Major study suggests Apple Watch can detect irregular heartbeat

More work needed to see if wearables can help screen for heart problems, but researchers call study encouraging

A huge study suggests the Apple Watch can detect a worrisome irregular heartbeat – but experts say more work is needed to tell if using wearable technology to screen for heart problems really helps.

More than 419,000 Apple Watch users signed up for the study, which was funded by Apple and the largest ever to explore screening seemingly healthy people for atrial fibrillation (A-fib), a condition that if untreated eventually can trigger strokes.

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Trump is cornered, with violence on his mind. We must be on red alert | Robert Reich

As investigators close in, the president invokes the support of the military, police and vigilantes. This is a perilous moment

What does a megalomaniacal president of the United States do when he’s cornered? We’ll soon find out.

Related: 'It's a small group of people': Trump again denies white nationalism is rising threat

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Trump supporters find new appreciation for safe spaces

New app helps people who feel they are the victims of anti-Maga sentiment to find restaurants they feel comfortable in

Last week, a man named Dion Cini was refused service at a bar in New York City. He claims he had done nothing wrong and was discriminated against.

A video of the incident confirms that Cini doesn’t appear overly inebriated or obviously violating any other rules of decorum at Jake’s Dilemma; instead he was kicked out for what he was wearing: a Maga hat.

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‘Pay-for-access to Trump club’: Mar-a-Lago faces renewed ethics concerns

With the winding down of the ‘Winter White House’ comes another season of controversy and scandal that swirl around the president’s resort

At Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s waterfront winter retreat, an end-of-term air hangs over the expansive verandas and perfectly manicured lawns. In barely a month’s time, following the traditional season-closing Easter Sunday brunch gala, the private members’ club will be scrubbed and shuttered for the summer, its wealthy clientele dispersing to residences in the Hamptons or boarding their mega-yachts to cruise the Mediterranean.

Related: Trump's four 2017 Mar-a-Lago trips cost taxpayers nearly $14m, watchdog says

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El Norte review: an epic and timely history of Hispanic North America

Carrie Gibson has written an exhaustive corrective to historians who seek to whitewash a story of settlement and conflict

The subtitle of Carrie Gibson’s book is The Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America. El Norte lives up to it.

Related: These Truths review: Jill Lepore's Lincolnian American history

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Beto O’Rourke apologises for teen writings and joke about his wife

Democratic presidential contender is forced on to the defensive as he kicks off campaign in Iowa

Democratic presidential contender Beto O’Rourke has acknowledged making mistakes as a teen and as a candidate as he responded to criticism of his campaign rhetoric toward his wife as well as writings he produced online when he was young.

During a taping of the Political Party Live podcast in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he addressed criticism of his campaign-trail joke that his wife, Amy, has raised their three kids “sometimes with my help”.

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‘It’s a small group of people’: Trump again denies white nationalism is rising threat

President downplays hate surge after white supremacist, who mentioned Trump in a manifesto, attacked New Zealand mosques

Donald Trump said he did not view white nationalism as a rising threat around the world, as New Zealand is reeling from a white supremacist attack on two mosques that killed 49 people.

Asked by a reporter on Friday if he saw an increase globally in the threat of white nationalism, the US president responded: “I don’t really. I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems. I guess, if you look at what happened in New Zealand, perhaps that’s a case. I don’t know enough about it yet.”

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US to deny visas for ICC members investigating alleged war crimes

Washington also threatened economic sanctions if war crimes court goes ahead with inquiry into US troops in Afghanistan

The United States has announced it will revoke or deny visas to members of the International Criminal Court involved in investigating the actions of US troops in Afghanistan or other countries.

The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said Washington was prepared to take further steps, including economic sanctions, if the war crimes court goes ahead with any investigations of US or allied personnel.

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Jeb Bush calls on Republicans to challenge Trump in 2020 – live

Donald Trump has now scheduled a 3:30 pm Oval Office event where it’s expected he will veto the congressional resolution to block his national emergency.

The schedule says he will deliver remarks on national security and the humanitarian crisis at the southern border.

Trump will "VETO!" at 3:30 in the Oval Office, per updated schedule. And will deliver remarks.

Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders got 7 stitches to his head after hitting his head on a glass shower door this morning, his campaign says. He got a “clean bill of health” and plans to continue with his regular schedule.

Just in: @BernieSanders campaign informed the press that the senator will proceed with his schedule after hitting his head on a glass shower door this morning. He went to a walk-in clinic and received 7 stitches. The notice says he was given a "clean bill of health".

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Beto O’Rourke kicks off 2020 bid in Iowa – in a voter’s living room

Texas Democrat said he has ‘some unique things’ to bring to race on his first day of campaigning to a crowd of about 125 people

Randy Naber is really a Joe Biden man, although he could also see himself voting for Kamala Harris. But here was former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke, America’s newest presidential candidate, in Naber’s living room, and the retired teacher wasn’t sure what to make of it.

Related: O'Rourke enters race with natural skills, eager support and some big challenges

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Preet Bharara: ‘I didn’t call Trump back and it’s one of the best decisions I ever made’

Fired by the president, the former US attorney has written his first book. He talks about if and when Trump will face justice – and why he fears for his own safety

Preet Bharara is used to dealing with bullies. When he was the US attorney for the southern district of New York, the premier law enforcement body in America, his office prosecuted Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law, Crips and Bloods gang leaders and mafia bosses. For going after the infamous arms dealer Viktor Bout he was banned from Russia, and the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan once tried to persuade the then US vice-president, Joe Biden, to sack him (he didn’t). The TV series Billions is loosely based on his legal battles with a hedge-fund billionaire. As he puts it himself: “Neither I nor anyone I know was too afraid to prosecute rich men in suits.”

So when Bharara says that even he is now feeling apprehensive about his personal safety, and that his fears relate not to al-Qaida or the Gambino family, but to the president of the United States, it comes as a jolt. “I used to have great confidence that my government would protect me,” he says. “You understood that if you were an American citizen like me, or resident like Jamal Khashoggi, you weren’t going to be rendered somewhere, you didn’t think that if you travelled to Madrid, say, and a BS red notice was issued for you, you’d be on your own. I’m a citizen of the United States and I served my country for 17 years, yet I don’t have that confidence any more. I don’t know that the government at its highest level thinks of Americans first – it’s whether you are on his side, or not on his side.”

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Trump tweets ‘VETO!’ after Senate votes to block national emergency – live

The Sanders Institute has stopped accepting donations and will shut down during Bernie Sanders’ campaign for president, AP reports, to ensure ethical issues don’t arise. The think tank was founded and is operated by his wife Jane.

Sanders rebuked Hilary Clinton in 2016 for not shuttering her family’s foundation, saying then that the nonprofit provided ways to buy influence from the candidate, who was then expected to win the election.

Jane Sanders said in an interview that the Vermont-based institute has stopped accepting donations and plans to suspend all operations by the end of May.

The move comes as Bernie Sanders, a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination, prepares for a wave of scrutiny into his political network and his family’s role”.

El Pasoans have largely expressed excitement about having their former congressman announcing he’s entering the already-crowded field for the White House in 2020 - though some have questions about his record and his long odds to secure the Democratic nomination.

Among local leaders in El Paso, county commissioner David Stout told The Guardian on Thursday that he’d been waiting for O’Rourke to announce a run for president from the moment of his narrow loss for Ted Cruz’s US Senate seat in the November midterm elections. Stout highlighted O’Rourke’s well-known charisma and ability to connect with ordinary people as his most important qualities.

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Senate rejects national emergency declaration in sharp rebuke to Trump

Twelve Republicans joined every Senate Democrat in rare move to block president’s effort to divert funds for US-Mexico border wall

The US Senate delivered a sharp rebuke to Donald Trump on Thursday, voting to overturn his declaration last month of a national emergency in order to divert taxpayer funds to the US-Mexico border.

In a 59-41 vote, 12 Republicans joined every Senate Democrat in a rare move to block the president’s effort to divert billions in funding to build his long-promised border wall without congressional approval.

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Irish PM brings partner to meet Mike Pence and delivers pointed remarks on sexuality

Leo Varadkar, who is openly gay, spoke on the changes for Ireland and called out various forms of discrimination

The Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, who is openly gay, brought his partner to a meeting on Thursday with the US vice-president, Mike Pence, a conservative Christian once dubbed “the face of anti-LGBTQ hate in America”.

Varadkar, who is in Washington this week to reaffirm the longstanding shared history between the two countries, brought his partner, Matt Barrett, to a St Patrick’s Day breakfast at the vice-presidential residence at the Naval Observatory.

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Sandy Hook: Connecticut rules gunmaker can be sued over shooting

High court justices issued 4-3 ruling over how Remington marketed the Bushmaster military-style rifle used in the shooting

The Connecticut supreme court has dealt a blow to gun manufacturers by ruling that victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting could go to trial against Remington Arms, on the grounds that the gun company irresponsibly marketed the gun used in the shooting to high-risk individuals.

“The families are grateful that our state’s supreme court has rejected the gun industry’s bid for complete immunity, not only from the consequences of their reckless conduct but also from the truth-seeking discovery process,” Josh Koskoff, one of the lawyers representing the Sandy Hook families, said.

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‘We’re all God’s children’: Irish PM delivers pointedly pro-LGBT speech to Mike Pence – video

Leo Varadkar, Ireland's prime minister, spoke about his sexuality during a breakfast hosted by the US vice-president, Mike Pence. Varadkar, one of the few openly gay world leaders, had brought his partner, Matt Barrett, to the event. Pence has an extensive anti-LGBT record, having repeatedly voted against HIV/Aids prevention funding as the governor of Indiana

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Boeing’s 737 Max fleet ‘will remain grounded for weeks’

US politicians say ban will last through April, as data from Ethiopian Airlines flight arrives in France

Boeing’s 737 Max 8 and 9 planes will remain grounded for weeks at a minimum, US politicians said on Thursday, as flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the crashed Ethiopian Airlines plane arrived in France.

After a briefing with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), congressman Rick Larsen said the planes, which have been involved in two fatal crashes in the last five months, would be banned from flying “at least through April” while new software is installed and investigations continue.

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O’Rourke enters race with natural skills, eager support and some big challenges

Former congressman from El Paso enters a crowded Democratic field – can he solidify his platform and take it to a national level?

Losing a federal election in your home state is not normally seen as a ticket to the White House. But then not everybody is capable of being defeated in the style of Beto O’Rourke.

Related: Beto O'Rourke announces 2020 run for presidency

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Who is 2020 presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke? – video profile

The Texas Democrat who narrowly lost to Ted Cruz in the 2018 midterms, has announced he is to run for president in 2020. The former congressman gained a national following with his campaign for the Senate, outperforming expectations for any Democrat in the deeply conservative state of Texas

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