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Uganda-born Zohran Mamdani ID’d himself as Asian and African American on Columbia application: report

Democratic socialist New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim immigrant, identified as both Asian and African American on his college application, a report claims. The 33-year-old checked both “Asian” and “Black or African American” on his Columbia University application, which was ultimately rejected, when he applied to the elite institution as a high...

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Cramps, fatigue and hallucinations: paddling 200km in a Paleolithic canoe from Taiwan to Japan

The team battled a notoriously strong current and used the stars as their guide to reach an island in an unstable vessel made of Japanese cedar

Dr Yousuke Kaifu was working at an archaeological site on the Japanese islands of Okinawa when a question started to bubble in his mind. The pieces unearthed in the excavation, laid out before him, revealed evidence of humans living there 30,000 years ago, arriving from the north and the south. But how did they get there?

“There are stone tools and archaeological remains at the site but they don’t answer those questions,” Kaifu, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Tokyo, says.

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© Photograph: Yousuke Kaifu/The University of Tokyo

© Photograph: Yousuke Kaifu/The University of Tokyo

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Countries must protect human right to a stable climate, court rules

Costa Rica-based inter-American court of human rights says states have obligation to respond to climate change

There is a human right to a stable climate and states have a duty to protect it, a top court has ruled.

Announcing the publication of a crucial advisory opinion on climate change on Thursday, Nancy Hernández López, president of the inter-American court of human rights (IACHR), said climate change carries “extraordinary risks” that are felt particularly keenly by people who are already vulnerable.

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© Photograph: Agencia Press South/Getty Images

© Photograph: Agencia Press South/Getty Images

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Michael Madsen’s brooding charisma needed Tarantino to unlock it | Peter Bradshaw

The Reservoir Dogs and Donnie Brasco actor had a rare, sometimes scary power, as well as a winning self-awareness and levity

Until 1992, when people heard Stuck in the Middle With You by Stealers Wheel on the radio, they might smile and nod and sing along to its catchy soft-rock tune and goofy Dylan-esque lyrics. But after 1992, with the release of Quentin Tarantino’s sensationally tense and violent crime movie Reservoir Dogs, the feelgood mood around that song forever darkened. That was down to an unforgettably scary performance by Michael Madsen, who has died at the age of 67.

Stuck in the Middle, with its lyrics about being “so scared in case I fall off my chair”, was to be always associated with the image of Madsen, whom Tarantino made an icon of indie American movies, with his boxy black suit, sinister, ruined handsomeness and powerful physique running to fat, playing tough guy Vic Vega, AKA Mr Blonde. He grooved back and forth across the room, in front of a terrified undercover cop tied to a chair, dancing to that Stealers Wheel number, holding his straight razor, which he had removed from his boot – smirkingly preparing to torture the cop (that is, torture him further) by cutting off his ear.

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© Photograph: Myung Jung Kim/PA

© Photograph: Myung Jung Kim/PA

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US supreme court clears way for deportation of migrants to South Sudan

Court halts ruling that allowed migrants to challenge removal to countries where they could be in danger

The supreme court has allowed the Trump administration to deport the eight men who have been held for weeks at an American military base in Djibouti to war-torn South Sudan, a country where almost none of them have ties.

Most of the men are from countries including Vietnam, South Korea, Mexico, Laos, Cuba and Myanmar. Just one is from South Sudan.

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© Photograph: Kevin Mohatt/Reuters

© Photograph: Kevin Mohatt/Reuters

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Newcastle close to signing Forest’s Anthony Elanga with improved £55m offer

  • An initial £45m bid was rejected by Forest last week

  • Newcastle look to bolster squad for Champions League

Newcastle United are optimistic of striking a deal to sign the Nottingham Forest forward Anthony Elanga after submitting an improved offer worth about £55m. Last week Newcastle had a £45m bid rejected but have returned with an increased offer.

Newcastle and Eddie Howe are long-term admirers of Elanga, who featured for Forest in every Premier League match last season, scoring six goals and providing 11 assists as Nuno Espírito Santo’s side qualified for the Europa Conference League, returning to European competition for the first time since 1995-96. Newcastle qualified for the Champions League after finishing fifth.

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© Photograph: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images

© Photograph: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images

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Trump’s tax-and-spending bill passes Congress in major win for president

Early-morning negotiations proved enough to persuade hardline House conservatives to back bill in 218-214 vote

The US House of Representatives passed Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill on Thursday, handing the president the first major legislative victory of his second term and sending to his desk wide-ranging legislation expected to supercharge immigration enforcement and slash federal safety net programs.

The 218-214 vote came after weeks of wrangling over the measure that Trump demanded be ready for his signature by Friday, the Independence Day holiday. Written by his Republican allies in Congress and unanimously rejected by Democrats, the bill traveled an uncertain road to passage that saw multiple all-night votes in the House and Senate and negotiations that lasted until the final hours before passage. Ultimately, Republicans who had objected to its cost and contents folded, and the bill passed with just two GOP defections: Thomas Massie, a rightwing Kentucky lawmaker, and Brian Fitzpatrick, who represents a Pennsylvania district that voted for Kamala Harris in last year’s election.

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© Photograph: Graeme Sloan/EPA

© Photograph: Graeme Sloan/EPA

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How the Trump Administration Justified Ignoring the TikTok Ban

In purporting to license otherwise illegal conduct by tech firms, President Trump set a precedent expanding executive power, legal experts warned.

© Pete Marovich for The New York Times

Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in letters to technology companies that President Trump had decided that shutting down TikTok would interfere with his “constitutional duties to take care of the national security and foreign affairs of the United States.”
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Park Service Is Left Short-Staffed in Peak Travel Season

Layoffs and departures after pressure from the Trump administration have left sites struggling, with the remaining employees each doing the work of two or three people.

© Loren Elliott for The New York Times

A National Park Service custodian cleaning a bathroom in Yosemite National Park in February. At another national park, in Colorado, all the custodial staff have been fired and the other staff members have had to take on their duties.
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Teenage Aviator Detained After Landing in Antarctica, Chile Says

Ethan Guo, 19, had been documenting his attempt to fly solo to all seven continents on social media. He is no longer in custody but has no easy way to leave an island off Antarctica’s coast.

© Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone, via Associated Press

Ethan Guo last summer in Geneva, where he began his attempt to fly solo to the seven continents.
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Mamdani Identified as Asian and African American on College Application

Zohran Mamdani, the Democrat running for mayor of New York City, was born in Uganda. He doesn’t consider himself Black but said the application didn’t allow for the complexity of his background.

© Dave Sanders for The New York Times

Zohran Mamdani said the college applications were the only instances that he could recall where he identified himself as Black or African American.
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