Photo

Nearly 1 million Californians supported push by Republican Carl DeMaio but it faces historic opposition from DemocratsCalifornia voters will decide in November whether to require photo identification to cast a ballot, making California the latest battleground in a long-running effort by conservatives to push voter ID laws that have been bolstered in recent years by Donald Trump’s repeated and unfounded accusations of widespread voter fraud.Nearly 1 million Californians signed on to support the ballot measure championed by Carl DeMaio, a Republican state representative from San Diego. Continue reading...

Former US ambassador and Labour peer joins a long line of people who have gone out to meet awaiting paparazzi head-onFor a man at the centre of a storm that has rocked the political establishment, Peter Mandelson has spent the week looking remarkably relaxed. Day after day, as MPs have grilled civil servants over who knew what when about the former US ambassador’s security vetting, and police continue to investigate serious allegations over his own conduct, Mandelson has stepped out of his Regent’s Park mansion and pottered across the road to take his dog for a walk.Smart-casually dressed in jeans and a jumper and holding in front of him a plastic ball-thrower, he has set off for the park like a weekending solicitor on his way to an egg and spoon race. There have been occasional small smiles for the photographers at his gate, but no comment. The message appears to be: I am insouciant, normal. Not in prison. Continue reading...

Georgia players celebrated championship at White HousePresident shakes hands of men, not women in videoFormer tennis star Navratilova leads criticismA White House photo celebrating a champion women’s sports team has drawn backlash due to the positioning of Donald Trump and a group of men, who overshadowed the female athletes by lining up in front of them.The University of Georgia women’s tennis team was one of several collegiate teams to visit the White House on Wednesday to mark a recent championship win. In a photo shared by press aide Margo Martin, a group of six men, including Donald Trump, took up the front row of a stage setup, with 11 women standing in the background largely obscured. Continue reading...

• Researchers at the University of Washington created an artificial photosynthesis prototype converting sunlight directly into storable chemical fuels with 13% efficiency, surpassing previous laboratory records of 8-10%. • The system uses engineered nanostructures and novel catalysts to split water and fix carbon dioxide, producing methanol as a liquid fuel suitable for existing energy infrastructure, detailed in Nature Energy on April 21. • The breakthrough could enable large-scale production of carbon-neutral synthetic fuels without competing for agricultural land, addressing both climate and energy security challenges.

Fraudsters send emails claiming storage is full or nearly full, then trick people into clicking on links that can expose bank and personal detailsFor a while you’ve been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full”. They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take aren’t being uploaded.You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of 99p a month for more storage. But it seems that you can’t keep putting off the inevitable: you have received an email which says your iCloud account has been blockedand your photos and videos will be deleted very soon. To keep them you need to upgrade immediately, it says. Continue reading...

• The Athletic and New York Times launched an internal investigation into NFL reporter Dianna Russini after photos surfaced of her with New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel at a Sedona, Arizona resort this week. • Photos showed the pair together, prompting questions about journalistic ethics; Russini stated they were part of a group of six friends and that interactions with sources off-site are common. • Executive editor Steven Ginsberg called initial images misleading, but new details from Page Six raised further concerns, leading to review of her coverage.