Donald Trump rolls on; Sanders still in Clinton’s shadow
Another victory for Bernie Sanders, in West Virginia, does little to help his delegate count but underscores the enduring strength of his contrasting message to Clinton. Donald Trump sweeps West Virginia and Nebraska but his wins are overshadowed by news he is sending a prominent white nationalist as a delegate to the summer convention. Sanders focused his message on Trump, saying it is not enough to just reject the Republican candidate – “this is an opportunity to define a progressive vision for America”. In a West Virginia exit poll, 43% of Sanders supporters said they’d sooner vote for Trump than Clinton in November. The Guardian’s Lucia Graves says: West Virginia so what? Clinton didn’t need it anyway.
Bernie Sanders takes West Virginia as Donald Trump rolls on
An ‘inane jumble’
Republican defense hawks in the Senate who are starting to mark up next year’s Pentagon spending plans are unsparing in their critique of the presumptive presidential nominee’s foreign policy ideas. An “inane jumble of jingoistic sloganeering” neatly covers their take on Trump’s efforts to set out his America First vision.
‘An inane jumble’: Trump foreign policy splits GOP on issue party once agreed on
Queen Elizabeth rebuffs Chinese leader
So much for a “golden age” of UK-Chinese relations. In a rare diplomatic leak, Queen Elizabeth II was caught in a reality TV moment at her garden party at Buckingham Palace, letting slip that a visiting Chinese delegation was “very rude to the ambassador”. The slip-up referred to President Xi Jinping’s first state visit to Britain last year.
Queen caught on camera saying Chinese officials were ‘very rude’
Climate change tipping point
A key atmospheric measuring station at Cape Grim in Australia is on the verge of showing CO2 concentrations at 400ppm for the first time. This is a grave marker and suggests carbon dioxide concentrations are teetering on the point of no return and locking the planet into irreversible warming. “We’re going into very new territory,” says James Butler, of the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
World’s carbon dioxide concentration teetering on the point of no return
Power struggle hampers Isis fight
As an Isis bomb devastates a Sadr City market, killing at least 66 people, US-backed efforts to rid Iraq of Islamic State are being undermined by internal ethnic and sectarian strife and political torpor. Martin Chulov finds that weak state controls have pitched the Iraqi army in a power struggle with militias and the Kurds, weakening the resolve to confront Isis as the rivals focus on future territorial carve-ups. Islamic State releases a children’s mobile app “to teach Arabic” using words like “tank”, “gun” and “rocket”.
Mosul: suspicion and hostility cloud fight to recapture Iraqi city from Isis
Prince’s doctor questioned
Dr Michael Todd Schulenberg, the physician who prescribed medication to Prince twice in the month before his death, has been questioned by investigators. The search warrant shows investigators interviewed Schulenberg and searched a suburban Minneapolis hospital where he worked but did not specify what medications were prescribed.
Warrant says doctor prescribed medication for Prince before death
Brazil’s president faces a crucial vote
Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff faces a crucial vote today in the Brazilian legislature that will probably see impeachment proceedings against her approved. Jonathan Watts says Rousseff’s stubbornness and secretive nature made her ill-equipped to stop the trouble that was brewing.
Brazilian senate to vote on Dilma Rousseff impeachment
Hedge fund kings still rolling in cash
The business has been hammered by losses and closures, but hedge fund kings are still commanding massive paydays. The top 25 hedge fund managers earned $13bn in 2015 – more than the entire economies of Nicaragua, Namibia and the Bahamas. Of those, Kenneth Griffin, founder of Citadel and the wealthiest man in Illinois, and New York’s James Simons of Renaissance Technologies, each made $1.7bn. Top Wall Street bankers are paupers by contrast: the best paid banker last year was JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who collected $27m.
Top 25 hedge fund managers earned $13bn in 2015 – more than some nations
Google’s reality check
The technology giant is to put forward new set of female emojis. The plan is to promote equality. The new representations include cartoon female engineers, chemists, plumbers and farmers. “No matter where you look, women are gaining visibility and recognition as never before,” say the designers behind the proposal. “Isn’t it time that emoji also reflect the reality that women play a key role in every walk of life and in every profession?”
Google proposes new set of female emojis to promote equality
Obama’s lost atomic ambitions
Barack Obama’s historic trip to Hiroshima should have been a crowning moment for his ambition to usher in an era of fewer weapons of mass destruction. Sadly, unlike the Enola Gay, gleaming in a Washington museum, his own efforts look more tarnished.
Enola Gay is a museum piece, unlike the nuclear arms Obama hoped to eradicate
Masters of mankind
In part two of an extract from Noam Chomsky’s new book Who Rules the World? the author looks at how a sledgehammer strategy, AKA “the global war on terror”, has spread jihadi terror from Afghanistan across much of the world. “The invasion of Iraq made a substantial contribution to this process,” writes Chomsky, “much as intelligence agencies had predicted.” If we continue with such brutal policies, he says, the likely effect is even more violence with broader appeal. Part one is here.
Playing by the al-Qaida gameplan: how the war on terror spread jihadi influence
Protect children from literature? Er, no thanks
Certain subjects – sex, drink, drugs, violence – are guaranteed attention-grabbers. But how do you write about them for teenagers? YA author Chris Vick has the answer; Brian Conaghan, author of When Mr Dog Bites, picks top teen reads.
Why we shouldn’t protect teenagers from controversial issues in fiction
Brady’s cookbook sells out
The Patriots’ quarterback, model husband and deflategate star has sold out his $200 cookbook TB12 Nutrition Manual, which features “89 seasonally-inspired recipes”. Tim Hill says Brady should have plenty of time to practice his kitchen skills: he’s suspended for the first four games of the season.
Tom Brady’s $200 cookbook TB12 Nutrition Manual sells out on website
