4 h. ago You too can look as good as Donald Trump in your dotage. Here’s how | Arwa Mahdawi

The 78-year-old president is in great shape, says the official White House physician. Must be all those ‘hamberders’Forget yoga, pilates or eating leafy greens. If you want to improve your health, just look to Donald “My Body Is a Temple” Trump for pointers. The US president just had his annual checkup and emerged with flying colours. “President Trump remains in excellent health, exhibiting robust cardiac, pulmonary, neurological, and general physical function,” White House physician Sean Barbella said in a report released on Sunday.How does the 78-year-old, who is the oldest person in history to be inaugurated US president, stay in such great shape? The report cited an active lifestyle, noting Trump’s many speeches and “frequent victories in golf events”. But if you’re not a golfer, don’t worry. I have put together a four-point Donald John Trump Wellness Plan so that you can be as perky as the president. Continue reading...

Politics

27 h. ago Don’t worry, gen Z! A billionaire boomer says your lives are going to be great | Arwa Mahdawi

The CEO of JPMorgan Chase says young people needn’t worry – the future is bright and AI-enhanced. So why does the world feel so precarious?Chin up, everyone. Things may seem grim at the moment but a billionaire has swooped in to reassure everyone – particularly impecunious young people – that everything is going to be OK. Better than OK, in fact. According to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, despite the current economic and political instability, gen Z should be grateful for what will be a very bright and AI-enhanced future.“These kids, anyone who’s depressed – as long as we don’t have nuclear war – they’re going to have an unbelievable life,” Dimon said in a recent interview with Fox News. “People say the next generation’s in bad shape,” he added. “Really? They’re going to inherit a country that’s worth two [or] three hundred trillion dollars. They’re probably going to live to 120; AI is going to cure some cancers They shouldn’t be bemoaning their situation.” Continue reading...

Society

3 d. ago Gaza is a ‘killing field’ where people are being starved. How long will the world tolerate this? | Arwa Mahdawi

What is happening is, quite simply, annihilation. Yet our politicians keep funding it and media outlets normalize itWhere do I even start? In recent weeks I’ve sat down to try and write about Gaza and, every time I steel myself to write about one atrocity, another atrocity is committed. Palestinian journalists have been burned alive, babies have frozen to death, medics have been executed and buried in mass graves, kids are being killed in their sleep. Meanwhile, in the US and Germany, speaking out about dead Palestinian babies can land you on a deportation list. Arguing that international human rights law should be respected can put you at risk of being snatched off the street and stuck in a detention centre.I don’t know where to start and I don’t know what is really left to say at this point. After 18 months of endless carnage, it should be clear to everyone that this is not a war. That this is not self-defence. What is happening in Gaza is, quite simply, annihilation. A litany of ...

Events

7 d. ago Please, for the love of God, stop buying supersized cars | Arwa Mahdawi

Why would anyone want a car that’s too big for parking spaces, or that’s a menace to other road users? I have a theoryExcuse me for a moment while I clamber on top of my high horse to deliver an important public safety announcement: stop buying enormous cars! Please, for the love of God, pedestrians and my tiny chihuahua that is just trying to cross the road, stop this cycle of car-brained insanity.I write this from the US, where everything (including the presidential ego) is supersized and where going for a walk means having to constantly peer around one enormous truck to make sure you’re not going to get hit by another enormous truck. Still, at least in the US the big cars have big roads to drive down. The trend for bloated vehicles is spreading to places where they’re even more unsuitable. New research has found that more than 1m cars that are too big to fit in parking spaces are being sold in the UK each year. Continue reading...

Economics

8 d. ago Trump’s very beautiful tariffs will fix America, masculinity and the family. It said so on Fox News | Arwa Mahdawi

Let’s stop all the moaning about stock market crashes and soaring grocery prices. It’s time to focus on the upsides!There’s been a lot of doom-mongering about tariffs recently, hasn’t there? Oh no, my life savings are going to get wiped out and I’m never going to be able to retire! Oh no, grocery prices are going to triple! Oh no, it looks suspiciously as if Donald Trump has used ChatGPT to guide his fiscal policy and now we’re going to see another Great Depression! Moan, moan, moan.While it might be true that much of these predictions are coming from highly credentialed economists and people who tend to know what they’re talking about, I’d like to remind you that there are two sides to every story – and it’s always worth looking at both of them. You’ve already heard from voices who reckon Trump’s tariffs are misguided and dangerous. Now it’s time to focus on the people who support the president’s assessment that tariffs are a “very beautiful thing” that will usher in a new golden a...

Politics

2 w. ago Is Usha Vance starting to feel a little sorry for herself? | Arwa Mahdawi

She left her job when her husband got a shot at VP – only for the couple to be met with the frostiest of receptions in Greenland at the weekendThere are a few people to blame for the fact that JD Vance, a staggeringly unlikable man with a supremely meme-able face, has been thrust into such prominence. The first is Peter Thiel: the tech billionaire who bankrolled Vance’s political pivot. The second is Kevin D Roberts, head of the Heritage Foundation and mastermind of Project 2025, who has been an energetic Vance advocate.And the third is Usha Chilukuri Vance, JD’s wife. While Usha kept a low profile during the Trump-Vance campaign, trailing after her other half with a smile on her face and a copy of The Iliad in her hand, JD has made her influence clear. In his memoir Hillbilly Elegy, for example, he wrote that Usha helped him navigate Yale and “always encouraged me to seek opportunities that I didn’t know existed”. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Donald Trump is eyeing up a third term – and no one is opposing him | Arwa Mahdawi

So many people and organisations are capitulating to the US president, from Silicon Valley to the Democrats, legal firms and elite universities. How realistic is the prospect of Trump 3.0?Hell is empty and all the devils are in Washington DC. And, what with devils being immortal and all, it looks as if they might stay there indefinitely. Now, before I seamlessly segue from fun devil facts into talking about Donald Trump threatening to run for a third term, the current political climate compels me to make a few things clear. I recently had to submit my US green card for renewal (impeccable timing!) so I’d like to explain to any United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officers reviewing my file that the first line of this piece was just riffing on Shakespeare. I’m absolutely not comparing Trump, the greatest man to walk this Earth, to Satan. Nor am I suggesting evil people seem to live long lives.On the contrary, I am thrilled that our 78-year-old president has sugg...

Politics

3 w. ago Why is The White Lotus generating so much chatter about teeth? | Arwa Mahdawi

Aimee Lou Wood’s natural smile stands out amid Hollwood’s dazzling veneers. But let’s not get carried away Straight, expensive, blindingly white. No, I’m not talking about Donald Trump’s vision for America; I’m talking about teeth. Namely the sort of teeth you see on American TV shows – and, since many US politicians seem to love cosmetic surgery – the evening news. Everyone from Z-list influencers to Taylor Swift to Trump himself seems to have perfect teeth.Americans have always been invested in their smiles, but an increasing number of British people are also shelling out for veneers. You need sunglasses to watch the telly these days, everyone’s smile is so bright. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Don’t visit the US – it just isn’t worth the risks right now | Arwa Mahdawi

Minor visa infractions have seen tourists detained, shackled and deported by overzealous US border staff. There are many more welcoming places to go on holidayDo you like being shackled and strip-searched? Absolutely no judgment if so, but anyone who isn’t into that sort of thing may want to avoid a holiday to the US at the moment. Although I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that. Unless you’ve been hiding under a news-blocking rock (in which case: what’s the address? And can I join you?), you’ll have noticed that Donald Trump’s America hasn’t exactly been rolling out the red carpet for visitors. There have been a number of recent incidents where white westerners – people who aren’t normally targeted by overzealous US immigration authorities – have been detained, deported or denied entry for obscure reasons.Take the 28-year-old Welsh artist Rebecca Burke, for example. She was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) for 19 days in what her father described as “horrendous...

Events

4 w. ago I was always terrified of confrontation. Then I hit my 40s | Arwa Mahdawi

If I see someone making my neighbourhood a worse place to live, I walk straight up to them and have a little word. What is happening to me?Some people buy sports cars when they have a midlife crisis. Others cut off all their hair. Me? I seem to have developed a debilitating obsession with urban sanitation. Over the past couple of years, I have become unhealthily preoccupied with the fact that an alarming number of grown adults seem incapable of disposing of their rubbish properly. There are people in my Philadelphia neighbourhood who will bag up their dog’s excrement and then just leave the little poop bag on the pavement for the rest of us to admire. And don’t get me started on the people who dump untied bags of recycling on the street days before it’s supposed to be collected, resulting in it inevitably blowing around the neighbourhood. (If you’re wondering why the rubbish is loose, it’s because the US, the land of innovation, has been slow to embrace the wheelie bin.)Do I sound l...

Events