PEN America cancels festival after authors drop out in support of Gaza

Cancellation of World Voices festival comes days after organization cancelled 2024 edition of its annual awards ceremony

The free speech organization PEN America has cancelled its World Voices festival after several authors withdrew their participation over the non-profit’s response to Israel’s military attacks against Gaza.

The festival was scheduled to take place on 8 May in New York City and Los Angeles. A prominent group of writers including Naomi Klein, a Guardian columnist; Isabella Hammad; and Zaina Arafat signed an open letter to PEN America in March announcing their decision not to participate in this year’s festival.

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Hush-money trial live: Trump appears to repeat call for lifting of gag order after Pecker testimony ends

Ex-president rails against ban on attacking key people connected to the trial; longtime Trump assistant asked whether boss distracted while signing checks

Trump defense attorney Emil Bove has resumed his cross-examination of Pecker.

“We were talking about Hope Hicks, right?” Bove asked, referring to the former campaign and White House aide to Trump. Pecker answered in the affirmative.

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US flight attendant indicted in attempt to record teen in airplane bathroom

Investigators say man concealed iPhone to record bathroom video of 14-year-old girl, who used her phone to document evidence

An American Airlines flight attendant was indicted on Thursday after authorities said he tried to secretly record video of a 14-year-old girl using an airplane bathroom last September. Authorities also alleged that Estes Carter Thompson III had four separate videos which showed girls using lavatories on an aircraft where he worked.

The 36-year-old Thompson of Charlotte, North Carolina, was indicted on one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of images of child sexual abuse depicting a prepubescent minor.

In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International

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Biden administration delays plan to ban menthol cigarettes again

Top health official gives no timeline for issuing rule, saying administration taking more time to consider feedback

For the second time in recent months, the Joe Biden White House has delayed a sweeping plan to ban menthol cigarettes, a decision that is certain to infuriate anti-smoking advocates but could avoid angering Black voters ahead of November elections.

In a statement on Friday, the president’s top health official gave no timeline for issuing the rule, saying only that the administration would take more time to consider feedback, including from civil rights groups.

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Tesla Autopilot feature was involved in 13 fatal crashes, US regulator says

Federal transportation agency finds Tesla’s claims about feature don’t match their findings and opens second investigation

US auto-safety regulators said on Friday that their investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot had identified at least 13 fatal crashes in which the feature had been involved. The investigation also found the electric carmaker’s claims did not match up with reality.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) disclosed on Friday that during its three-year Autopilot safety investigation, which it launched in August 2021, it identified at least 13 Tesla crashes involving one or more death, and many more involving serious injuries, in which “foreseeable driver misuse of the system played an apparent role”.

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Ruby Bridges: civil rights pioneer rejects claim book makes white children uncomfortable

US activist, 69, speaks to NBC amid growing effort to prevent I Am Ruby Bridges and other works being available to school students

Increasingly, the US civil rights icon Ruby Bridges – the first Black child to integrate a school in Louisiana – has seen some adults seek to prevent grade-school students from accessing the books and films that chronicle her story, saying the tale makes white children feel bad about themselves.

But that justification is “ridiculous” because “my biggest fans are kids all around the world”, Bridges told NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker in an interview airing on Sunday morning’s episode of the show.

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Crews battle fire threatening longest wooden pier on US west coast

Over 100 firefighters, 30 lifeguards and 32 police officers called to help as flames tore through restaurant at end of California pier

A historic southern California pier caught fire on Thursday, burning for several hours until firefighters battling the blaze from boats were able to extinguish the flames.

Flames tore through a restaurant at the end of the Oceanside Pier, the longest wooden pier on the US west coast, and heavily damaged the closed diner and a neighboring business.

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US has seen evidence of attempts by China to influence election, says Blinken

Secretary of state met Xi Jinping in Beijing and warned of sanctions over China’s support for Russian arms industry

Washington has seen evidence of attempts by Beijing to “influence and arguably interfere” in this year’s US elections, the secretary of state has said during a trip to China, also warning that Chinese companies face new sanctions if they do not stop supplying material and equipment to the Russian arms industry.

Antony Blinken told CNN that he had reiterated Joe Biden’s message to Xi Jinping not to interfere in November’s vote – a warning that reportedly received assurances from the Chinese president that he would not do so. Asked whether China was keeping to its promise, Blinken said: “We have seen, generally speaking, evidence of attempts to influence, and arguably interfere, and we want to make sure that that’s cut off as quickly as possible.

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Harvey Weinstein: what does ruling mean for California rape conviction?

Mogul’s lawyers say decision in New York will strengthen appeal in Los Angeles but victims confident guilty verdict will be upheld

Harvey Weinstein was already expected to spend the remainder of his life in prison for crimes in New York when a Los Angeles jury found him of guilty of rape and sexual assault in 2022 and he was sentenced to an additional 16 years.

But on Thursday New York’s top court overturned Weinstein’s 2020 conviction for two sex crimes and found he should receive a new trial, and the California case has taken on even greater significance.

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Police allegedly use rubber bullets and teargas at university protest in Georgia

Multiple arrests at crackdown on Emory University campus encampment focused on Palestine and Cop City

Police have carried out multiple violent arrests at Emory University in Decatur, Georgia, in what appears to be the first campus crackdown in recent days to involve rubber bullets and teargas after students set up an encampment in solidarity with Palestine and against Cop City.

On Thursday, Emory students set up multiple tents on the campus’s lawns in protest against the university’s ties to Israel, as well Atlanta’s Cop City, a police and fire department training center that is being constructed on a 171-acre plot in a forest south-east of Atlanta.

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USC cancels main commencement ceremony amid Gaza protests

Move made after more than 90 demonstrators arrested on campus and university cancels pro-Palestinian valedictorian’s speech

The University of Southern California (USC) has canceled its main stage graduation ceremony, citing new safety measures as student protests over the Israel-Gaza war have surged on the campus.

USC is one of many campuses across the country that have become hubs for student demonstrations against the war, with hundreds of arrests nationwide as tensions escalate. Police arrested dozens of students and activists at USC this week on trespassing charges.

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ByteDance would shut down TikTok in US rather than sell it, sources say

App’s ‘secret source’ algorithm reportedly core to operations of parent company, which sources say make a sale highly unlikely

ByteDance would prefer to shut down TikTok rather than sell it if the Chinese company exhausts all legal options to fight legislation to ban the platform from app stores in the US, four sources said.

The algorithms TikTok relies on for its operations are deemed core to ByteDance’s overall operations, which would make a sale of the app with algorithms highly unlikely, said the sources close to the parent.

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Microsoft’s heavy bet on AI pays off as it beats expectations in second quarter

World’s largest public company reports $61.86bn revenue after investing billions into artificial intelligence

Profits at Microsoft beat Wall Street’s expectations as its heavy bet on artificial intelligence continued to bear fruit in the second quarter.

The technology giant has invested billions of dollars into AI in a bid to turbocharge its growth, particularly of its cloud computing services. Its cloud computing revenue surged by more than 20% in the latest quarter.

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David Pecker testifies Michael Cohen said Trump ‘furious’ over refusal to pay Stormy Daniels – as it happened

This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest stories here:

“He said she was a 12 out of 10,” David Pecker says the former editor in chief of the National Enquirer, Dylan Howard, told him about Karen McDougal after meeting with her.

Pecker says McDougal told Howard she didn’t want her story about Trump to be published. He says:

She said she didn’t want to be the next Monica Lewinsky … She wanted to restart her career.

Dylan came to me in early June of 2016 and said that he received a call from one of his major sources, in California, that there’s a Playboy model who is trying to sell a story about a relationship that she had with Donald Trump for a year.

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David Pecker, Trump’s ‘eyes and ears’, to resume testimony in hush-money trial

Former National Enquirer publisher says he helped Trump to suppress negative stories that threatened 2016 election campaign

The former tabloid publisher David Pecker will continue testimony at Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial on Thursday, following his testimony earlier in the week.

Pecker, the former chief executive of American Media, which publishes the National Enquirer, testified that he used his position to help Trump kill negative stories that threatened his campaign.

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Senior Democrat calls for arrests of ‘leftwing fascists’ urging Gaza ceasefire

Congressman Adam Smith says ‘totalitarian’ protesters are ‘trying to silence anyone who dares to disagree with them’

Protesters calling for Israel to cease fire in its war with Hamas who have disrupted US public events and infrastructure are practicing “leftwing fascism” or “leftwing totalitarianism”, a senior US House Democrat said, adding that such protesters are “challenging representative democracy” and should be arrested.

“Intimidation is the tactic,” said Adam Smith of Washington state, the ranking Democrat on the House armed services committee. “Intimidation and an effort to silence opposition … I don’t know if there’s such a thing as leftwing fascism. If you want to just call it leftwing totalitarianism, then that’s what it is. It is a direct challenge to representative democracy now.”

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‘Waiting for Trump’: Viktor Orbán hopes US election will change his political fortunes

Exclusive: Hungary’s PM and EU’s most isolated leader says he is pursuing ‘friendship with everybody’ – particularly the former US president

Europe’s most isolated leader was beaming.

Standing in a hallway in Brussels, Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister, spoke excitedly about the politician he hopes will change his political fortunes – Donald Trump.

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Protesters arrested amid crackdown on pro-Palestine student rallies across US campuses

At least 34 arrested at University of Texas in Austin and 50 more detained at University of Southern California while House speaker jeered at Columbia University

Dozens of protesters were arrested on Wednesday while participating in pro-Palestine demonstrations across US college campuses.

At least 34 protesters, including a member of the media from a local news station, were arrested during protests at University of Texas in Austin and at least 50 more were detained by police at University of Southern California (USC).

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Chicago’s infamous sidewalk ‘rat hole’ removed by officials

City officials made the decision after saying the sidewalk in Roscoe Village was damaged and needed to be replaced

A Chicago sidewalk landmark some residents affectionately referred to as the “rat hole” has been removed after city officials decided it was damaged and needed to be replaced.

The sidewalk, which had an impression that looked like the outline of a rat with claws and a tail, had been present in Chicago’s North Side neighbourhood of Roscoe Village for years. It found fresh fame in January after a Chicago comedian shared a photo on the social platform X.

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Netanyahu labels US student protests ‘antisemitic’ and calls for them to end

Israeli prime minister terms pro-ceasefire rallies ‘horrific’ as students demand universities divest from weapons makers

The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday condemned pro-Palestinian protests at universities in the United States as “horrific”, saying the demonstrations “have to be stopped”, as he categorized students as antisemitic.

There’s been rising tensions at campuses across the US as demonstrations began last week after students at Columbia set up encampments calling for the university to divest from weapons manufacturers with ties to Israel. The protests have led to mass suspensions and arrests of hundreds students in New York, Texas and California.

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