67 h. ago Gwyneth Paltrow’s ‘vagina candle’ is still burning bright – at five times the original price | Arwa Mahdawi

In the latest twist in the Goop candle saga, the famous creation, which retailed at $75 in 2020, is now on offer at $400 on eBay. Not bad for a product that started out as a jokeI have a foolproof way to make millions. It’s a little tricky to execute, but hear me out, OK? Step one: find a time machine. Step two: travel back to 2020. Step three: quickly, before they all get nabbed, buy the entire stock of the This Smells Like My Vagina candle that Gwyneth Paltrow notoriously sold on Goop for $75 a pop. Then come back to 2025 and sell them on eBay for $400 each. Seriously, that’s what they are going for now. We’re talking a 433% return!How do I know this? Not, to be clear, because I am spending my evenings searching for vagina-scented candles. No, I know this because the chatter around Paltrow’s candle is impossible to fully extinguish; it keeps popping back up in the news. In 2021, for example, there was a big hoo-hah because a Texas man claimed that the candle exploded on his bedsid...

Events

3 d. ago Don’t be fooled. Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ is typically ugly and typically misnamed | Arwa Mahdawi

Republicans love to make the most harmful laws sound sensible or even noble. This pretty-sounding package of tax breaks and spending cuts is just the latest exampleWhat’s big, beautiful and kept a lot of Republicans up late on Sunday night? There might be various responses to that question, but the answer I’m looking for is the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Coming in at 1,116 pages, the bill isn’t quite War and Peace but it’s definitely big. Whether the mega-package of tax breaks and spending cuts is beautiful, however, is up for debate.And there has certainly been a lot of debate. The bill has been in limbo for a while because a few Republicans who consider themselves “fiscally conservative” are happy with the package’s extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and increased spending for the military and immigration enforcement, but don’t think enough social and climate-related programmes have been slashed to pay for it all. In particular, they want deeper cuts to food stamps and Medicaid, ...

Politics

6 d. ago The livestreamed killing of an influencer could be femicide – a misunderstood crisis | Arwa Mahdawi

Much remains uncertain about Valeria Márquez’s death. But it shines a light on a universal issueValeria Márquez was killed in one of the most horrifically public ways possible. On Tuesday evening, the 23-year-old Mexican social media influencer, who had built up a large following with videos about beauty and makeup, was recording a TikTok livestream in the beauty salon where she worked in Jalisco, a state in west-central Mexico. A man entered the establishment and, with her video still running, shot her dead.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Events

7 d. ago Forget the DEI hires – meet Trump’s latest WTF hire | Arwa Mahdawi

The new pick for surgeon general, Casey Means, doesn’t have an active medical license. But she does have ‘impeccable Maha credentials’The US health secretary doesn’t think you should really listen to him when it comes to health issues. During an appearance before House and Senate committees this week, Robert F Kennedy Jr, famous for his unconventional views about medicine and his revelation that a parasite ate part of his brain, seemed to think it was strange that lawmakers were asking him about vaccines.“What I would say is my opinions about vaccines are irrelevant,” Kennedy said when pressed on whether he would vaccinate his child for measles. “I don’t want to seem like I’m being evasive, but I don’t think people should be taking advice, medical advice, from me.” The US health secretary repeated his refrain about not wanting to give advice a number of other times. Continue reading...

Politics

9 d. ago Who would win in a fight between 100 Brits and 100 Americans? I know how to find out | Arwa Mahdawi

Americans could have a psychological edge – but British people have a high tolerance of physical discomfort, which could provide all sorts of advantages ...Shall we take a brief moment to forget the hellworld outside and focus on something utterly inane? That was a rhetorical question, because you’re coming with me immediately to the far depths of TikTok, where there is a furious argument raging about a hypothetical transatlantic brawl. Riffing on an online debate about whether 100 men or a single gorilla would win in a fight, someone posted a viral video asking: “100 British people v 100 Americans. One big room. No weapons. Who’s winning?”I have not conducted a thorough analysis of the answers, but from my cursory glance it would seem the consensus is the Americans would win. For science’s sake I polled a real-life American (my wife), and her opinion, largely based on the whole 1776 thing, was also that there would be a US victory. “We just care more about winning,” she told me (a ...

Politics

1 week ago Ivanka Trump is now a food waste entrepreneur – but there's just one glaring problem | Arwa Mahdawi

It’s a little bit rich to talk about food insecurity in the US when your last name is Trump. But after stints as a feminist influencer and political adviser, the president’s favourite daughter has found a new pathIvanka Trump has had her manicured fingers in many pies. She’s designed jewellery and shoes. She’s written a book called Women Who Work, marketed at women who work, full of inspirational quotes and touching anecdotes about how she, a woman, has sometimes worked so hard that she has had to sacrifice massages.That was Early Influencer Ivanka, anyway. Then came Ivanka’s political era. During Donald Trump’s first term as president, she appointed herself Daddy’s special adviser and did a lot of very special advising. In that capacity she gallivanted around the globe, dropping in on the G20 and hobnobbed with world leaders, all while insisting: “I try to stay out of politics.” And, of course, the president’s eldest daughter, who very nearly became the head of the World Bank, tire...

Politics

1 week ago Biden still thinks he could have beaten Trump. Do we really need this? | Arwa Mahdawi

The former president points to sexism as the reason for Kamala Harris’s election loss. That’s a dangerous cop-outRaise your hand if you’ve been desperate for Joe Biden to pop up and tell us all, yet again, how he would have handily beaten Donald Trump in 2024.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago An American has become pope. Will he be the moral leader we desperately need? | Arwa Mahdawi

Pope Francis spoke for the most vulnerable, from Palestinians in Gaza to immigrants in the US. Let’s hope that Leo will follow in his footstepsAmerica is back, baby. Not only has the Gulf of Mexico been successfully Americanized, the Vatican is now officially US territory. OK, fine, not officially, but, on Thursday, the Chicago-born Robert Francis Prevost was announced as pope. The 69-year-old, who has taken the papal name Leo XIV, is the first clergyman from the United States to lead the Roman Catholic church.While Prevost was a frontrunner for the papacy, his victory seems to have taken many experts by surprise. There has long been resistance to an American pope for a number of reasons, including the fact that it might make it appear as if the Vatican is aligned with the world’s strongest economic and military power. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Does your child identify as a cat? There’s a man in Texas who can help | Arwa Mahdawi

Are schools really providing litter trays for kids whose pronouns are Puss and Purr? Or is state representative Stan Gerdes just stoking the culture war with his proposed FURRIES Act?Move over, Wagatha Christie: Furlock Holmes is investigating “non-human behaviour” in Texas schools. A Republican state representative called Stan Gerdes recently filed a bill called the Forbidden Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Educational Spaces (FURRIES) Act, which would ban schoolkids from acting like animals. No hissing during history, no meowing during maths, and absolutely no relieving yourself in a litter box during lunch break, according to the FURRIES Act.Are animal impersonations a serious issue in Texas’s schools? Gerdes insists so, noting in a press release that he had heard reports of a “furry-related incident” in at least one school. When pressed on the issue, however, he was unable to provide any actual evidence of schools providing litter boxes for students who identify as fel...

Politics

2 w. ago Mark Zuckerberg tried to convince us he was human. Sorry, ZuckBot: you’ve failed | Arwa Mahdawi

No matter how many system updates the Meta boss runs, there will always be something about him that screams ‘creepy automaton’. And the $270m apocalypse shelter doesn’t helpOver the past few years Mark Zuckerberg has been conducting a very expensive experiment. If he grows his hair and revamps his wardrobe, will it make him seem more relatable? If he takes up mixed martial arts, goes wild boar hunting, and tells manosphere-adjacent podcasters such as Joe Rogan that companies need more “masculine energy”, will red-blooded American males respect him? With the help of a small army of stylists, personal trainers and PR gurus, could Zuck transform himself from an unlikable dork into an alpha bro?For a brief moment, the answer to all that seemed to be a tentative “yes”. Zuck’s shock of shaggy new hair made the billionaire seem less like three Lego figures in a trenchcoat and more like an adult human male. His gold chains and jazzy new outfits sparked excited chatter of a “Zucknaissance”. ...

Events

2 w. ago Will Jeffrey Epstein’s victims ever get justice? | Arwa Mahdawi

I have a suggestion for conspiracy theorists: instead of searching for secret plots, why not grapple with some very clear facts?Last weekend the terrible news broke that Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent victims of the disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein, had died by suicide. Conspiracy theorists immediately started circling. A tweet from 2019, in which Giuffre said she wasn’t suicidal, was dredged up. Donald Trump Jr, the president’s eldest failson, then amplified the theory to his millions of followers, adding that “other than the Clinton’s [sic] no one has more suiciding going on”.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago I live in the US and have a green card. If I leave the country, will I be allowed back in? | Arwa Mahdawi

Even a summer holiday isn’t straightforward any more - and all across the US, millions of people are having to make calculations like mineLet me start with a message to my wife. SORRY!!! I apologise in advance for everything you are about to read.My more sensible half, you see, is a US citizen, who keeps telling me (a green card holder) that I should stop making jokes about getting sent to a detention centre or deported.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago The ‘rat person’ trend is here – and I thoroughly approve | Arwa Mahdawi

Do you like sleeping, eating and scrolling? Me too. What if I told you this was also a way to protest capitalism?Somewhere in Zhejiang province, China, a woman is living my dream. She gets up in the morning and then, almost immediately, goes back to bed. She lies prostrate all day long, scrolling, eating some food, opening some packages, showering at 2am, then snoozing again. As a longtime sleep enthusiast – and the mother of a child who thinks that 5am is a good time to start the day, all systems go – I think this sounds like bliss.The woman in Zhejiang is known as @jiawensishi – and also “rat person”. I am not being rude; that’s what she calls herself. There are lots of rat people out there: it’s a whole trend in China. You might have heard of the “lying flat” movement a few years ago, when young people lazed around displaying symptoms of mild depression, and some thinkers, including the novelist Liao Zenghu, theorised that it was a passive-aggressive resistance movement, rebellin...

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