Justices appeared unlikely to grant request for absolute immunity from criminal prosecution to former president

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The US supreme court on Thursday expressed interest in returning Donald Trumpas criminal case over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election back to a lower court to decide whether certain parts of the indictment were aofficial actsa that were protected by presidential immunity.

During oral arguments, the justices appeared unlikely to grant Trumpas request for absolute immunity from criminal prosecution, with both Trumpas lawyer and the justice departmentas lawyer agreeing there were certain private acts that presidents would have no protection for.

Court rules judge who oversaw landmark trial was mistaken in allowing women whose accusations were not part of case to testify

The disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinsteinas 2020 conviction on sex crimes was overturned by a New York appeals court on Thursday, as prosecutors say they will retry the firestorm case.

In a 4-3 decision, the state of New York court of appeals ruled that the judge who oversaw Weinsteinas 2020 conviction prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with aegregiousa improper rulings and was mistaken in allowing other women whose accusations were not a part of the 2020 case to testify.

Ex-National Enquirer publisher emphasizing in testimony that he refused to pay off any more people for Trump when Stormy Daniels looked to sell her affair

• A guide to Trumpas hush-money trial
• Who is David Pecker, key witness in Trumpas criminal trial?

aHe said she was a 12 out of 10,a David Pecker says the former editor in chief of the National Enquirer, Dylan Howard, told him about Karen McDougal after meeting with her.

Pecker says McDougal told Howard she didnat want her story about Trump to be published. He says:

She said she didnat want to be the next Monica Lewinsky a| She wanted to restart her career.

Dylan came to me in early June of 2016 and said that he received a call from one of his major sources, in California, that thereas a Playboy model who is trying to sell a story about a relationship that she had with Donald Trump for a year.

Republican Mike Johnson accused of awilfully spreading misinformationa and ainciting violencea after CNN interview

Progressive activists have condemned Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House of Representatives, for awillfully spreading misinformationa and ainciting violencea in a TV interview about student protests against Israelas war in Gaza.

Johnson, who was booed and heckled during a press conference at Columbia University on Wednesday, when he said Hamas abackeda the protests in a CNN interview. There is no evidence Hamas has had any role in the student protests, though the organization has praised the demonstration. The Republican went on to make sweeping, incendiary claims: aSome of these students apparently are unaware of the atrocities of October 7 or theyare denying it.

Commerce department says gross domestic product growth decelerated to 1.6% at start of year as consumers slowed spending

Americaas leading stock indices came under pressure on Thursday after official data revealed that US economic growth slowed sharply to its weakest rate in almost two years.

But as high interest rates take their toll on the worldas largest economy, inflation continues to loom large.

Dazhon Darien impersonated high school principal in Maryland in clip that quickly spread on social media, police say

A high school athletic director in Maryland has been charged with using artificial intelligence to impersonate a principal on an audio recording that included racist and antisemitic comments, authorities said on Thursday.

Dazhon Darien faked the voice of Pikesville high schoolas principal in January following conversations that Darienas contract would not be renewed, according to charging documents filed by Baltimore county police.

Court ruled last month that Crystal Mason, initially sentenced to five years in prison, did not know she was ineligible to vote in 2016

A Texas prosecutor will appeal against a court ruling tossing out a five-year prison sentence for a woman who unintentionally tried to vote while ineligible in the 2016 election, an unexpected move that continues one of the most closely watched voting prosecutions in the US.

Last month, the second court of appeals, which is based in Fort Worth, threw out the 2018 conviction of Crystal Mason, a Black woman who submitted a provisional ballot in 2016 that ultimately went uncounted. Mason was on supervised release for a federal felony at the time she voted and has said she had no idea she was ineligible. The panel said prosecutors had failed to prove Mason actually knew she was ineligible.

A judge approved the warrant in investigation to determine if church hierarchy illegally covered up systemic child molestation

Louisiana state police went into the office of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans on Thursday to begin the process of collecting records from the organization spanning the history of its decades-old clerical abuse scandal, as troopers investigate whether the local church hierarchy illegally covered up systemic child molestation.

Troopers arrived at the archdioceseas headquarters at about 9.45am local time three days after a state court judge signed a search warrant authorizing them to take the entirety of the documents in question.

In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit its website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International

aTransitional councila takes oath of office after prime minister formally resigns as gang violence continues to rock capital

Haitias prime minister, Ariel Henry, has formally resigned and a new provisional government has been sworn in during a secret ceremony at the presidential palace, nearly two months after a criminal insurrection plunged the capital into chaos.

The nine-person atransitional councila was officially established on Thursday during an event at the national palace in Port-au-Prince. As its members took their oaths, Henry, who is in the US having been locked out of Haiti by the gang uprising, announced in a letter that he was stepping down.

Before dying earlier this month, Larry Webb confessed to killing Susan Carter and her child and burying their bodies in his yard

A man confessed to killing a 10-year-old girl and her mother on his deathbed, closing a 24-year-old cold case in Beckley, West Virginia.

After the confession, officials found remains believed to be those of Susan and Natasha aAlexa Carter, her daughter, in Beckley on Monday.

Researchers also find zebra finches 20% less likely to hatch from eggs if exposed to noise pollution

Noise pollution from traffic stunts growth in baby birds, even while inside the egg, research has found.

Unhatched birds and hatchlings that are exposed to noise from city traffic experience long-term negative effects on their health, growth and reproduction, the study found.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators are calling on universities to sell investments in companies they say are complicit in war in Gaza

As protests against Israelas offensive in Gaza are spreading throughout American campuses, one demand made by students across schools keeps coming up: divestment from Israel.

Universities rely on endowments to fund things like research and scholarships, and those endowments are typically invested in companies and alternative asset classes, such as private equity and hedge funds.

Students react to the speaker announcement while school officials stands by the decision

Morehouse College, a nearly 160-year-old historically Black college in Atlanta, announced on Tuesday that Joe Biden will be the keynote speaker for its commencement ceremony in May. Though Morehouse initially extended the invitation in September, Bidenas acceptance comes after a tumultuous week for the president, in which college students across the nation have engaged in sustained anti-war protests in solidarity with Palestine.

The Guardian spoke to Morehouse students who criticized the schoolas decision to host Biden, and others who had mixed feelings about the upcoming address.

Mona Hanna-Attisha launched a program to provide funds during a newbornas first year a and wants to replicate it across the country

• Flint residents grapple with water crisis a decade later: aIf we had the energy left, wead crya

In 2015, Dr Mona Hanna-Attisha alerted the world that children were being poisoned by lead in the water of her home town of Flint, Michigan. Now, as Flint marks the 10-year anniversary of the crisis, sheas set her sights on another target: the underlying poverty that she says allowed it to all happen.

aFor a long time, I have literally wished for the ability to prescribe an antidote to poverty,a Hanna-Attisha said. Study after study has shown poverty-related stress and lack of resources can damage everything from babiesa physical health to childrenas abilities to learn and later thrive in careers. In Flint, which has a majority Black population, an astounding 47.6% of children live in poverty, according to a 2022 analysis of census data.

Strict rules have led to a wild west of rentals, with visitors choosing between huge hotel bills or word-of-mouth deals

Until recently, visitors to New York basically had two options: hotel rooms or short-term rental platforms like Airbnb. But in September 2023, the city started enforcing a 2022 law that banned people from renting their homes for fewer than 30 days (unless the host stayed in the home with guests).

Now the only legit option for people visiting the city is hotel rooms a and theyare unaffordable for many. Most of the Times Square hotels donat have rooms for less than $300 a night. A search for Thursday 2 May found the Muse at $356, Hampton Inn at $323 and the Hard Rock at $459 (although, because of dynamic pricing, these are subject to regular change). Theyare getting more expensive still. Hotel rates have increased between the first quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2023 at twice the rate of inflation, said Jan Freitag, an analyst at the real-estate data firm CoStar Group.

A new exhibition at the New-York Historical Society looks back on years of radical change in the city for better and worse

In recent decades New York City has changed dramatically, transforming from the lows of the crime and drug epidemics that ravaged the city in the 1970s and 80s to the resurgence and optimism that typified the 90s and the surge in gentrification that has been a source of debate more recently. Amid all of this transformation, one might make the assumption that these are new forces that New Yorkers are being forced to grapple with a not necessarily so.

In fact, one of the points of the New-York Historical Societyas fascinating new exhibit, Lost New York, is that these forces have been transforming the city for a much longer time. The exhibit brings to light layers of history that have generally been forgotten, showing how landmarks, practices and communities have been integral to the cityas formation, even though they may not be remembered.

The actor on tricking her tear ducts, being entertained as a child by Tom Cruise and legging it from dinosaurs while wearing stilettos

Hi Bryce! If two generations makes an acting family, does three make an acting dynasty? [Her father is director Ron Howard, both of whose parents were actors.] JohnHunt
I think a dynasty is five generations or more, so weare not even close. Weave got a way to go. Weave got three generations, so maybe Iall be around for it when the Howards cross that threshold.

When youare directing something thatas part of a larger collection, such as The Mandalorian, how do you find the balance between maintaining the tone and making something that reflects your own artistic vision? porcospino
Something like The Mandalorian is such an important story and piece of intellectual property. Itas dramaturgically essential to understand the essence of the creator and what inspired them to create that in the first place, so whatever Iam building on is an extension of their original vision. In the case of Star Wars, itas George Lucas, but I would feel that way no matter what the material is. Itas very important to have a deep, nuanced, compassionate and objective view when you take the baton.

These stunning, extremely relatable women, with nuanced facial expressions and sensible shoes, helped me outline success on my own terms

I love watching television a ideally in bed with a bowl of salt and vinegar potato chips and a bottle of Coke, zoning out for hours.

Iave always been like this. In my teens and 20s I watched back-to-back-to-back Law & Order and Law & Order SVU episodes. I loved the comfort and reliability of the form: the drama of a murder, investigation, plot twist and resolution, all in under 60 minutes. But several years ago, I stopped watching Law & Order; I grew uncomfortable with its uncritical portrayal of the police.

A anon-hierarchicala university space that can be continually altered or even moved has won the EUas biennial prize for contemporary architecture

A lightweight university study centre designed to be easily disassembled has won the prize for the best building in Europe. Longevity, permanence and a sense of immutability might be the ambition of most architects, but Gustav DA1/4sing and Max Hacke would be delighted to see their building adapted and reconfigured, or ultimately dismantled and moved somewhere else altogether.

aWe imagined the project as a changeable system,a says DA1/4sing, co-designer of the new study pavilion for the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, which has been named this yearas winner of the EU Mies award (formerly the Mies van der Rohe award), the biennial European Union prize for contemporary architecture. aWe wanted it to be a counter model to the universityas high-rise building and its conventional one-sided lecture halls. Itas more like an extension of the landscape that can be forever modified, a non-hierarchical space that the students can make their own.a

Muscular bodies dripping with sweat are all over cinema screens a and each other. But these films are very different from the sports romances of old

This spring is shaping up to be the season of the artful athletic romance in cinema. Rose Glassas Love Lies Bleeding and Luca Guadagninoas Challengers both offer up their own twisted queer romances set within the world of sport. Both film-makers share a preoccupation with their athletes, lingering over their bodies in ultra-closeup. Muscles ripple and swell like the powerful pulse of the tide. Perfect, glistening orbs of sweat form then drift off the body in slow motion. In these films, ripped, toned bodies become tantalising, treacherous landscapes, and itas on this physical terrain that we can see exactly how and why the charactersa internal desires play out.

Love Lies Bleeding opens with a pulsating montage in a grimy gym as Glass confronts us with running, cycling, lifting, pressing bodies in all of their sweating, straining vulgarity. Meanwhile, Lou (Kristen Stewart), the uninspired gym manager, is sticking her hand down the venueas perpetually clogged toilet. However, when Jackie (Katy OaBrian), a wannabe bodybuilder, rolls through town, all this grotesquery becomes a thing of beauty. They begin a romance. Lou pumps her lover full of steroids and constantly ogles her dense muscles.

As Drake, Kendrick Lamar and more continue their high-profile beef, we run down the most inspired a and vicious a attacks in rapas history

• aA lot of rich guys arguinga: inside the rap beef of the decade

Whether you view the beef that has consumed hip-hopas upper echelons as a spicy addition to the genre or a dispiriting Trumpian exercise by grandstanding millionaires, itas hard not to love the fire and venom of Lamaras verse here, bashing J Cole and Drake.

As Taylor Swift tops $1bn in tour revenue, musicians playing smaller venues are facing pitiful fees and frequent losses. Should the state step in to save our live music scene?

When you see a band playing to thousands of fans in a sun-drenched festival field, signing a record deal with a major label or playing endlessly from the airwaves, itas easy to conjure an image of success that comes with some serious cash to boot a particularly when Taylor Swift has broken $1bn in revenue for her current Eras tour. But looks can be deceiving. aI donat blame the public for seeing a band playing to 2,000 people and thinking theyare minted,a says artist manager Dan Potts. aBut the reality is quite different.a

Post-Covid there has been significant focus on grassroots music venues as they struggle to stay open. Thereas been less focus on the actual ability of artists to tour these venues. David Martin, chief executive officer of the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), says weare in a acost-of-touring crisisa. Pretty much every cost attached to touring a van hire, crew, travel, accommodation, food and drink a has gone up, while fees and audiences often have not. a[Playing] live is becoming financially unsustainable for many artists,a he says. aArtists are seeing [playing] live as a loss leader now. Thatas if they can even afford to make it work in the first place.a

With her husband on trial over hush-money payments a and desperate for cash a the ex-first lady isnat worried about optics

If your husband was a legally adjudicated sexual predator who cheated on you with an adult film star shortly after you gave birth to his son, and then allegedly paid her hush money to cover it up in an attempt to illegally influence the 2016 election, and then went on trial for those hush-money payments, while also facing a litany of other criminal charges, what do you think you would do?

In Melania Trumpas case, the answer seems to be: ignore all that hoo-ha and sell a $245 necklace to celebrate Motheras Day. On Sunday, the notably un-effusive first lady announced that she had adesigned the aHer Love & Gratitudea necklace to express immense gratitude and honor all mothersa. The necklace features a flower pendant made of gold vermeil (sterling silver with a solid gold plate) and can include a custom engraving. Best of all, every purchase comes with a limited-edition digital NFT collectible that is minted on the Solana blockchain. Just what every mother wants!

Idahoas law requires doctors to treat pregnant womenas health as disposable a and the loss of their lives as an acceptable risk

The risk of stating plainly what Idaho argued at the US supreme court on Wednesday morning is that it is so sadistic and extreme that people might not believe you. Idaho has one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country. Prohibiting all abortions at any stage of gestation, with no exceptions for rape or incest, the Idaho law allows doctors to perform abortions in cases where the life a but not amerelya the health a of the pregnant woman is at risk.

In practice, this has wound up being a ban on abortions needed to save womenas lives: according to Idaho hospitals, six pregnant women experiencing medical emergencies have had to be airlifted across state lines to hospitals in states with life and health exemptions in the months since Idaho began enforcing its abortion ban. One way to describe this state of affairs is to say that Idahoas abortion law has come into conflict with medical best practice. Another way to describe it is to say that the law has forced pregnant women to flee the state for their lives.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

The safety and security of Palestinians and Jews are interdependent, so we should use language carefully

In reporting on the encampments springing up on college campuses across the US, the media seem to have convened a terminology confab and agreed on two descriptions: apro-Palestiniana and aanti-Israela. These labels oversimplify Americansa opinions on Israelas onslaught against Gaza, which marked its 200th day on Tuesday with no end in sight. But the error is worse than semantic.

aUniversities Struggle as Pro-Palestinian Demonstrations Grow,a says the New York Times. aColleges Struggle to Contain Intensifying Pro-Palestinian Protests,a reports the Wall Street Journal. In Minneapolis, the Star Tribune has the local news that the aUniversity of Minnesota police arrest nine after pro-Palestinian encampment set up on campusa. Some publications less shy about displaying their political biases take the opposite tack. A headline in the right-leaning New York Post, for instance, exaggerated the literally incendiary nature of the demonstratorsa tactics: aAnti-Israel protesters carry flares to march on NYPD HQ after over 130 arrested at NYU.a The accompanying video is cast in red. Ever evenhanded, CBS does both: aPro-Palestinian, pro-Israel protesters gather outside Columbia University.a

Judith Levine is a Brooklyn journalist and essayist, a contributing writer to the Intercept and the author of five books

While other comedians spend more time complaining than cracking jokes, the former Late Show host remains gloriously unhinged and hilarious

With every advance in human technology comes an advance in weird new emotional situations. For example, the Germans should invent a word for the specific drop in the stomach that occurs when you open X to see a celebrity you like trending globally. No one 20 years ago could ever have imagined this specific feeling. Depending on the person, my brain leaps to conclusions. If itas an older person, I worry theyave carked it. If itas Sydney Sweeney, I assume her breasts are up to something again (existing). And if itas a comedian Iave loved since childhood, I assume theyave been cancelled for doing something shitty (due to patterns).

A few weeks ago, I got a Tower of Terror-size gut drop when I saw Conan OaBrien, one of my biggest comedy heroes, trending. Luckily I didnat need to worry. He had gone viral for his appearance on the YouTube show Hot Ones, where a celebrity is interviewed while eating progressively hotter wings. Conan had given a completely unhinged and hilarious performance, including rubbing hot sauce on his nipples. In a sentence Iad never thought Iad say, thank God it was just more breasts discourse.

The overcrowded city is leading the way with a tax on day trippers. Surely other great European destinations should follow suit

Venice has had enough. It is sinking beneath the twin assaults of tourism and the sea and believes the answer lies in fending off visitors by charging them to enter. It is not alone. Tourism is under attack. Seville is charging for entry to the central Plaza de EspaA+-a. In Paris, the Mona Lisa is so besieged by flashing phones she is about to be banished to a basement. Barcelona graffiti shout, aTourists go home, refugees welcome.a Amsterdam wants no more coach parties, nor does Rome.

The Venice payment will be complicated. It will apply at specific entry points only to day trippers to the city centre, not hotel guests. It will be a mere five euros and confined to peak times of day over the summer. This will hardly cover the cost of running it. It is a political gesture that is unlikely to stem the tourist flow round the Rialto and St Markas Square, let alone leave more room for Venetians to enjoy their city undisturbed by mobs.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

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