Beauty & Personal care

Jeff Bezos wants to put a trillion humans in space – and promises ‘1,000 Mozarts and Einsteins’

Amazon chief Jeff Bezos dreams of creating a new space race of humans across our solar system – with a population of one trillion.

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History of the universe could be rewritten by ancient ‘dark energy event’

A mysterious "dark energy event" billions of years ago may have sped up the universe – and could rewrite history as we know it.

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Florida Bar opens investigation into Rep. Gaetz's tweet about Michael Cohen - Fox News

Florida Bar opens investigation into Rep. Gaetz's tweet about Michael Cohen Fox News
Florida Bar investigating Rep. Matt Gaetz for Cohen tweet CNN
Matt Gaetz Under Investigation by Florida State Bar Over Michael Cohen Threat The Daily Beast
How the Ideas Industry midwifed Matt Gaetz Washington Post
Cooper to Trump: Who are you calling a liar? CNN
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Update: Russian River crests tonight at 14 feet above flood stage - The Mercury News

Update: Russian River crests tonight at 14 feet above flood stage The Mercury News

The "atmospheric river" storm that stalled over the North Bay over the past two days has dropped a staggering amount of rain over Venado in Somona County: ...

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Dozens hospitalized following chemical spill at Alabama water utility company - NBC News

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Trump, Lighthizer dispute may result in 'inadequate' and 'weak' US-China trade deal, expert says - CNBC

Trump, Lighthizer dispute may result in 'inadequate' and 'weak' US-China trade deal, expert says CNBC
U.S. Drops Threat of 25% Tariffs on Chinese Goods in Sign That Accord Is Near The Wall Street Journal
Asian stocks shaky as Sino-U.S. trade optimism retreats Reuters
Trump is headed for a bad trade deal that China won’t honor The Washington Post
We have reached the end game in the trade war | TheHill The Hill
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House votes to approve first major gun control bill in 25 years - CBS News

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WATCH: Border Wall Prototypes Destroyed, Making Way For New Fencing - NPR

WATCH: Border Wall Prototypes Destroyed, Making Way For New Fencing NPR
Trump border wall prototypes in California demolished | TheHill The Hill
Crews started tearing down the border wall prototypes today. It cost more than $3 million to build them CNN
Tear-down of border wall prototypes underway Los Angeles Times
Workers begin to remove Trump's border wall prototypes Daily Mail
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Map of Chicago mayor election results by precinct - Chicago Tribune

Map of Chicago mayor election results by precinct Chicago Tribune
Chicago votes: Who are the two women looking to make history as first black female mayor? USA TODAY
Chicago’s Political Order Was Upended This Week. Here’s How. The New York Times
The winners, the losers and what's next: Chicago's mayoral and aldermanic election by the numbers Chicago Tribune
In Chicago, History-Making Didn’t Have to Be So Hard The New York Times
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Democratic freshman lawmaker Tlaib raises specter of racism during Cohen testimony - Fox News

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Republican Lawmaker Freaks Out When Democrat Says Using a Black Person as a Prop is a “Racist Act” - Slate

Republican Lawmaker Freaks Out When Democrat Says Using a Black Person as a Prop is a “Racist Act” Slate

In between all the grandstanding and non-answers, there was an emotional moment near the end of Michael Cohen's congressional hearing when a Democratic ...

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Virginia first lady handed out cotton to African-American children on slave cottage tour, mother says - CNN

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Dem goes viral for 'eye roll' at Republican during Cohen testimony | TheHill - The Hill

Dem goes viral for 'eye roll' at Republican during Cohen testimony | TheHill The Hill
Cohen calls out GOP congressman: 'Shame on you' CNN
Michael Cohen testimony: Who is Lanny Davis? Miami Herald
Cohen to Jim Jordan: 'Shame on you' | TheHill The Hill
Democratic Lawmaker Goes Viral for Epic Eye Roll During Cohen Hearing Slate
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131 Vehicles Involved in Massive Pileup - Inside Edition

131 Vehicles Involved in Massive Pileup Inside Edition

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GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz says he has 'personally apologized' to Michael Cohen for tweet about affairs - NBC News

GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz says he has 'personally apologized' to Michael Cohen for tweet about affairs NBC News

U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz said he 'personally apologized' to Michael Cohen after tweeting Tuesday that his wife was about to learn of the lawyer's alleged trysts.

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Robert Kraft Arrest: Armed Men Moved Sex-Trafficking Victims Between Spas - The Daily Beast

Robert Kraft Arrest: Armed Men Moved Sex-Trafficking Victims Between Spas The Daily Beast
Fighting and prosecuting sex trafficking amid Robert Kraft charges CBS News
Robert Kraft case puts spotlight on illegal massage parlors NBCNews.com
Robert Kraft investigation: What's next for the Patriots owner USA TODAY
In Robert Kraft case, Roger Goodell can’t win The Washington Post
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911 calls, video show chaos of massive 131-vehicle pileup - Channel3000.com - WISC-TV3

911 calls, video show chaos of massive 131-vehicle pileup Channel3000.com - WISC-TV3
The terror of a 131-car pileup revealed in stranded motorists' 911 calls CNN
‘Everybody’s crashing into us!’ Sheriff releases 911 calls, videos, scene photos from pileup near Neenah WITI FOX 6 Milwaukee
Winnebago County starts to return vehicles from I-41 pileup WBAY
Hear the panic during Wisconsin's worst highway pileup in these 911 calls Madison.com
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Political Scandal Worsens for Canada’s Justin Trudeau - The Wall Street Journal

Political Scandal Worsens for Canada’s Justin Trudeau The Wall Street Journal
Jody Wilson-Raybould: Ex-minister increases pressure on Trudeau BBC News
Justin Trudeau on BRINK: Rival vows to ‘RAMP UP PRESSURE’ to OUST Canada PM Express.co.uk
Trudeau’s Ex-Attorney General: ‘Veiled Threats’ Were Made to Drop Case The New York Times
Canada ex-attorney: Government tried to interfere in case ABC News
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North Carolina Political Operative Charged In Election Fraud Scheme - NPR

North Carolina Political Operative Charged In Election Fraud Scheme NPR
North Carolina Operative Indicted in Connection With Absentee Voter Fraud The New York Times
Central figure in North Carolina absentee ballot fraud indicted on multiple counts NBC News
N.C. political operative indicted, and prosecutor signals that more charges are likely The Washington Post
Political operative, four others arrested in North Carolina ballot fraud scandal USA TODAY
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2 arrested for brawl at buffet over crab legs - New York Post

2 arrested for brawl at buffet over crab legs New York Post

A fight for crab legs at an Alabama buffet turned into a wild brawl where hungry diners jousted with tongs and smashed plates -- and ended with two of the ...

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Labour's Brexit amendment has been defeated by an 83 majority - Daily Mail

Labour's Brexit amendment has been defeated by an 83 majority Daily Mail
Brexit: Numbers lesson for May and Corbyn BBC News
Labour Party backs Brexit referendum Reuters
Labour will win more votes than it loses by backing another referendum The Guardian
Prime Minister's Questions: The key bits and the verdict BBC News
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Man who went viral for buying $540 of Girl Scout cookies arrested in DEA drug bust - CNN

Man who went viral for buying $540 of Girl Scout cookies arrested in DEA drug bust CNN

A man who was praised for buying $540 in cookies so two Girl Scouts could escape the cold has been arrested on federal drug charges.

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A cramped Pennsylvania apartment hid broken glass, overturned furniture and five dead family members - CNN

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Beto O’Rourke Says He Has ‘Made a Decision’ on a Presidential Run - The New York Times

Beto O’Rourke Says He Has ‘Made a Decision’ on a Presidential Run The New York Times

Beto O'Rourke, who has turned his consideration of a presidential campaign into an online version of reality television, inviting Americans to follow along ...

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Trump says Kim wanted all sanctions lifted at Vietnam summit – live

Thursday briefing: Trump-Kim nuclear summit cut short

Signing ceremony between US and North Korea looking unlikely ... Michael Cohen delivers bombshell testimony … and, semi-identical twins

This is Alison Rourke bringing you this morning’s briefing.

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Michael Cohen accuses 'racist, conman' Trump of criminal conspiracy

In dramatic testimony, Cohen claims Trump committed crimes to cover up affair and had prior knowledge of Wikileaks release

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Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen accused the president in explosive public testimony before Congress of knowing in advance about key events under investigation in the Russia inquiry and of committing criminal conspiracy in the coverup of an extramarital affair.

In a day of high drama before the House oversight committee, Cohen delivered a string of bombshells that could spawn fresh investigations by Congress and the FBI. Testifying on Wednesday, he labelled the US president a “racist” and “conman”, produced signed checks that he said were proof of a fraudulently disguised conspiracy to silence a former adult film actor, and gave what he claimed were eyewitness accounts that implied Trump had prior knowledge of crucial Russia links.

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Brexit: May to offer workers' rights pledges to gain Labour support

Prime minister expected to offer greater guarantees, including over future EU rules

Theresa May is to formally announce a series of new pledges on workers’ rights and the easing of trade union restrictions, in the latest attempt to get Labour MPs to support her Brexit deal.

Labour sources said they were expecting the prime minister to table a ministerial statement next week setting out greater guarantees for workers post-Brexit, including a “non-regression lock” and giving MPs a vote on whether to adopt future EU rules on workers’ rights.

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Viral 'Momo challenge' is a malicious hoax, say charities

Groups say no evidence yet of self-harm from craze, but resulting hysteria poses a risk

It is the most talked about viral scare story of the year so far, blamed for child suicides and violent attacks – but experts and charities have warned that the “Momo challenge” is nothing but a “moral panic” spread by adults.

Warnings about the supposed Momo challenge suggest that children are being encouraged to kill themselves or commit violent acts after receiving messages on messaging service WhatsApp from users with a profile picture of a distorted image of woman with bulging eyes.

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Facebook withholding data on its anti-disinformation efforts, EU says

Commissioners demand hard numbers from firm ahead of European parliament elections

Facebook has repeatedly withheld key data on its alleged efforts to clamp down on disinformation ahead of the European elections, the EU’s executive has said.

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Diabetics with rare eating disorder to get specialist NHS help

Diabulimia, which can be fatal, occurs if type 1 diabetics stop taking insulin to lose weight

Diabetics who also have a rare and potentially fatal eating disorder are to start receiving specialist NHS help to reduce their risk of suffering its “devastating” consequences.

About 55,000 people in England with type 1 diabetes also have diabulimia, which occurs when a person with the condition stops taking insulin regularly because they want to lose weight.

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George Pell has good chance of winning appeal against convictions, expert says

Law professor says overturning the verdict on the basis of unreasonableness is ‘the defence’s best shot’

Cardinal George Pell’s appeal against his convictions of sexually assaulting and penetrating choirboys is likely to be granted and has a good chance of succeeding on the basis of unreasonableness, according to legal experts and defence lawyers.

Pell’s defence barrister, Robert Richter, told the sentencing hearing on Wednesday that his client’s appeal would be based on three key grounds: unreasonableness, the prohibition of video evidence in the closing address, and composition of the jury.

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India calls for immediate return of pilot shot down by Pakistan over Kashmir

Delhi angered by ‘vulgar display’ of wing commander in bloodied uniform by Islamabad

India has called for the safe and immediate return of a fighter pilot seized by Pakistan after being shot down during tit-for-tat incursions over Kashmir that have edged the pair closer to war than at any point in the past 20 years.

Its pilot, a wing commander identified as Abhi Nandan, appeared in a bloodied uniform as he gave his name and rank in a video released by the Pakistani armed forces. Asked by his interrogator to say more, he replied: “I am sorry, sir, that’s all I’m supposed to tell you.”

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UK car production falls for eighth month in row as China exports dive

Automotive industry is also being hit by EU diesel vehicle rules and Brexit uncertainty

British car production declined for the eighth month in a row in January as output bound for China plunged by more than 70%.

The car industry is struggling with multiple headwinds, including falling demand in China, a regulatory backlash against diesel vehicles in Europe and continued uncertainty over Brexit, which has put the brakes on investment in the UK.

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Giant 'Glory Hole' sucks in rainwater as storms swell California lake

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How violent American vigilantes at the border led to Trump’s wall

From the 80s onwards, the borderlands were rife with paramilitary cruelty and racism. But the president’s rhetoric has thrown fuel on the fire. By Greg Grandin

No myth in American history has been more powerful, more invoked by more presidents, than that of pioneers advancing across the frontier – a word that in the United States came to mean less a place than a state of mind, an imagined gateway into the future. No writer is more associated with the idea of the frontier than Frederick Jackson Turner, who, in the late 1800s, argued that the expansion of settlement across a frontier of “free land” created a uniquely American form of political equality, a vibrant, forward-looking individualism. Onward, and then onward again. There were lulls, doubts, dissents and counter-movements. But the expansionist imperative has remained constant, in one version or another, for centuries. As Woodrow Wilson, who before he was president was a colleague of Turner, said: “A frontier people always in our van, is, so far, the central and determining fact of our national history. There was no thought,” Wilson said, “of drawing back.”

So far. The poetry stopped on 16 June 2015, when Donald Trump announced his presidential campaign by standing Turner on his head. “I will build a great wall,” Trump said.

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The home jungle: how to live happily with the 5,000 other species in your house

Biologist Rob Dunn is the David Attenborough of the domestic sphere, uncovering everything from microbes in the shower to spiders in the basement. He goes on safari in the satisfyingly dusty corners of one Copenhagen home

The good news is that I will never be home alone again. The bad news – well, it’s not in fact bad news, but it is slightly unsettling – is that I share my home with at least 5,000 other species: wasps, flies, spiders, silverfish and an exotic bunch of wild bacteria.

All that information is apparently contained in a patch of grey dust I have just swabbed with my right index finger from a door frame in my living room. It’s like a DNA test of my house, says Rob Dunn, a 43-year-old American biologist who has come to my house in Copenhagen to hunt microbial life. He carries no lab gear and his blue crewneck jumper and striped Oxford shirt are hardly the combat suit of an exterminator. But with every discovery we make, with every spider we find lurking in the corner or each swab of dust, he displays an almost childlike sense of excitement. He swears and smiles, even whoops with delight: “This dust sample contains bacteria, your body microbes, your wife’s body microbes, your child’s body microbes. If you smoke weed we would find marijuana DNA in there. Everything is visible, but it’s also present in every breath. Every time you inhale, you inhale that story of your home.”

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Tasmania's devil of a climb: a photo essay

On a climbing trip in Australia – to the rock formations below Mount Wellington near Hobart – Murdo MacLeod gets more drama than he bargained for

Climbing guide John Fischer

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Better Things gets better: Pamela Adlon triumphs without Louis CK

In its third season, the smart, un-flashy series about a single mother juggling her life as an actor with her role at home, feels fresher and more daring than ever

Since it first began in 2016, Better Things has been slowly becoming one of the finest comedies on television, but it has always been resolutely un-flashy in its brilliance. Partly that’s because its subject matter is contained and domestic, and because, in a typical episode, not very much appears to happen at all. Pamela Adlon, who writes, directs and stars, has fashioned a gorgeous and loosely autobiographical story about a raspy-voiced single mother, Sam, who is a jobbing actor, and her three daughters, living in Los Angeles. It touches on elements that are at once familiar - ageing, mortality, how women and men relate to one another - and gives them all new powers.

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Anti-vaxx 'mobs': doctors face harassment campaigns on Facebook

Medical experts who counter misinformation are weathering coordinated attacks. Now some are fighting back

When the naturopath Elias Kass testified before a Washington state senate committee on 20 February with a baby on his chest and a pacifier in his hand, he knew that his arguments would be unpopular with the anti-vaccine activists in the room. Amid a measles outbreak that has infected 66 people so far, legislators were considering a bill to eliminate personal and philosophical exemptions for childhood vaccinations, and Kass was one of several practitioners to speak in support of the measure.

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The grey wall of China: inside the world's concrete superpower

Beijing’s new airport is just the latest megaproject that has seen China pour more concrete every two years than the US did in the entire 20th century

Find the rest of our Guardian concrete week pieces here

In the suburbs south of Beijing, what could one day be the world’s busiest airport is rapidly taking shape. Nicknamed “the starfish” due to the striking design by Zaha Hadid Architects, the Beijing Daxing international airport is set to open in October, and could eventually handle more than 100 million passengers a year.

While the 52,000-tonne steel exoskeleton covering the airport’s six concourses immediately catches the eye, what lies beneath is familiar to many Chinese mega-projects: concrete – 1.6 m cubic metres of it.

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Squinky pigsquiffle! How Roald Dahl teaches children creative swearing

A new book by lexicographer Susan Rennie collects the author’s nonsensical insults and expletives, celebrating ‘words that push the boundaries a little bit’

If a small child were to walk up to the lexicographer Susan Rennie in the street and call her a slopgroggled grobsquiffler, she would know exactly how to reply. “You squinky squiddler!” she would shout. “You piffling little swishfiggler! You troggy little twit! Don’t you dare talk pigsquiffle to me, you prunty old pogswizzler!”

Either that, or she would thank the child profusely for taking the time to read her latest book, Roald Dahl’s Rotsome and Repulsant Words. Ostensibly a children’s dictionary of Dahl’s insults and expletives, the book also offers a chance to explore and analyse Dahl’s creative use of language, encouraging Dahl lovers of any age to have fun playing with his naughty-sounding words.

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Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez – a world designed for men

From the ‘one-size-fits-men’ approach to smartphone design to the medical trials that are putting women’s lives at risk … this book uses data like a laser

The problem with feminism is that it’s just too familiar. The attention of a jaded public and neophiliac media may have been aroused by #MeToo, with its connotations of youth, sex and celebrity, but for the most part it has drifted recently towards other forms of prejudice, such as transphobia. Unfortunately for women, though, the hoary old problems of discrimination, violence and unpaid labour are still very much with us. We mistake our fatigue about feminism for the exhaustion of patriarchy. A recent large survey revealed that more than two thirds of men in Britain believe that women now enjoy equal opportunities. When the writer and activist Caroline Criado Perez campaigned to have a female historical figure on the back of sterling banknotes, one man responded: “But women are everywhere now!”

It’s a smart strategy, therefore, to invite readers to view this timeworn topic through the revealing lens of data, bringing to light the hidden places where inequality still resides. Criado Perez has assembled a cornucopia of statistics – from how blind auditions have increased the proportion of female players hired by orchestras to nearly 50%, to the good reasons why women take up to 2.3 times as long as men to use the toilet. This is a man’s world, we learn, because those who built it didn’t take gender differences into account. Most offices, we learn, are five degrees too cold for women, because the formula to determine their temperature was developed in the 1960s based on the metabolic resting rate of a 40-year-old, 70kg man; women’s metabolisms are slower. Women in Britain are 50% more likely to be misdiagnosed following a heart attack: heart failure trials generally use male participants. Cars are designed around the body of “Reference Man”, so although men are more likely to crash, women involved in collisions are nearly 50% more likely to be seriously hurt.

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The fall of Cardinal George Pell

One of Pope Francis’s trusted advisers is now the most senior member of the Catholic church to be convicted of child abuse. The Guardian’s Melissa Davey was in court every day and describes the trial that brought about Pell’s downfall. Plus: Alex Hern on Facebook’s decision to permanently ban the far-right activist Tommy Robinson

Warning: this episode contains descriptions of rape and abuse

Cardinal George Pell was remanded in custody this week awaiting sentencing in Melbourne having become the most senior member of the catholic church to ever be convicted of child abuse. The chief judge in the case described Pell’s behaviour as “callous, brazen offending” and “shocking conduct”.

The Guardian’s Melissa Davey was in court for every day of the dramatic trial and describes how the evidence mounted up against Cardinal Pell, once a trusted adviser to Pope Francis.

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Uncertainty over Brexit is ruining our personal lives | Zoe Williams

Britons are so drenched in unknowables that we can’t make any decisions at all, from hobbies and holidays to housing

In 25 years of covering British politics – overstating outrages, decrying terrible ideas that have already happened, wishing someone else were in charge (someone more like me) – I have never been here before. I don’t mean: “I’ve never looked at the ranks of government with such distaste and despair,” because there was no way of knowing, 10 years ago, that things would get this much worse. No, I mean, I’ve never felt the public realm bleed so relentlessly into my personal life that I’m drenched in unknowables and can’t make any decisions at all.

All questions end: “Wait and see what happens in March, I guess.” “Do we move house?” is merely the headline uncertainty that probably only affects a few. Where do you go on holiday when you don’t know what’s going to happen to the pound? This stuff matters. I have a friend who went to France last year and spent £25 on a chicken in a market. She said: “You know if you got mugged by your own parent? That’s what it tasted like.”

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Queer as Folk was a joyful revelation for LGBT viewers like me | Owen Jones

The defiant Channel 4 drama that aired 20 years ago was a lifeline for anxious teenagers surrounded by negative stereotypes.

It was like coming up for air. When Queer As Folk was first televised, 20 years ago, I was a closeted 14-year-old who was, frankly, desperate not to be gay. Life is hassle enough, I thought. Any thoughts of same-sex attraction were met with an oh-God-please-not-this panic. A vision of a supposedly normal future life – wife, kids – was being snatched away, with no clear desirable alternative. Being gay seemed to me to be a mishmash of the threat of Aids, not being “a man”, dying alone, and a lifetime of misery and rejection.

I grew up in the centre of Stockport, and Queer As Folk was set just seven miles away, on Canal Street (“Anal Street”, my peers would snigger), the heart of Manchester’s LGBT community. It may as well have been a different universe: I lived in a suffocatingly laddish, heterosexual world (the Facebook wall of one of my then best friends is today rife with Tommy Robinson videos) full of jibes about being gay – taunts I would indulge, in order to fit in. It wasn’t for another six years, after a silent unrequited love for an evangelical Christian and several relationships with girls, that I came out.

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Steve Bell’s If ... on what unites the Independent Group

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Loyalty to Trump cost Michael Cohen everything. Republicans pay heed | Richard Wolffe

Trump’s Republicans need to ask themselves: how long are they planning to protect the unprotectable?

Donald Trump has done some strange things to the Republican party. Gone is their disgust at Stalinist tyrants from North Korea. Vanished is their outrage at deficit spending. Evaporated is their horror at a president who ignores Congress and the constitution.

But those bizarre twists are nothing compared to the screwball comedy that was the House oversight committee on Tuesday, as its Republicans grilled Trump’s former fixer, henchman and bagman, Michael Cohen.

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Why it’s OK for young Muslims to be radical | Ali Ahmad

Radical thought can be positive and progressive, it doesn’t have to mean joining a death cult

The legal and moral conundrums posed by the return (or not) of British jihadis following the collapse of the Islamic State “caliphate” has triggered renewed anxiety about the place of Muslim youth in western society. The home secretary, Sajid Javid’s populist bid to strip Shamima Begum of citizenship has heightened the pitch of an emotive debate. But little has changed in Britain’s approach to counter-terrorism, soon to undergo independent review following years of heavy criticism.

The Prevent strategy places entire communities under suspicion without necessarily being effective. European equivalents have fared similarly. A €2.5m French deradicalisation boot camp in the Loire valley asked participants to sing the national anthem, eat non-halal food and learn “Republican values” without rehabilitating a single individual.

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Remainers could win a second vote – but they have to learn one big lesson | Chi Onwurah

Leave voters aren’t stupid and their issues must be taken on board in a positive campaign

The most virulent abuse I have received in the last few months has come from remainers, even though I campaigned strongly for remain. I was also one of the first MPs to acknowledge the arguments for another referendum, have – unlike Chuka Umunna - been consistent in defending freedom of movement, was one of the first to consider the extension of article 50 and have regularly highlighted what is lost by leaving. But I have also said, repeatedly, that those who voted for Brexit won the right to be heard, that the referendum result was a result and that the motion passed at the Labour party conference in September was the best plan to keep the party and the country together. That put me beyond the pale for some.

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Dropping Arrizabalaga was payback for petulance, says Chelsea’s Sarri

• Willy Caballero chosen in goal for win over Spurs
• Sarri: ‘Kepa made a big mistake and paid’

Maurizio Sarri justified his decision to drop Kepa Arrizabalaga as payback for the goalkeeper’s petulance during the Carabao Cup final, with the world’s most expensive goalkeeper far from guaranteed a return for Sunday’s game at Fulham.

Arrizabalaga, who had apologised and been fined a week’s wages, sat out Chelsea’s excellent victory over Tottenham after refusing to be substituted at Wembley. He remains Sarri’s first choice but, with Tottenham unable to muster a shot on target to unsettle his replacement, Willy Caballero, Arrizabalaga may have to wait for a return to the first team.

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Trump says Kim wanted all sanctions lifted at Vietnam summit – live

How violent American vigilantes at the border led to Trump’s wall

From the 80s onwards, the borderlands were rife with paramilitary cruelty and racism. But the president’s rhetoric has thrown fuel on the fire. By Greg Grandin

So far. The poetry stopped on 16 June 2015, when Donald Trump announced his presidential campaign by standing Turner on his head. “I will build a great wall,” Trump said.

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US in virtual tie with Russia on global confidence, poll finds

Gallup poll measuring opinion in 133 countries and areas in 2018 found 31% approved of US leadership and 30% for Russia

Global confidence in US leadership is so low that the country is now in a virtual tie with Russia for worldwide approval.

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Trans troops say transitions made them stronger in first congressional testimony

Pentagon officials defend Trump administration push to ban transgender troops as Democrats condemn ‘self-defeating’ effort

Transgender troops testifying for the first time to Congress on Wednesday said transitioning to another sex made them stronger, while Pentagon officials defended the Trump administration’s desire to bar people like them from enlisting in the future.

Army Capt Alivia Stehlik, an infantry officer and graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, and Ranger School, told lawmakers she became a more “effective soldier” after she transitioned from male to female in 2017.

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'Officially an island’: rains leave California towns accessible only by boat

City of Guerneville flooded as river forecast to hit highest level in 25 years, officials say

Two communities in Northern California’s wine country were accessible only by boat after a relentless downpour caused a river to overflow.

The small city of Guerneville north of San Francisco “is officially an island”, with the overflowing Russian river forecast to hit its highest level in about 25 years, the Sonoma county sheriff’s office said in a statement.

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Michael Cohen: key takeaways from the former Trump lawyer's testimony

He implied the president knew more about Russian links during the 2016 presidential race than he has admitted

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Michael Cohen told the committee he had been with Donald Trump when key events in the investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election were discussed. His testimony implied that the US president was far more deeply informed about Russian links during the 2016 presidential race than he has so far admitted.

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Michael Cohen: if Trump loses in 2020 'there will never be a peaceful transition of power' – as it happened

Michael Cohen accuses 'racist, conman' Trump of criminal conspiracy

In dramatic testimony, Cohen claims Trump committed crimes to cover up affair and had prior knowledge of Wikileaks release

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Michael Cohen: Trump knew about Don Jr's meeting with Russians – video

Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen reveals he believes the president authorised the notorious meeting between members of his campaign team and Russian agents at Trump Tower to acquire 'dirt' on presidential opponent Hillary Clinton

Michael Cohen's explosive allegations suggest danger for Trump on two fronts

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Federal judge temporarily blocks Texas from purging voter rolls

Ruling comes after secretary of state’s office flagged almost 100,000 voters who it claimed required a citizenship review

A federal judge has blocked election officials in Texas from checking the citizenship of registered voters and potentially purging them from electoral rolls in a temporary order that marks a significant victory for civil rights activists.

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Loyalty to Trump cost Michael Cohen everything. Republicans pay heed | Richard Wolffe

Trump’s Republicans need to ask themselves: how long are they planning to protect the unprotectable?

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Jobs guarantees are more popular than Ivanka Trump thinks | Bhaskar Sunkara

The Trump administration doesn’t understand the needs of ordinary people. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez does

It’s no surprise that Ivanka Trump, who grew up in lavish wealth, is out of touch with ordinary Americans. We were reminded of this fact when she was asked by Fox News host Steve Hilton about leftwing Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal and its proposed jobs guarantee. Her reply was baffling: “I don’t think most Americans in their heart want to be given something,” she said, adding: “I’ve spent a lot of time traveling around this country over the last four years, people want to work for what they get, so I think this idea of a guaranteed minimum is not something most people want. They want the ability to be able to secure a job.”

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Anand Giridharadas: 'What wealthy people do is rig the discourse'

The author of Winners Take All assesses the relationship between philanthropy and antiracism in an era of growing wealth among elite changemakers

On the same day that Anand Giridharadas announced that he would be joining Time as an editor at large, I had the opportunity to talk with him about antiracism and America. A political analyst for MSNBC and author of the 2018 bestselling book Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, Giridharadas assesses the relationship between philanthropy and antiracism in an era of growing wealth among elite changemakers. Our wide-ranging conversation meandered from Malcolm X and Cedric Robinson’s idea of racial capitalism to “ruling-class dance moves”.

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Was the media biased against the Covington students? | Michael Massing

Conservatives accuse media organizations of trafficking in stereotypes that Trump supporters are bigots. Is there any merit to that claim?

Two recent incidents have strengthened conservatives’ belief that liberal journalists are implacably opposed to Donald Trump and his supporters: the 18 January encounter between a group of Kentucky students and a Native American activist on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and the claims by Jussie Smollett that he had been attacked by hoodlums shouting racist and anti-gay slurs. In both cases, conservatives say, journalists – based on flimsy evidence – trafficked in stereotypes that Trump supporters are vulgar bigots.

Is there any merit to these claims? Of the two cases, Smollett’s seems less revealing. If it is true (as the Chicago police now say) that he orchestrated the attack on himself, it can only be considered the twisted product of a warped mind. The initial reports about the incident were so troubling that even President Trump condemned it as “horrible”. Journalists – relying on police sources and quickly correcting the story as it unfolded – performed more or less responsibly.

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The left needs to get radical on big tech – moderate solutions won't cut it | Evgeny Morozov

Radical democratic transformation seeks to empower those that have been excluded from the leading roles in the digital economy

To note that the “techlash” – our rude and abrupt awakening to the mammoth powers of technology companies – is gaining force by the month is to state the obvious. Amazon’s sudden departure from New York City, where it was planning to open a second headquarters, attests to the rapidly changing political climate. The New Yorkers, apparently, have no desire to spend nearly $3bn in subsidies in order to lure Amazon – a company that, on making $11.2bn in profits in 2018, has paid no tax and even managed to book $129m in tax rebates.

Ignored in most accounts of the growing anti-Silicon Valley sentiment is the incongruence of the political and ideological forces behind the techlash. To paraphrase a Russian classic: while all the happy apologists of big tech are alike, all its critics are unhappy in their own way. These critics, united by their hatred of the digital giants, do make short-term tactical alliances; such arrangements, however, cannot hold in the long term.

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It’s not enough to defend democracy – now is the time to advance it | Nathan Schneider

If democracy is to recapture the world’s imagination, it will have to show it can deliver a better way of life than the autocrats

Every time the president of the United States declares the free press an enemy or calls to congratulate a newly elected strongman, it comes as a reminder of what we already knew: democracy is in retreat, in the US and around the world. An apologist for military dictatorship now leads Brazil. China’s premier no longer has to worry about term limits. Hungary, Turkey and the Philippines have opted for authoritarians. Surveys suggest that people around the world, including the young, have declining faith in democracy as a sensible way to govern.

Democracy’s champions, meanwhile, are rushing to the barricades in defense. The new leadership of the House of Representatives has made this session’s HR 1 bill a tome that, when all is said and done, at best catches the country up to best practices internationally. Others are going to court to defend old norms, like presidents disclosing their tax returns. They fly to places where ballot access is under attack and watch for irregularities. These are all noble-enough causes, but they don’t do sufficient justice to the fact of how poorly the institutions being defended have come to serve us.

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USA 2-2 Japan: SheBelieves Cup – as it happened

Johnny Manziel released by Montreal Alouettes and barred from CFL

Team does not give specific reasons for Manziel’s departure
Former college star had already dropped out of NFL

Johnny Manziel’s time in the Canadian Football League is over. The CFL terminated the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner’s contract with the Montreal Alouettes on Wednesday. The league also informed the eight other teams that it wouldn’t register a contract for Manziel if any tried to sign him.

The league said Manziel had violated an agreement that made him eligible to play in the CFL. “We advised Montreal that Johnny had violated one of the conditions we had set for him to be in our league. And Montreal announced his release today,” CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie said. “We didn’t release the terms of those conditions then and we’re not going to do that now. “

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Quebec hockey league apologizes after racist taunts force black player from ice

Jonathan Diaby left ice during second period due to racial abuse
Video footage shows fans hurling abuse at Diaby in penalty box
Diaby’s father and girlfriend were harassed by fans in the stands

A Canadian semi-pro hockey league has apologized to a black player who left the ice in the middle of a game because he and his family in the stands were subjected to racist abuse from spectators.

Jonathan Diaby, a 24-year-old defenseman for Marquis de Jonquière of the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey (LNAH), an independent league based in Quebec, said the abuse began after he received a penalty during the first period of Saturday’s game against Pétroliers du Nord in Saint-Jérôme, about 60km northwest of Montreal.

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MLS 2019 predictions: A new champion and a record-breaking Zlatan Ibrahimovic

The new season kicks off this weekend. Our panel of writers deliver their verdicts on the MVP, MLS Cup champions and white shirts

Seeing FC Cincinnati be the biggest thing to hit the city since WKRP went off the air. And it’ll be fun to see the midwest steal the hipster northwest’s thunder for a year. BD

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House passes first major gun control legislation in nearly quarter of a century

Members of Congress approved measure requiring federal background checks for all firearms sales by vote of 240-190

Gun control campaigners celebrated a precious win on Wednesday when the US House of Representatives passed its first major legislation on the issue in nearly a quarter of a century.

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North Carolina political operative charged in election fraud scandal

Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr was arrested after grand jury indictments alleging illegal possession of absentee ballots

A political operative at the center of a ballot fraud scandal in North Carolina was arrested on Wednesday on criminal charges over activities in the 2016 elections and the Republican primary in 2018.

The Wake county district attorney, Lorrin Freeman, announced that Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr was arrested after grand jury indictments alleging illegal possession of absentee ballots and obstruction of justice.

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Chicago to elect its first black female mayor as candidates head to runoff

Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle garnered the most votes, but neither received the more than 50% needed to avoid 2 April runoff

A former federal prosecutor and a county board leader will face each other in a runoff for the mayorship of Chicago this spring – in a contest that will result in the city being led by its first black female mayor.

The two women topped a large field of candidates in Tuesday’s election that included a member of the Daley family that has dominated the city’s politics for much of the last six decades.

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Trump, North Korea's Kim end Vietnam summit with no agreement

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un failed to reach an agreement on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula at their summit in Vietnam on Thursday, the White House said.

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China says hopes U.S., North Korea dialogue can continue

China's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that it hopes dialogue and communication between the United States and North Korea can continue.

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No gas? No votes. Subsidy cuts imperil Ukraine leader's reelection bid

Ukrainian pensioner Nadiya Ignatiy says she has had the plum and cherry trees in her garden cut down for firewood since the government raised gas prices late last year.

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World powers call for calm as India and Pakistan trade fire in Kashmir

Indian and Pakistani troops traded fire briefly along the contested border in Kashmir on Thursday morning, a day after the two nuclear powers both downed enemy jets, with Pakistan capturing an Indian pilot.

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Trump says hopefully India, Pakistan conflict coming to an end

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he hoped the conflict between India and Pakistan will be coming to an end, after the two nuclear powers clashed across a contested border in the disputed Kashmir region.

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Trump says talks with Kim failed over North Korean sanctions demands

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam had failed to reach agreement due to North Korean demands to lift punishing U.S.-led sanctions.

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Britain's Labour Party backs Brexit referendum

Britain's opposition Labour Party will support a new referendum on Brexit after parliament defeated its alternative plan for leaving the European Union, the party's leader Jeremy Corbyn said.

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Thousands scramble as Thai Airways cancels flights over Pakistan

Thousands of travelers were left scrambling on Thursday when Thai Airways International canceled more than a dozen flights to and from Europe after Pakistan closed its airspace amid rising tensions with India.

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Trump, Kim go for brief walkabout after meeting, joined by envoys

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un took a brief stroll on Thursday in the courtyard of the Hanoi hotel where they are meeting for the second day of summit talks.

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No agreement at Trump, Kim summit in Vietnam: White House

U.S. Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not reach an agreement at the end of two days of meetings on Thursday but had constructive discussions on denuclearisation of the North and its economy, the White House said.

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Vietnamese tanker bound for North Korea with gasoline cargo as Trump, Kim meet in Hanoi: data

A Vietnamese tanker was bound for North Korea carrying 2,000 tonnes of gasoline, Refinitiv shipping data showed, just as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump prepared for key talks on security and cooperation in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi.

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Exclusive: Meeting Maduro - Inside a U.S. businessman's oil deal with Venezuela

In November 2017, Harry Sargeant III, a wealthy American businessman, flew to Venezuela to see about buying some oil.

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