4 h. ago The massive No Kings protests may mark a new American political posture | Moira Donegan

The violence Republicans seemed to want did not materialize. Instead the event showcased liberal-democratic consensusOver the past week or so, it seemed as if some Republican leaders were hoping that Saturday’s No Kings demonstrations – the marches and rallies hosted by a coalition of liberal groups across the country and worldwide – would turn violent. House speaker Mike Johnson called them “Hate America” rallies, a moniker that was quickly picked up by other Republicans, and described the No Kings protests as a crucible of potential riots, representing “all the pro-Hamas wing and, you know, the antifa people”. “You’re gonna bring together the Marxists, the socialists, the antifa advocates, the anarchists, and the pro-Hamas wing of the far-left Democrat party,” he said. Tom Emmer, a representative for Minnesota, described the rallies as a product of the “terrorist wing” of the Democratic party. And Roger Marshall, a senator from Kansas, fantasized that the protests would require ac...

Politics

53 h. ago Massive crowds gather across US for ‘No Kings’ protests against Trump

Republicans decry demonstrations as ‘anti-American’ as people voice opposition to administration’s hardline policies

Politics

3 d. ago Multiple Republican congressional offices have received American flags with embedded ‘optical illusion’ swastikas: report

The news comes just days after a Young Republican’s group chat rife with homophobic and racist slurs was leaked

Politics

3 d. ago Trump refiles $15B New York Times lawsuit after judge skewered the original complaint as being too long and embellished

Trump’s first lawsuit included lines which described his 2024 electoral victory as the ‘greatest personal and political achievement in American history’

Politics

3 d. ago What the datacenter boom means for America’s environment – and electricity bills

In this week’s newsletter: from Google to Amazon to OpenAI, the economic and climate cost of datacenters continues to grow• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereThe headlong rush to build huge new datacenters, in order to support the growth of AI, is raising a number of concerns in the US – around the impact upon the climate crisis, water use and electricity bills. It’s also set to reshape American politics in potentially unusual ways.Companies such as Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, Amazon and Meta are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into new datacenters that will form the backbone to the surging use of AI by businesses and the public.Bird migration is changing. What does this reveal about our planet? – visualisedTowns may have to be abandoned due to floods with millions more homes in Great Britain at riskThe plastic inside us: how microplastics may be reshaping our bodies and mindsDatacenter emissions probably 662% higher than big tech claims. Can it kee...

Science

3 d. ago MARK ALMOND: Will Gen Z heroine Diana's Swan Lake protest spark a new Russian revolution that topples Putin?

Seeing a crowd of young people protesting against the war in Ukraine in the heart of St Petersburg on Wednesday will have sent an unfamiliar chill down Vladimir Putin 's spine.

Politics

5 d. ago Dana Schutz review – an orgy of gloop from the painter who outraged New York

Thomas Dane, London The artist, whose painting of Emmett Till caused a scandal, is back with a grotesque, cartoonish, deeply political commentary on American societyDana Schutz cakes her canvases in thick gobs of gooey paint. The American artist’s first proper London exhibition is a splodgy, orgiastic celebration of her material, but there are some big messages smuggled through if you can scratch your way towards them.Schutz’s approach – which has seen her lauded as one of the most important figurative artists of her generation – is all about surface, brush strokes, colour and materiality. It’s painting for painters, real high-level art-nerd stuff. If you get your kicks losing yourself in layers of pigment and shadow, there’s enough here to keep you going for a while. But it’s Schutz’s grotesque, surreal, cartoony, metaphorical imagery that really makes the paintings tick. Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago Top lawyers for Bush, Clinton and Obama join together to blast Trump’s political prosecutions: ‘No American is safe’

The attorneys labeled the pattern of revenge prosecutions an ‘epidemic of injustice’

Politics

6 d. ago Tasha Ghouri slams rude flight attendant for 'laughing' after she explained she was deaf

The Strictly star revealed the American Airlines flight attendant had left her feeling 'uncomfortable' after she politely asked him to repeat himself.

Politics

7 d. ago The Antichrist has long haunted American politics. Now it’s rearing its head again | Matthew Avery Sutton

From Silicon Valley to Michigan, the biblical figure is in the headlines. The shift from pulpits to politics is familiar – and dangerousTwo scenes from the past two weeks capture something unsettling – and familiar –about American public life. In San Francisco, a tech billionaire delivered a sold‑out, off‑the‑record lecture series on the antichrist. In Michigan, a man rammed his pickup truck into a Latter‑day Saints meetinghouse during Sunday worship, opened fire and set the building ablaze, apparently believing that Mormons are the antichrist.The antichrist is clearly back. But perhaps he has never really left.Matthew Avery Sutton is a Guggenheim Fellow and author of the forthcoming Chosen Land: How Christianity Made America and Americans Remade Christianity (Basic Books), in addition to five prior books on Christianity. He is the Claudius O and Mary Johnson distinguished professor and chair of the department of history at Washington State University. The views expressed here are h...

Politics

1 week ago Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story – exhilarating record of game

London film festival Brathwaite’s empowering images of African Americans in the 1960s gave a new generation a fresh template for representation, brilliantly honoured hereThere have been some fascinating documentaries about photographers: Tish Murtha; Martin Parr; Vivian Maier. Maybe the movie documentary form is something that naturally comes alive when showcasing particularly vivid still images. Here is another outstanding example, from writer-director Yemi Bamiro, about the remarkable career of Kwame Brathwaite, a photographer, musician and African American activist who was a unique politico-aesthete. With his brother Elombe, he virtually invented the phrase “Black Is Beautiful” in the 1960s by photographing the Grandassa Models in Harlem: young African American women who became the sensational template for beauty, doing away with the usual cosmetic products and the usual white standard of femininity.Black Is Beautiful became a radical rallying cry, an inspired three-word prose po...

Politics

1 week ago Tall 7ft2 Tory is 'sitting duck' for extremists as he's 'literally sticking his neck out'

EXCLUSIVE: Security bosses fear towering Conservative student James McAlpine is a prime target for protesters and those looking to make their mark at events

Politics

1 week ago Furloughed federal workers in government shutdown aren’t owed back pay, Trump’s White House claims

‘The livelihoods of the patriotic Americans serving their country in the federal government are not bargaining chips in a political game,’ the American Federation of Government Employees national president said.

Politics

1 week ago Palestine protest held at Edinburgh University to mark October 7 attacks as John Swinney hatred claims denied

A Scottish University principal has warned protesters not to fall into the trap” of moving to “justify or glorify acts of gratuitous violence against innocents”.

Events

2 w. ago Blue states should come together to declare an emergency. Here’s how | Thomas Geoghegan

States opposed to Trump can create a compact – a new prototype for American government – even if it’s perceived as political theaterTrump is all about political theatre, or circus, and it often seems that even in resisting him, as decent citizens must do, we become part of the circus too. We are like the extras who splutter while he thrills the base by violating some heretofore inviolate human norm. So the show goes on. But why not put on our own show, our own form of political theatre, that leaves Trump out – or at least has a different focus?We could consider the kind of political theatre that Americans created from 1768 to 1776 to resist Britain’s growing crackdown. Instead of employing their creaky legislative bodies, they opted for new forms of resistance, non-importation committees, even a first continental congress with no apparent legitimacy or precedent.Thomas Geoghegan is a lawyer and author of Which Side Are You On? (1991) and The History of Democracy Has Yet to be Writte...

Politics

2 w. ago “‘I’m leaving,’ Trump said. ‘There’s no reason to be here any more’”: inside the meeting that brought Nato to the brink

Former secretary general Jens Stoltenberg recalls the rollercoaster ride of dealing with Donald Trump – and how close the US president brought the alliance to the point of collapseNo other nation means more for what Nato is than the United States. It holds a unique position among member states due to its political, economic and military weight. Which is why the forces that dominate American politics – and who is in the White House – are such decisive factors. The presidential election in November 2016 was therefore not only important to the US, but also to all of Nato.For the first six months of 2016, Hillary Clinton was ahead in every poll. By autumn, election experts were predicting her victory. I, too, had a gut feeling this would be the outcome. On election night, my wife Ingrid and I arranged a party with friends and colleagues at the residence in Brussels. We rigged up a large television in the living room, and hamburgers were served. A long day lay ahead, so I turned in befor...

Politics

2 w. ago How American political refugees, economic migrants and devoted Anglophiles are transforming London

How American political refugees, economic migrants and devoted Anglophiles are transforming London  Country Life

Politics

2 w. ago Embattled figure in Native American politics resigns as chairman of pueblo governors coalition

An embattled figure in Native American politics has resigned as chairman of the All Pueblo Council of Governors, days after his arrest on suspicion of driving while intoxicated

Politics

2 w. ago 'Not a time to stoke tension': PM issues warning over Palestine protest in wake of Manchester terror attack

It comes after Met chief Sir Mark Rowley demanded a pro-Palestine protest planned for Saturday in central London be cancelled

Events

2 w. ago Putin says Charlie Kirk’s ‘disgusting’ murder is proof of a ‘deep rift’ in America

‘This is a sign of what happens — a deep rift in society,’ Putin said, adding: ‘I think the US is going this way.’

Politics