Author: TheGuardian

Republicans in several states are advancing partisan reviews of the 2020 election results, underscoring how deeply the GOP has embraced the myth of a stolen election since 2020. The investigations in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Texas are advancing even after an extensive similar effort in Arizona, championed by Donald Trump and allies, failed to produce evidence of fraud. All three inquiries come as Trump has called out top Republicans in each state and pressured them to review the 2020 race. He is also backing several candidates who have embraced the myth in their races for statewide offices in which they...

As the pandemic corralled the masses into video conferences throughout 2020, researchers noticed a phenomenon they dubbed “Zoom dysmorphia.” After months of remote meetings and social gatherings, and seeing their own faces on screen, more and more people became fixated on perceived physical flaws. Shadi Kourosh, a Massachusetts dermatologist, coined the term after her clinic reopened for in-person appointments last summer, when she noticed a huge uptick in consultations for cosmetic procedures such as Botox, injectable fillers, laser resurfacing and chemical peels. She eventually co-authored a study on the trend, which was published last November. “With all the other...

Donald Trump’s penchant for turning his political and legal troubles into fundraising schemes has long been recognized, but the former US president’s money hustling tricks seem to have expanded since his defeat by Joe Biden, prompting new scrutiny and criticism from campaign finance watchdogs and legal analysts. Critics note Trump has built an arsenal of political committees and nonprofit groups, staffed with dozens of ex-administration officials and loyalists, which seem aimed at sustaining his political hopes for a comeback, and exacting revenge on Republican congressional critics. These groups have been aggressive in raising money through at times misleading appeals...

On 6 January, a mob including White Supremacists and far-right militants stormed the U.S. Capitol as lawmakers were certifying Joe Biden’s election victory. The attack followed mass shootings by white supremacists, like in El Paso in 2019 and a Pittsburgh synagogue the year before, and public violence by far-right militants at rallies across the country since Donald Trump’s election. The Biden administration now seeks to turn the attention of the post-9/11 counterterrorism enterprise toward “domestic violent extremists.” But in making this shift, it is vital that we learn from our mistakes rather than simply repeating them. Already officials are...

The American right has been drunk on its freedom from two kinds of inhibition since Donald Trump appeared to guide them into the promised land, and unleashed the impulsive part of their psyche. One that was free of the inhibition to lie, the other from a restraint for violence. Both are ways members of civil society normally limit their own actions out of respect for the rights of others and the collective good. Those already strained limits have snapped for leading Republican figures, from Tucker Carlson on Fox News to Ted Cruz in the Senate and for their followers....