Newsom to impose 100% tax on California payees of Trump’s $1.8bn fund

Outdoor clothing company is suing US environmentalist drag performer for $1 plus legal fees, claiming ‘we wish we didn’t have to do this’Patagonia has launched a trademark lawsuit against an environmentalist drag queen named Pattie Gonia, who has accused the outdoor clothing company of “trying to erase an activist”.Wyn Wiley, who performs as Pattie Gonia, has accumulated millions of followers online for their environmental activism, raising almost $4m for non-profits so far. Last year they raised $1m while hiking 100 miles in full drag from Point Reyes national seashore to San Francisco. Continue reading...

The UN’s special rapporteur for Palestine, Francesca Albanese, on the war in Gaza, living under US sanctions and accusations of antisemitismFor a brief period this month, the human rights lawyer Francesca Albanese seemed to have some relief.In an extraordinary move in July last year, the Trump administration placed sanctions on the UN’s special rapporteur for Palestine – placing her alongside figures such as Vladimir Putin and Bashir al-Assad – over her engagement with the international criminal court. Continue reading...

Officials said to be examining whether Carroll committed perjury in 2022 deposition tied to lawsuits against presidentThe Trump administration has opened a criminal investigation into E Jean Carroll, the writer who accused the president of sexual assault, according to news reports.Prosecutors, the New York Times and CNN reported on Wednesday, are looking into whether Carroll, 82, committed perjury in a 2022 deposition during her civil lawsuits against Trump, in which she said she did not accept outside financial support for her legal battles. Continue reading...

Joanna Howe posts on social media that if purported images of human foetuses are in fact sugar gliders, ‘it doesn’t actually matter’Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe has conceded she may have used a “scam” email featuring a picture of sugar glider joeys, referring to them as human foetuses, to promote her views – but it “was an insignificant detail”.In a video posted to Facebook on Wednesday afternoon, Howe said it appeared she had been “scammed” when someone emailed her claiming to give details about their medical abortion, including an image that Howe referred to as twin girls she called Ruth and Emma. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Robinson, who has been at Reuters for 16 years, will be responsible for about 2,000 staff across the ABC’s news division A top news executive from Reuters, Simon Robinson, is expected to be appointed as news director of the ABC in coming days, Guardian Australia can reveal.He will be the external replacement for Justin Stevens who resigned on Wednesday after four years in the role, citing personal and professional reasons. Continue reading...

Bundaberg man, 36, allegedly drove into and assaulted multiple people in Childers and North Isis on WednesdayA man has been charged with murder after allegedly beating a 78-year-old pedestrian to death with a metal pole during a violent and random rampage that also injured two other men.A 36-year-old Bundaberg West man was charged with murder and attempted murder after allegedly driving into and assaulting multiple people near Bundaberg in Queensland on Wednesday afternoon. Continue reading...

In CBS interview set to air Sunday, former first lady says she was ‘frightened’ during husband’s debate with TrumpJill Biden said she had been “frightened” as she watched Joe Biden’s faltering performance during his 2024 presidential debate, and thought her husband might have suffered a stroke.“I was frightened, because I had never, ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never,” the former first lady said in an interview with CBS set to air on Sunday. Continue reading...

Markwayne Mullin, DHS secretary, said move would come in response to protests outside ICE facility in New JerseyThe Trump administration has threatened to stop processing international flights in major cities around the country as a reaction to protests against immigration enforcement.Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, said on Tuesday that the administration is “drawing up plans” to take the action, in response to days of clashes at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in New Jersey. Continue reading...

Urgent action needed to avoid ‘lost generation’, says the former Labour health secretary’s report, due on ThursdayBritain risks a 25% rise in the number of young people not in work or education to 1.25 million by the early 2030s without urgent government action to avoid a “lost generation”, a landmark report has warned.Alan Milburn, the leader of the review into why so many young people are economically inactive, said the UK risked opening up a “generational fault line” between young and old without urgent steps to overhaul schools, the health service, the welfare system and the jobs market. Continue reading...

Anna Turley gives Reform leader 24 hours to report Russian hacking claim in ‘public and national interest’The Labour chair has given Nigel Farage 24 hours to report to security services the claim that his phone was hacked by Russia-linked actors or the party will do it for him.In a letter to the Reform UK leader, Anna Turley said it was “in the public and national interest” to ensure that a suspected overseas hack of a senior politician’s phone by a hostile state was properly investigated. Continue reading...

US president calls on US ally to ‘behave … or else we’ll have to blow them up’ in casual aside during cabinet meetingDonald Trump has threatened to “blow up” Oman if it fails to “behave” in a casual aside during a cabinet meeting, as the US scrambles to reopen the strait of Hormuz.The US president made the threat following reports of talks between Iran and Oman about jointly charging a toll for ships passing through the crucial waterway, which has been all but closed since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran. Continue reading...