On his 100th day in office on Saturday, facing historically low popularity ratings, a succession of intractable foreign crises and multiple investigations of his links with Moscow, Donald Trump reminded the nation that 1 May was Loyalty Day.
Peers say Brexit with no trade deal would cause ‘significant damage’ to service sector – Politics live
Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs and David Davis giving evidence to a Lords committee about Brexit
Drop in teenage suicide attempts linked to legalisation of same-sex marriage
Legalisation of same-sex marriage in US states has been linked to a drop in suicide attempts among teenagers. Researchers say suicide attempts among high school students fell by an average of 7% following the implementation of the legislation.
My dad predicted Trump in 1985 – it’s not Orwell, he warned, it’s Brave New World
Over the last year, as the presidential campaign grew increasingly bizarre and Donald Trump took us places we had never been before, I saw a spike in media references to Amusing Ourselves to Death, a book written by my late father, Neil Postman, which anticipated back in 1985 so much about what has become of our current public discourse.
Bill would sell off 3.3m acres of national land, unnerving outdoor enthusiasts
Now that Republicans have quietly drawn a path to give away much of Americans’ public land, US representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah has introduced what the Wilderness Society is calling “step two” in the GOP’s plan to offload federal lands.
Trump’s America, where even park employees have become enemies of the state | Sarah Kendzior
Last Tuesday, for a few hours, Badlands National Park defied presidential orders. “Today, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is higher than at any time in the last 650,000 years #climate,” it tweeted.
WhatsApp backdoor allows snooping on encrypted messages
A security backdoor that can be used to allow Facebook and others to intercept and read encrypted messages has been found within its WhatsApp messaging service. Facebook claims that no one can intercept WhatsApp messages, not even the company and its staff, ensuring privacy for its billion-plus users.
Thousands of Fight for 15 protesters rise up in 340 cities across the US
Thousands of Fight for 15 supporters chanted, marched, sat in and got arrested in 340 cities across the US on Tuesday, declaring that they won’t back down no matter who is in the White House. Tuesday’s large protest – the fast food movement’s twelfth one-day strike – was a far cry from four Novembers ago when the Fight for 15 held its first one-day strike.
Barack Obama: NSA is not rifling through ordinary people’s emails
Barack Obama has sought to address European concerns over internet privacy in the wake of the National Security Agency surveillance scandal, insisting US authorities are not “rifling through the emails” of ordinary people and he is confident the US intelligence services have “struck the appropriate balance” between security and civil rights.
Greenland’s receding icecap to expose top-secret US nuclear project
A top-secret cold war US military project and the toxic waste it conceals, which had been thought buried forever beneath the Greenland ice cap, are likely to be uncovered by rising temperatures within decades, scientists have warned.
Thinner, smoother, better: in the era of retouching, that’s what girls have to be | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
There was a time when changing the appearance of a woman in a photograph would take hours and hours of expert, painstaking work by hand. Techniques in the darkroom allowed 20th-century photo editors to “dodge” or “burn”: over- or under-expose images in order to remove “flaws”, such as fine lines or rippling pockets of fat.
Kitchen gadgets review: Scizza – pizza scissors by YourLifeIsDepressing.com
Related: Kitchen gadgets review: T2 teamaker – ‘unleash the masculini-tea’ Scizza (£19.95, formahouse.co.uk) is a shearing tool comprising handle-mounted blades, centrally pivoted, and flat nylon foot. Carves topped flatbreads. Dunno. If you ask me, slicing pizza izza pizza pizz. I’ve heard about using scissors to cut pizza before.
Up to 70% of people in developed countries ‘have seen incomes stagnate’
Half a billion people in 25 of the west’s richest countries suffered from flat or falling pay packets in the decade covering the financial and economic crisis of 2008-09, according to a report highlighting the impact of the Great Recession on household incomes.
I was a cop – but I still don’t know how to survive a police stop | Michael A Wood
I am often asked: how can I make sure I get home safe after I am pulled over by the police? Following the killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, I feel I should know the answer to that question – but I don’t.
Drones to unleash vaccine-laced M&Ms in bid to save endangered ferrets
The US government is set to unleash drones that fire vaccine-covered M&Ms in a bid to save the endangered black-footed ferret, a species that is facing a plague epidemic across America’s great plains.
How Seinfeld’s funniest moments came to life
Jeremiah Bosgang and his boss Rick Ludwin found themselves in a real bind after a table-read for a Seinfeld episode in 1991. The script they’d just heard had Elaine, George and Jerry doing nothing except waiting for a table at a Chinese restaurant.
Abba reunite for first public performance in 30 years
The four members of Abba performed alongside one another for the first time in over 30 years in Stockholm this weekend. On Sunday, at a private gala to mark 50 years since songwriting duo Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson met for the first time, the pair were joined by Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstadon stage at Berns Salonger in Stockholm.
Reg E Cathey: ‘The world is being destroyed by psychopaths’
The disintegration of America is a pretty popular topic of conversation these days, with the mere mention of Donald Trump or the religious right enough to prompt a cacophony. But few hit the nail on the head quite like Reg E Cathey.
‘The Greatest’ was no exaggeration
There are many stories about Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Clay in 1942 in segregated Louisville, Kentucky, the son of a domestic and a man who painted billboards. Born at the hinge of the south, he was spurred on to fight when his bicycle was stolen as a young man.
Magic mushrooms lift severe depression in clinical trial
Magic mushrooms have lifted severe depression in a dozen volunteers in a clinical trial, raising the hopes of scientists that the psychedelic experiences beloved of the Aztecs and the hippy counter-culture of the 1970s could one day become mainstream medicine.
We’re in an amazing black cultural moment. Cue predictable white backlash | Syreeta McFadden
Black American culture is experiencing a kind of delicious dominance at the moment. It’s one that might seem odd given its contrast with the resurgence of racism embodied by some supporters of Donald Trump. But Trumpism, as my colleague Steven Thrasher has noted, is just the latest version of a pattern in America: black progress beckons white rage.
On a mission to democratise publishing – Matt Mullenweg interview
So what’s the mission statement for Automattic / WordPress and how has this changed over time? Automattic’s mission has always been very aligned with WordPress itself, which is to democratise publishing. Basically what I found after a few years of doing WordPress was that there were certain things that a company was just better set up to do to bring an open source publishing platform to the masses.
Indiana primary results: track the votes, county by county
Track live votes for Democratic and Republican nominees for president in the 2016 election as they come in from the Indiana primary
Obama administration urges states to curb use of solitary confinement
The Obama administration is pressing individual states to join its mission to cut back on the use of solitary confinement in US prisons, in the hope of reining in a practice that is still widespread despite having been denounced as potentially amounting to torture.
Nicole Cooke: welcome to the world of elite cycling where sexism is by design
The London marathon is a great event. Mass participation as well as elite performance, young and old, the fast and the slow; our great capital city and its citizens once again proving what a superlative show they can put on.
The dark side of Guardian comments
Comments allow readers to respond to an article instantly, asking questions, pointing out errors, giving new leads. At their best, comment threads are thoughtful, enlightening, funny: online communities where readers interact with journalists and others in ways that enrich the Guardian’s journalism. But at their worst, they are something else entirely.
Tech policy activists find Bernie Sanders is best bet – while Trump is the worst
The top candidate from the great state of the internet is Bernie Sanders, according to an analysis of the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates’ campaign platforms by tech policy activists at the Free Press Action Fund. The worst candidate on policy positions that affect citizens’ digital lives? Donald J Trump.
The macabre truth of gun control in the US is that toddlers kill more people than terrorists do | Lindy West
This week, in my country, considered by some of its more embarrassing denizens to be the “greatest country in the world”, an outspoken Florida “gun rights” advocate left a loaded .45 calibre handgun in the back seat of her car and was promptly shot and wounded by her four-year-old child.
Albert Woodfox released from jail after 43 years in solitary confinement
Albert Woodfox, the longest-standing solitary confinement prisoner in the US, held in isolation in a six-by-nine-foot cell almost continuously for 43 years, has been released from a Louisiana jail. Woodfox, who was kept in solitary following the 1972 murder of a prison guard for which he has always professed his innocence, marked his 69th birthday on Friday by being released from West Feliciana parish detention center.
How anti-Muslim are Americans? Data points to extent of Islamophobia
Who exactly was Donald Trump appealing to when he called on Monday for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”? Quite a few people, according to a YouGov poll conducted earlier this year which found that 55% of surveyed Americans had an “unfavorable” opinion of Islam.
Turkish human rights lawyer shot dead during press conference
A prominent lawyer and human rights defender, who faced a criminal charge for supporting Kurdish rebels, has been killed in an attack in south-east Turkey in which a police officer also died, officials said. Tahir Elci was shot on Saturday while he and other lawyers were making a press statement.
Lisa Jones, girlfriend of undercover policeman Mark Kennedy: ‘I thought I knew him better than anyone’
She thought they were a normal couple until she found a passport in a glovebox – and then her world shattered. Now she is finally getting compensation and a police apology for that surreal, state-sponsored deception. But she still lies awake and wonders: did he ever really love me?
I was held hostage by Isis. They fear our unity more than our airstrikes | Nicolas Hénin
As a proud Frenchman I am as distressed as anyone about the events in Paris. But I am not shocked or incredulous. I know Islamic State. I spent 10 months as an Isis hostage, and I know for sure that our pain, our grief, our hopes, our lives do not touch them.
Why too much choice is stressing us out
Once upon a time in Springfield, the Simpson family visited a new supermarket. Monstromart’s slogan was “where shopping is a baffling ordeal”. Product choice was unlimited, shelving reached the ceiling, nutmeg came in 12lb boxes and the express checkout had a sign reading, “1,000 items or less”.
A (very) rough guide to America from an Englishman in New York | Paul Owen
Scott Waters, an American, has caused a stir with a Facebook post sharing his observations from a recent trip to smalltown England. “People don’t seem to be afraid of their neighbours or the government” and “There are no guns” were two of his comments that seemed to help the post go viral.
GCHQ spied on Amnesty International, tribunal tells group in email
The government’s electronic eavesdropping agency GCHQ spied illegally on Amnesty International, according to the tribunal responsible for handling complaints against the intelligence services. Confirmation that surveillance took place emerged late on Wednesday, when the human rights group revealed that the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) sent it an email correcting an earlier judgment.
Leaked memos reveal GCHQ efforts to keep mass surveillance secret
The UK intelligence agency GCHQ has repeatedly warned it fears a “damaging public debate” on the scale of its activities because it could lead to legal challenges against its mass-surveillance programmes, classified internal documents reveal.
I was a domestic violence victim. My town wanted me evicted for calling 911 | Lakisha Briggs
I remember the day I realized that I had to stop calling the police, no matter what danger I was in. It was April 9 2012 when the police came to my home to arrest my ex-boyfriend, who had physically assaulted me. When they were there, an officer told me I was “on three strikes”.
Open sourcing Grid, the Guardian’s new image management service
For about a year, a small dedicated team has been building the Guardian’s new image management service. From the beginning, the vision was to provide a universal and fast experience accessing media that is well organised and using it in an affordable way to produce high-quality content.
Amazon proposes drones-only airspace to facilitate high-speed delivery
Amazon is proposing that a pristine slice of airspace above the world’s cities and suburbs should be set aside for the deployment of high-speed aerial drones capable of flying robotically with virtually no human interference.
Kitchen gadgets review: the Egg Master – a horrifying, unholy affair
The Egg Master (£29.99, DecentGadget, Amazon) is a vertical grill encased in silicone housing. Ingredients poured into the plastic tube are heated by an embedded, wraparound element. When ready, food spontaneously rises from the device. The Egg Master (£29.99, DecentGadget, Amazon) is a vertical grill encased in silicone housing.
Farewell to America | Gary Younge
For the past couple of years the summers, like hurricanes, have had names. Not single names like Katrina or Floyd – but full names like Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown. Like hurricanes, their arrival was both predictable and predicted, and yet somehow, when they landed, the effect was still shocking.
Euro coin row: France wins the battle, Belgium wins the war
Name: The €2.50 coin. Age: One week old, but 200 years in the making. Appearance: Possibly the funniest thing that Belgium has ever done. Is Belgium a particularly funny country? Oh, the funniest. The closest thing it has to a national emblem is a statue of a little boy having a wee.
The US is still the only developed country that doesn’t guarantee paid maternity leave
The US supreme court on Wednesday is hearing the case of 42-year-old Peggy Young, who sued her employer, UPS, for pregnancy discrimination. Young claims the shipping company refused to accommodate her pregnancy by giving her a temporary assignment to avoid lifting heavy packages.
Microwave oven caused mystery signal plaguing radio telescope for 17 years
The mystery behind radio signals that have baffled scientists at Australia’s most famous radio telescope for 17 years has finally been solved. The signals’ source? A microwave oven in the kitchen at the Parkes observatory used by staff members to heat up their lunch.
Idaho police shoot pregnant woman, in 15 seconds, with an AR-15 rifle – video
Dashboard and body camera footage obtained by the Guardian show police officers shoot Jeanetta Riley, a 35-year-old woman with a history of mental health problems who was wielding a knife outside a hospital in Sandpoint, Idaho. Riley died from the gunshot wounds.
Amazon tests delivery drones at secret Canada site after US FAA frustration
Related: Amazon warns Congress: US risks being left behind in delivery drone business Amazon is testing its drone delivery service at a secret site in Canada, following repeated warnings by the e-commerce giant that it would go outside the US to bypass what it sees as the federal government’s lethargic approach to the new technology.