us that there is an organised attempt to discredit medical witnesses and in particular Prof Ghassan from providing details about the consequences of Israel\u2019s military action in Gaza,\u201d said Ali, who is also the director of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP).\n\n\u201cThe ban appears to be a cynical attempt to silence eyewitnesses giving testimony to parliamentarians and law enforcement agencies.\u201d\n\nThe incident comes after diplomats from G7 nations urged officials at the ICC not to announce war crimes charges against Israel or Hamas officials, amid concerns that such a move could disrupt the chances of a breakthrough in ceasefire talks.\n\nGermany, widely seen as the second largest arms exporter to Israel behind the US, is facing a domestic lawsuit over weapons sales to Israel. Last week, the international court of justice (ICJ) rejected a request by Nicaragua to issue Germany emergency orders to desist selling arms to Israel, but declined to throw out the case altogether.\n\n\u201cThe only reason the Germans would want a European-wide ban is to stop me from getting to The Hague,\u201d said Abu-Sitta.\n\n\u201cIt communicates to me the complete complicity of the German government in the genocidal war.\u201d\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "569552ad7ee296c5628c303cc51aabee5af8247a", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/870a6def457e5a0cb966d9a2a540b50381771943\/0_422_2880_1728\/500.jpg", "title": "Penny Mordaunt\u2019s fairytale jibe: the tooth hurts", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/penny-mordaunts-fairytale-jibe-the-tooth-hurts", "words": "304", "section": "Society", "date": "2024-05-05T15:52:39Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/870a6def457e5a0cb966d9a2a540b50381771943\/0_422_2880_1728\/1000.jpg", "author": "The Guardian", "description": "Brief letters: Dental decay | Wedding dresses | Cleaning the Garrick Club | Duane Eddy | Blocked loo logbooks", "text": "Penny Mordaunt chose an unfortunate metaphor in referring to the Big Bad Wolf\u2019s dentures in her attack on Labour\u2019s supposed duplicity on the NHS (Politics live, 2 May). If the wolf had been reliant on NHS dentistry under this government, Little Red Riding Hood would have had little to fear.\nJohn Kelly\nLittle Raveley, Cambridgeshire\n\nAnne Buchanan\nHamilton, South Lanarkshire\n\nAngela Cooper\nSheffield\n\nDavid Gerrard\nEdinburgh\n\nDr Allan Dodds\nBramcote, Nottinghamshire\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." }, { "id": "5a2d1f4494167c016cff9fb8b8eeae06a5a5fa74", "thumbnail": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/4d2eb2554ad95776bb1e5ddf7c3071704959faf2\/0_138_628_377\/500.jpg", "showTableOfContents": "false", "title": "Carolann Jackson obituary", "url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/article\/2024\/may\/05\/carolann-jackson-obituary", "words": "482", "section": "Society", "date": "2024-05-05T15:47:11Z", "image": "https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/4d2eb2554ad95776bb1e5ddf7c3071704959faf2\/0_138_628_377\/1000.jpg", "author": "David Norman", "description": "Other lives: Campaigner who founded a charity in Essex to support people with Asperger syndrome", "text": "My friend Carolann Jackson, who has died aged 80, was a campaigner and advocate on behalf of people with Asperger syndrome.\n\nFor the first part of her adult life she worked in the music business, managing bands. But her focus changed after the birth of her daughter, Nita. Early on, Carolann noticed that her daughter appeared to behave differently to other children of her age.\n\nIt took years of Carolann\u2019s persistence to identify the cause. She was frequently rebuffed by members of the medical profession; one consultant accused her of having Munchausen\u2019s syndrome by proxy (now known as fabricated or induced illness). It was not until Nita was 14 that she had a correct diagnosis, from the Maudsley hospital in south London, of Asperger syndrome, now included under the broader term autism spectrum disorder.\n\nOn finding that Essex, where she lived, offered none of the Maudsley\u2019s recommendations for support for people with Asperger\u2019s, Carolann set up Safe - Supporting Asperger Families in Essex in 1997. Safe became a registered charity in 2002 and Carolann its first chair. She was later made president.\n\nActively involved with Safe for more than 20 years, Carolann volunteered her time and energy to raise awareness, share information, support families and individuals, and lobby local, county and national government to push for better services for people with Asperger\u2019s. Many parents attest that without the support provided through Safe over the years, their child would have been in danger of taking their own lives.\n\nCarolann\u2019s efforts were recognised in 2006 with one of the first Scarman Trust awards, for her contribution to building bridges within and across communities. She later won the Pride of Essex \u201cunsung hero\u201d award in 2017.\n\nThe eldest in a family of four children, whose father was in the army, she was born Carolann Nicholls in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, growing up there and attending the local primary school, where she and I met aged eight \u2013 it was a friendship that was to span more than 70 years (we later worked together at Safe, where I became chair in 2019). She was head girl in her final year at primary school and moved on to the local grammar, Westcliff high school for girls, where she was unhappy to be relegated to the secretarial stream.\n\nAn outstanding singer in her mid-teens, she was popular in the many jazz clubs in Southend. At the age of 19, she responded to an advert in the Melody Maker and joined the staff of the pop music television show Ready Steady Go!, at the height of the swinging 60s. Many expected her to become a TV presenter, but she stayed in production and, later on, successfully managed several bands. She married Andrew Jackson in 1980.\n\nShe remained actively involved in Safe\u2019s activities until becoming ill a few years ago. Andrew died in 2022. She is survived by Nita, and a brother, Roger.\n\nThis text was served up from the Guardian API via Hacking with Swift, and all copyright belongs to Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliate companies. Please don't rely on it for production apps, commercial purposes, or indeed anything important, because the feed might go away at any point in the future without warning and your code will just break." } ]