3+ week, 1+ day ago (269+ words) Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days Between the demands of loyalty, the attack on institutions and the targeting of enemies, Amy Hawkins explored the "cultural revolution" under way in the US, and how life in Trump's America is becoming eerily familiar to those who lived in China under Mao. A company called Strike 3 has clogged US courts with lawsuits, mostly against porn watchers who feel shamed into settling privately. Tarpley Hitt explored a legal phenomenon which has landed on the desks of federal judges across the US, led to the birth of a cottage industry of defence attorneys taking on the cases, and raised complex questions about the technology underpinning the lawsuits. Have you ever heard a word that jolts you to attention? That word, for me,…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago (725+ words) Mortified documentarian James Blake meets young men who have drifted towards misogynist influencers " and finds them lonely, heartbreaking and on "semen retention journeys" to control their sex drives Men of the Manosphere review " a truly terrifying hour Mortified documentarian James Blake meets young men who have drifted towards misogynist influencers " and finds them lonely, heartbreaking and on "semen retention journeys" to control their sex drives Just as you can accurately measure the quality of a documentary about pornography by the number of examples of its subject that it does not show, so too you can judge a programme about "incel" culture/the manosphere/toxic masculinity by the amount of time it does not devote to the noxious leaders of the subculture. Porn documentary makers often seem to use their commission to indulge their own murky fascinations, or at the very…...

3+ day, 3+ hour ago (721+ words) The attack makes the troops" Washington DC exit less likely and offers a convenient data point for rightwing narratives "Washington DC is considered a safe zone," Donald Trump declared on Tuesday, veering off topic at the national Thanksgiving turkey pardoning ceremony at the White House. "This was one of the most unsafe places anywhere in the United States. It is now considered a totally safe city." A day later, two national guardsmen from West Virginia were shot in a busy area a few blocks from the White House in downtown Washington. The ambush took place outside the Farragut West Metro railway station within sight of the Guardian"s office (I had been in the station three hours earlier and witnessed national guard troops milling around). In a speech from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Wednesday evening, Trump said the…...

3+ week, 1+ day ago (146+ words) Karin Immergut said earlier she "found no credible evidence" that protests in Oregon city were out of control A judge has issued her final order and formally blocked Donald Trump from sending the national guard to Portland, Oregon. The district court judge, Karin Immergut, delivered her final order in the case on Friday. Earlier this week, Immergut barred Trump"s administration from deploying the national guard to Portland until at least Friday, saying she "found no credible evidence" that protests in the city had grown out of control before the president federalized the troops earlier this fall. The city and state sued in September to block the deployment. This is the latest development in weeks of legal back and forth in Portland, Chicago and other US cities as the Trump administration has moved to federalize and deploy the national guard…...

2+ week, 1+ day ago (1355+ words) Fifty years after writing a book which would change how Australians view their history and culture, the author and journalist isn't slowing down Anne Summers is scrutinising street numbers as we walk. Pausing in front of a 19th-century mansion, the author and journalist looks up to its second storey. "This is where I was arrested." "Oh wow," she says, taking in its immaculate sandstone facade. "It didn't look like this then." We're in an area real estate agents now call Potts Point, but in 1974, it was the Cross. When Summers moved to Sydney in her 20s, from her home town of Adelaide " "an incredibly boring place" " every aspect of the notorious neighbourhood excited her. The luminous purple jacarandas and exotic frangipanis, the steep geography and sparkling harbour, but most of all "the incredible mix of people". While Victoria Street's buildings were…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago (569+ words) Brendan Carr, head of FCC, asks if programme ever aired in US which is seen as key to any future litigation A US media regulator led by a close ally of Donald Trump is examining whether an edition of the BBC's Panorama broke US regulations in the way it edited one of the president's speeches. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), led by Brendan Carr, has written to the BBC's outgoing director general, Tim Davie, asking whether the programme was ever aired in the US. Davie and the head of BBC News, Deborah Turness, resigned after complaints about the show by a former independent adviser to the broadcaster. The BBC has since apologised for splicing two clips of a speech Trump made before the Capitol riots in January 2021. Trump has since threatened to sue the corporation in Florida for up to…...

1+ day, 20+ hour ago (505+ words) Democratic safeguards won't work unless they're backed by the will of the people, argues Peter Loschi, while Roger Heppleston calls for wholesale reform of the British political system. Plus letters from Rob Hunter, Peter Buckman and Dr Piers Brendon Timothy Garton Ash has produced an excellent list of safeguards against extremism (My guide to populist-proofing your democracy " before it's too late, 25 November). Unfortunately, they don't work in the long term. The finest minds of the Enlightenment devised the checks and balances of the US constitution, and an authoritarian like Donald Trump brushed them aside in two minutes. Laws and regulations to guarantee good government only work if the people want them to. If they're not bothered, then no'amount of safeguarding is of much use. We could replace the House of Lords with a citizens' assembly, comprising a randomly chosen cross-section…...

1+ week, 3+ day ago (1077+ words) As federal agents descend in North Carolina, businesses close as even an after-school program is targeted On Central Avenue in Charlotte, North Carolina, Manolo's Bakery has become a focal point for resistance to the upscaled immigration raids since border patrol officers descended on the city at the weekend. The owner closed the bakery to prevent his staff from being targeted. Most of the other shops on Charlotte's busy immigrant-centric street followed suit. Gerardo Ortiz is Puerto Rican, which is to say, a born American with a Spanish accent, which was good enough for ICE and border patrol, it seemed. Protesting with the group, Ortiz said, he was picked up twice by federal agents prowling Charlotte's streets this week while they looked to capture undocumented immigrants. "They got me two times, once Saturday and once Sunday," he said. "They come out…...

2+ week, 4+ day ago (801+ words) President called the agreement that passed the Senate Monday "a very big victory" amid the record-breaking government shutdown " key US politics stories from 11 November 2025 Democrats" resolve cracked this week, when a splinter group in the Senate joined with the GOP to craft a compromise bill that reauthorizes government funding through January, without extending healthcare tax credits. Donald Trump called the agreement "a very big victory" during remarks at Arlington National Cemetery. "We"re opening up our country," the president said. "Should have never been closed, should have never been closed." The spending package has moved to the House of Representatives, which could vote on it as early as Wednesday. But top Democrats have vowed to oppose the bill for not addressing their demand for more healthcare funding. "It"s our expectation that the House will vote at some point tomorrow…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago (41+ words) The House of Representatives is expected to force files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to be released, after Donald Trump dropped his opposition to a vote Ella Baron on Donald Trump's U-turn on the Epstein files " cartoon...