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France to summon US ambassador after comments about death of far-right activist

Official US social media accounts posted about rise of ‘violent radical leftism’ after killing of Quentin Deranque in Lyon last week

The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, has said he will summon Charles Kushner, the US ambassador to France, over comments related to the killing of the French far-right activist Quentin Deranque.

Deranque was beaten to death in Lyon last week during a fight with alleged hard-left activists.

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© Photograph: John Minchillo/AP

© Photograph: John Minchillo/AP

© Photograph: John Minchillo/AP

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Are we really overdiagnosing mental illness?

It’s tempting to dismiss the proliferation of labels as a fad, but there’s more to this phenomenon than a simple culture-war reading allows

My psychological research rarely makes good comedy material, but in a standup show in London recently, those two worlds collided. One of the jokes was about how everyone is getting diagnosed with ADHD these days – about the social media videos that encourage viewers to identify common human experiences, like daydreaming or talking a lot, as evidence of the condition. The audience laughed because everyone got it – they’ve all witnessed how common it seems to have become in the last few years. When something becomes this prevalent in society, and this mystifying, it’s no surprise it ends up as a punchline.

Part of my work as an academic involves trying to solve the puzzle of why so many more people, especially young people, are reporting symptoms of mental illness compared to even five or 10 years ago. (ADHD is a form of neurodivergence, rather than a mental illness, but both have seen an increase, so they are related questions.) Whenever I talk about this – to colleagues, school staff, parents – it doesn’t take long until someone brings up that judgment-laden, hot-button word: overdiagnosis.

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© Illustration: Elia Barbieri/The Guardian

© Illustration: Elia Barbieri/The Guardian

© Illustration: Elia Barbieri/The Guardian

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Amateur YouTube detectives’ constant streams put cases in jeopardy: ‘It’s clickbait’

Self-declared sleuths have inserted themselves into the search for Nancy Guthrie, compromising the investigation for views and clicks

On the 10th day of the search for Nancy Guthrie, reporters camped outside of the missing woman’s home noticed a strange man strut right up to the front door. It had been more than a week since the mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie had disappeared, and authorities had just announced they had a new lead from Ring footage of what looked like a “potential subject” attempting to tamper with the doorbell camera on the morning of her disappearance. So now who was this unknown person, clad in a gray top and black pants, carrying a large black bag and striding to the door?

It was a Domino’s delivery driver.

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© Photograph: Evan Garcia/Reuters

© Photograph: Evan Garcia/Reuters

© Photograph: Evan Garcia/Reuters

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‘She would pop up in my sexual fantasies’: what happens when you fancy your therapist?

They’re often compassionate good listeners who focus on their clients’ needs – so is it any wonder many patients find themselves with a crush? A writer, who is in exactly this position, talks to people on both sides of the couch

I was half-watching the latest series of the Netflix romcom Nobody Wants This when suddenly things got interesting. Spoiler alert: it had just been revealed that one of the characters (Morgan) was in a relationship with her newly ex-therapist (Dr Andy). While some of the characters freaked out, declaring the relationship very concerning, I felt a frisson of excitement. Because I, too, have harboured the desire to date my therapist.

As it turns out, this fantasy is neither unusual nor unexpected. “Psychoanalysis almost insists on transference,” explains psychotherapist Charlotte Fox Weber, using the term coined by Sigmund Freud, the founding father of psychoanalysis, in his 1895 work Studies on Hysteria. The basic premise is that the patient projects old feelings, attitudes, desires or fantasies on to their therapist. This can manifest in numerous ways – often at the same time – covering the whole gamut of emotions and relationships, from love to hate, maternal to erotic, and everything in between.

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© Illustration: Anna Parini

© Illustration: Anna Parini

© Illustration: Anna Parini

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Dining across the divide: ‘Universities should be free. We all lose for every bright kid who doesn’t go’

Two south-westerners shared a love of boats, but how would they fare on tuition fees and NHS funding?

Grant, 61, Yelverton, Devon

Occupation Retired: restored properties

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© Photograph: Jim Wileman/The Guardian

© Photograph: Jim Wileman/The Guardian

© Photograph: Jim Wileman/The Guardian

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How loose social ties can help heal political division | Eva M Meyersson Milgrom

Weak connections known as ‘bridge ties’ cross the boundaries that normally structure our lives. We must restore this connective tissue

The first time a woman I’ll call Shoshana went toBrandi Carlile’s music festival, she arrived alone. She had just been through another unsuccessful round of IVF. During one of the songs, about motherhood, she began to cry in the middle of the crowd. Then two women she had never met stepped closer and wordlessly wrapped their arms around her until her breathing slowed.

“That’s when I realized,” Shoshana told me in an interview, “this place isn’t just about music.”

Eva M Meyersson Milgrom is a social scientist and professor emerita from Stanford University, where she was affiliated with the department of sociology, the Institute of Economic Policy, and the Graduate School of Business. She is working on a book on the importance of diversifying our social networks

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© Photograph: Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images

© Photograph: Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images

© Photograph: Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images

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Myth, monsters and making sense of a disenchanted world: why everyone is reading fantasy

I have made the leap from literary fiction to fantasy – for those who think it’s mere wish-fulfilment, here’s why we need that thing with the dragons

Fantasy doesn’t need defending. It is one of the great cultural forms at the moment, all-pervading, ubiquitous. Maybe even the dominant form of writing just now, in line with the bookseller’s joke that contemporary publishing divides into A: romantasy and B: everything else.

But it might need explaining a little bit, for those who don’t get its pleasures; who still see it as wish-fulfilment, or as a low form that literary fiction gets to look down upon or direct a puzzled tolerance towards. As a writer of literary fiction who has borrowed and rejoiced in fantasy tropes for years, and has now himself written an out-and-out fantasy, I’m beyond embarrassment. I’ve been reading and loving fantasy all my life, and for me its best creators stand comfortably alongside the greats of any genre. And yet, I’m still encountering a faint sense that there is something to be accounted for in writing fantasy. That I ought to have reasons for wanting to do that thing with the dragons, no matter how culturally pervasive it is.

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© Photograph: Photo 12/Alamy

© Photograph: Photo 12/Alamy

© Photograph: Photo 12/Alamy

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Trump’s trade war risks undermining his hopes of hefty US interest rate cuts | Graeme Wearden

Upping tariffs may have lifted the president’s mood but it is a headache for the Federal Reserve and its next chair

Donald Trump and Denis Healey don’t have much in common. One of the greatest prime ministers Britain never had shares little of his famous hinterland with what some historians see as one of the worst occupants of the White House.

But Trump would be well advised to remember Healey’s first law of holes – when you’re in one, stop digging.

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© Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

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Jesse Kline: The Canadian boxer who won by losing

Somewhere across this great land, someone or something great is just getting started. This country is built on game-changing people, ideas and initiatives: Wayne Gretzky redefined a game; oilsands innovations helped us prosper; Frederick Banting transformed millions of lives; Loblaws changed how we live. Today, we continue a National Post series that celebrates Canadian greatness, in whatever form we find it. Read More
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J.D. Tuccille: The American youth marinating in ‘assassination culture’

If you think American politics are violent now, just wait a few years. While not exactly daily occurrences, assassinations and attempted assassinations, arsons, and ideologically fuelled brawls have become sufficiently commonplace that many escape the public’s notice. Americans overall have become not just more tolerant, but even supportive of resolving political disputes with violence. But research shows that those most inclined towards violence are younger people marinating in an “assassination culture” that normalizes physical attacks to resolve disagreements. That bodes poorly for the future.  Read More
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This is how we do it: ‘He gives me the confidence to try things I’ve never done before’

A new relationship in their 50s brought adventure, curiosity and freedom for Alexandra and Laurent

How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

I love how committed and loyal Laurent is. For him, I’m at the top of the pyramid

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© Illustration: Ryan Gillett/The Guardian

© Illustration: Ryan Gillett/The Guardian

© Illustration: Ryan Gillett/The Guardian

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Barbara Kay: Liberal MP’s divorce bill would keep kids isolated from parents

Now in its second reading, Bill C-223, an Act to amend the Divorce Act, also known as the “Keeping Children Safe Act,” is a private member’s bill tabled by Liberal MP Lisa Hepfner. Endorsed by a slew of feminist organizations, C-223 seeks to end “parental alienation” as a legal consideration in family court. Far from keeping children safe, the bill, if passed, will put many children in jeopardy, while keeping their alienating parents safe. Read More
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China overtakes US as Germany’s top trading partner

Friedrich Merz to meet Xi Jinping in Beijing as China overtakes US as country’s leading export destination

China has overtaken the US as Germany’s top trading partner, figures have shown, as the chancellor, Friedrich Merz, prepares for his first visit to Beijing since taking office.

Merz will head to China on Tuesday and will be welcomed with military honours on Wednesday in Beijing by the prime minister, Li Qiang, before later meeting the president, Xi Jinping, for talks over dinner, his spokesperson Sebastian Hille said.

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© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images

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Greenland does not need US hospital boat sent by Trump, says Denmark

Defence minister rebuffs US president’s claim that Arctic islanders are ‘not being taken care of’

Greenland does not need medical assistance from other countries, Denmark has said, after Donald Trump said he was sending a hospital ship to the autonomous Danish territory that he wants to acquire.

“The Greenlandic population receives the healthcare it needs. They receive it either in Greenland, or, if they require specialised treatment, they receive it in Denmark. So it’s not as if there’s a need for a special healthcare initiative in Greenland,” the country’s defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, told the Danish broadcaster DR on Sunday.

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© Photograph: Bo Amstrup/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bo Amstrup/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bo Amstrup/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP/Getty Images

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