Senate Democrats dismissed the articles of impeachment, as the charges failed to meet bar of ahigh crimes and misdemeanorsa

Senate Democrats on Wednesday dismissed the impeachment case brought by House Republicans against Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, on grounds that the charges failed to meet the bar of ahigh crimes and misdemeanorsa outlined in the constitution as a basis for removing an official from office.

In a pair of party-line votes, Democrats held that two articles alleging Mayorkas willfully refused to enforce the nationas immigration laws and breached the public trust with his statements to Congress about the high levels of migration at the US southern border with Mexico were unconstitutional. On the first article, Lisa Murkowski, the Republican senator from Alaska, voted apresenta.

After decrying state supreme court ruling on ban with no exceptions for rape or incest, lawmakers ensure its potential to take effect

After days of nationwide debate over the Arizona supreme courtas recent decision to uphold a near-total abortion ban from the 19th century, Arizonaas Republican-controlled statehouse has again quashed an effort to repeal the ban.

Republicans, who hold a one-seat majority in both the Arizona house and senate, on Wednesday shot down a procedural measure in the statehouse that would have enabled the chamber to vote on a bill to repeal the ban. Just one Republican, the representative Matt Gress, voted with the houseas 29 Democrats, but the 30-30 split was not enough to move forward.

IDF confirms buying thousands of tents for evacuation, raising fears over long-threatened attack

Israel has reportedly deployed extra artillery and armoured personnel carriers to the Gaza Strip periphery, suggesting that the military is preparing for its long-threatened ground offensive on Rafah, the only place of relative safety for at least 1.4 million displaced Palestinian civilians.

Israeli daily Maaariv also said on Wednesday that troops had been put on alert and athe governing principle of the operationa had been approved by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) general staff and Yoav Gallant, the defence minister. The IDF declined to comment on the reports.

Foreign minister warns of environmental catastrophe in Baltic Sea as he accuses Moscow of using unseaworthy vessels

Russia appears prepared to create aenvironmental havoca by sailing unseaworthy oil tankers through the Baltic Sea in breach of all maritime rules, the Swedish foreign minister has said.

Speaking to the Guardian during his first visit to London since Sweden became a Nato member, Tobias BillstrAPm called for new rules and enforcement mechanisms to prevent the ageing and uninsured Russian shadow fleet causing an environmental catastrophe. About half of all Russian oil transported by sea the passes through the Baltic Sea and Danish waters, often operating under opaque ownership, and using international waters to try to avoid scrutiny.

Bill Nelson told Capitol Hill lawmakers that China has been avery, very secretivea about its space progress, warning awe are in a racea

The head of Nasa has warned of China bolstering its space capabilities by using civilian programs to mask military objectives, cautioning that Washington must remain vigilant.

aChina has made extraordinary strides especially in the last 10 years, but they are very, very secretive,a Nasa administrator Bill Nelson told lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

President touted plan during speech on Wednesday in Pennsylvania, where union support could prove crucial

Joe Biden announced plans to triple tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum and promised to block the acquisition of US Steel by a Japanese company during a speech to steelworkers on Wednesday in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, where union support could prove crucial in the November general election.

Biden touted the plan during a visit to the United Steelworkers union headquarters in Pittsburgh, the heart of the American steel industry, where he said athe backbone of America has a steel spinea and promised to keep US Steel as a atotally American-owned, American-operateda company.

Officer shot and killed both a man who was attacking customers and Valentina Orellana-Peralta, who was hiding in a dressing room

A Los Angeles police officer who fatally shot a 14-year-old girl inside a clothing store in 2021 will not face charges, the California attorney general announced on Wednesday.

Valentina Orellana-Peralta was shopping with her mother at a north Hollywood Burlington Coat Factory on 23 December 2021 when the LAPD entered to apprehend a man suspected of attacking customers in the store. When officer William Dorsey Jones Jr fired three rounds at the man, Valentina was in a nearby dressing room with her mother praying and was killed by Jonesas gunfire.

Relief had been granted after president NicolA!s Maduro promised to hold free and fair elections this year

The Biden administration has reimposed crushing oil sanctions on Venezuela, admonishing the president NicolA!s Maduroas attempts to consolidate his rule just six months after the US eased restrictions in a bid to support now fading hopes for a democratic opening in the Opec nation.

A senior US official, discussing the decision with reporters, said any US company investing in Venezuela would have 45 days to wind down operations to avoid adding uncertainty to global energy markets. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss US policy deliberations.

Rate rose among middle-class women aged 18 to 45 and fell among working-class women of same age

The number of younger middle-class women who smoke has jumped 25% over the past decade, according to research.

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death and illness in the UK and accounts for 76,000 deaths annually. Experts from UCL examined data from nearly 200,000 adult participants in the Smoking Toolkit Study, a monthly survey of adults in England. Just over 44,000 were women aged 18-45.

Uri Berliner exits days after publication of an essay saying news organization no longer has an aopen-minded spirita

An editor at National Public Radio who publicly accused the news organization of having a liberal bias and a growing absence of aviewpoint diversitya has resigned, days after being suspended without pay.

On Wednesday, Uri Berliner posted a screenshot of his resignation letter to NPRas CEO, Katherine Maher, in which he wrote: aI am resigning from NPR, a great American institution where I have worked for 25 years.

The 61-year-old director, who says he will retire after his 10th film, has abandoned The Movie Critic, according to industry reports

Quentin Tarantino has reportedly abandoned his plans for The Movie Critic, the film that was to be his 10th and final project.

Deadline reported on Thursday that an anonymous source close to Tarantino had confirmed the news, reporting that Tarantino had asimply changed his minda about making The Movie Critic and would be agoing back to the drawing board to figure out what that final movie will bea.

House speaker Mike Johnson has unveiled his plans to pass foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific, with a vote likely on Saturday

US House speaker, Mike Johnson, has said long-awaited votes on aid for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific will take place as soon as Saturday, putting the senior Republican on a collision course with members of his own party.

At stake is $95bn of US security assistance that has been in limbo for months, amid fierce objections from far-right Republicans. Johnsonas decision to push ahead with the votes also puts his own job at risk, with at least two Republicans threatening to put forward a motion to remove him, just six months after he assumed the job.

Passengers report being stranded in the desert city as the international hub struggles in the wake of unusually heavy rain

Dubai is wrestling with the aftermath of extraordinary torrential rains that flooded the desert city, with residents describing harrowing stories of spending the night in their cars, and air passengers enduring chaotic scenes at airports.

Up to 259.5mm (10.2in) of rain fell on the usually arid country of the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, the most since records began 75 years ago. The state-run WAM news agency called the rains on Tuesday aa historic weather eventa that surpassed aanything documented since the start of data collection in 1949a.

The worldas most populous country prepares to go to the polls, with Narendra Modias BJP the frontrunner in vote that ends on 1 June

India, home to more than 1.4 billion people, will begin its mammoth election on 19 April. The country prides itself on the scale of its parliamentary elections, ensuring that even those in the remotest corners and highest peaks of the vast country are able to cast their vote. Voting machines in such less accessible parts are carried on the backs of horses and elephants and for some, polling booths can be reached only by boat. India also boasts the worldas highest polling booth, 15,256ft (4,650 metres) up in the Himalayan mountains.

As vast solar plants multiply, so does the scrap, set to reach 19m tonnes by 2050. But disposing of the waste often falls to informal traders who risk injury when dismantling broken panels

Under the scorching sun, a sea of solar panels gleams in the semi-arid landscape. Pavagada, 100 miles north of Bengaluru in southern India, is the worldas third-largest solar power plant, with 25m panels across a huge 50 sq km site, and a capacity of 2,050MW of clean energy.

India has 11 similarly vast solar parks, and plans to install another 39 across 12 states by 2026, a commitment to a greener future.

When I heard that a boy from my primary school had been convicted of trafficking, I had to find out what had happened to make him fall so far

When armed police burst through his front door in Tottenham, north London, at 5am in September 2014, Glodi Wabelua knew things looked bad. The house was full of drug paraphernalia, including a hydraulic press, scales and mixing bowls, as well as a mobile phone full of incriminating texts advertising deals for crack cocaine and heroin.

The case went to trial in February 2016, and Wabeluaas two co-defendants a who, like him, were aged 20 a received 10- and 11-year sentences. Wabelua, who had lodged an early guilty plea a year before, was handed six years for dealing class A drugs. He was not new to the criminal justice system, having already served three years for drug offences in his teens. But soon he would be charged with an even more serious crime.

Henry Cavill leads a ragtag group on an unlikely mission in this shaggy, exaggerated account of Operation Postmaster

Guy Ritchieas inevitable graduation from London to Hollywood has had its moments a the rambunctious zip of the first Sherlock Holmes, the stylish homoeroticism of The Man from UNCLE a but it soon felt as if the once electrifying film-maker had been swallowed up by the system. A middling Sherlock sequel, a pointless King Arthur non-starter and a soulless Aladdin remake seemed like enough to push not just fans away but Ritchie himself. Heas since found a happier medium, making films for a broad, commercial audience with easily marketable stars yet on, what seem like, his own terms, wrestling some control back from the money men.

Heas barely stopped ever since, with five films made over five years and two more slotted into the next, and there is an expectedly solid, workmanlike quality to his recent work, never enough for a four-star rating but never risking a two. His latest, the annoyingly titled The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, is another adequate three-star entry, a little better than his breezy spy caper Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre and a little less effective than his swaggering revenge thriller Wrath of Man (both three stars, natch).

In her fortnightly review of fitness and wellbeing activities, comedian Jennifer Wong finds that to succeed in life and archery, it helps to aim lower

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I arrive at Sydney Olympic Park Archery Centre for my one-on-one lesson dressed according to instructions on its website: enclosed shoes, a long-sleeved shirt, sunglasses, a hat and with my long hair tied back. I feel like Iam undercover. Soon, though, I will be grateful to be literally under cover.

It begins to bucket down from the dark grey sky a real end-of-days vibes and oddly fitting for a sport that traces its history back to hunting and warfare, although perhaps that is too long a bow to draw.

The shelter where I work took in 694 animals last year. Every day, we face animal cruelty a and communicating the crisis can feel impossible

• This piece was commissioned with the support of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. It contains descriptions of animal abuse

Monday mornings at the Mendocino Coast Humane Society, the northern California animal shelter where I work part-time, are chaotic.

The frenzied beeping of anesthesia monitoring equipment echoes as I dodge Coco, one of the resident shelter cats with a penchant for ankles, and tiptoe down a freshly mopped hallway with a bleachy smell that makes my eyes water.

The cycle of busy periods, burnout and recovery has started to feel grimly predictable. Are we doomed to repeat it forever a or can we develop immunity?

I burned out for the first time at the age of 18. I was studying part-time, working part-time and writing on the side, amounting to more than a full-time workload. I was also partying most nights, wanting to make the most of the last of my student days a and needing to blow off steam.

I thought I was handling the tightrope act pretty well, and in terms of output, I was. But one day, when I turned up to my office job, something about my frazzled response to my bossas friendly inquiry about my day prompted her to pry further.

In this weekas newsletter: Great game adaptations are increasingly high-budget fan-fiction, thanks to a generation of writers who actually understand games

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I am a few episodes from the end of the series Fallout on Prime Video. Itas funny and gory, at times sentimental and at other times ridiculous. In other words, itas just like the games, which veer between quiet, tragic moments exploring the vestiges of America, and being chased down a hill by irradiated scorpions because youave run out of ammo.

Falloutas ensemble cast a with Walton Goggins almost-immortal ghoul and Ella Purnellas wide-eyed vault-dweller the standouts a lets it cleverly compartmentalise the different aspects of the gamesa personality. As its director Jonathan Nolan pointed out, when I interviewed him last week alongside Bethesdaas Todd Howard (the director of the games), this is a common device in TV storytelling but rare in games. Grand Theft Auto V does it successfully: each of the three protagonists represented a different part of GTAas DNA (Trevor the violent chaos, Michael the prestige crime drama, Franklin the Compton realism). But in most games we play one character, and we know them intimately by the end a or we get to shape them, and they become unique to us.

Late-night hosts discuss the second day in Donald Trumpas criminal trial, from naps to jury selection to the actual allegations of covering up hush money

Late-show hosts talked jury selection, courtroom sketches and gag orders from the second day of Donald Trumpas criminal trial in New York.

The University of Southern California canceled its valedictorianas planned speech after pro-Palestinian posts. Itas no surprise

If you want to get ahead in life then I have some advice: keep your mouth shut about Palestine. Or, if you must say something, then make sure it is nuanced like a Iam just paraphrasing a former Mossad agent here a no Palestinian over the age of four is an innocent civilian and they all deserve to be starved to death. Certainly make sure you donat use controversial words like agenocidea or aoccupationa, even if those are accurate descriptions according to international law and UN human rights experts. Best to avoid considering Palestinians as humans altogether, rather think of them as Israelas defense minister does a ahuman animalsa a if you want to avoid unpleasantness.

Asna Tabassum, a first-generation south Asian American Muslim from near Los Angeles, is the latest person to learn this lesson the hard way. Tabassum, who is graduating from the University of Southern California (USC) with a major in biomedical engineering and a minor in resistance to genocide, was recently named her class valedictorian and due to give a speech at her May graduation. Giving a valedictorian address, in which a student reflects on shared experiences and imparts wisdom about the future, is a major honour. It would have been a high point in Tabassumas academic life.

The presidentas moral failure in Gaza has taken on historic proportions, like Lyndon Johnsonas in Vietnam before him

America is big, diverse and polarized. Yet, when it comes to the war in Gaza, opinions here are converging. A Gallup poll in March found 55% of respondents adisapprove of Israelas actionsa, up from 45% in November. Among registered Democrats, the figure is 75%. As the number of citizens voting auncommitteda in Democratic primaries makes plain, President Bidenas unqualified support for Israel is a problem. Beyond the human carnage a 32,000 Palestinians, including over 14,000 children, have been killed by Israel in Gaza a Bidenas Israel policy could cost him the election.

aWe have given Biden and his administration and the party a gift,a said Layla Elabed, organizer of the Listen to Michigan campaign, where 100,000 voters marked the auncommitteda box in February. The vote in Michigan, a battleground state where Biden beat Trump by a little more than 154,000 votes in 2020, has triggered a cascade of protest votes in primaries across the country. At least 25 uncommitted delegates will be sent to the Democratic national convention in August.

Indian voters ought to think hard about giving Narendra Modi another popular mandate

The worldas largest elections begin this weekend in India, amid claims that the race to lead the country has already been won. If Narendra Modi were to secure a third term with a big parliamentary majority, his achievement would match that of the countryas first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Whatever the outcome, the loser has been Indian democracy. Unlike Mr Nehru, who anonymously criticised his own leadership, Mr Modi has little time for his opponents.

Democracies run best when there is a contest of ideas and equal treatment of citizens in everyday administration. These are in short supply in Modias India. The main opposition Congress party found its bank accounts frozen. It canat be a coincidence that all the leading Indian politicians arrested by enforcement and tax authorities belong to the opposition and none to the ruling party. Weaponising Indiaas prosecutorial apparatus seems unnecessary, as Mr Modi can massively outspend his rivals. Since 2018, Mr Modias Bharatiya Janata party has received about APS1.25bn from wealthy donors, more than all other political parties combined.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

SpaceX is trying to kill a federal agency that accused it of labor violations. Ostensibly progressive brands have leaped to join in

Elon Musk boasts that heas a afree speech absolutista, but that didnat stop his rocket company, SpaceX, from firing eight workers who had criticized him for making light of reports that SpaceX had settled a sexual harassment claim against him.

Not stopping there, SpaceX has moved to put the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the USas top labor watchdog, out of business. Earlier this year, a day after the board accused SpaceX of illegally retaliating against those workers, SpaceX filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit that seeks to have the labor board a which has successfully overseen relations between business and unions since the 1930s a declared unconstitutional and shut down.

Steven Greenhouse, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, is an American labor and workplace journalist and writer

Why is guilt so difficult to shake? I feel regretful to this day about a poor decision I made as a boy

How long must guilt last? When I was a boy, aged about 10, I had a football that I kicked around for years, with my mates, with my brother or all on my own, dribbling aimlessly about or booting it against a wall. This ball conferred upon me some status, for it was what we used to call a caser, which is not a word Iave used for a good 40 years. A caser meant it was a proper football, with a rubber bladder on the inside and leather on the outside. This was as opposed to a very cheap plastic sphere that blew around in the wind, or one made of thicker plastic and fashioned to look like a caser. The latter was more respectable than the former, but it wasnat, you know, a caser.

I had this ball for a long time, progressing from being able to do only five keepy-ups, to as many as perhaps 10. Yes, I was that gifted. This was the 70s, at the dawn of which decade Adidas had come up with its Telstar ball for the 1970 World Cup. It was made of 32 leather panels, consisting of 12 black pentagons and 20 white hexagons. My caser was modelled on that caser. It was probably a present from my grandad, but I donat remember what it looked like when it was new, only how it looked when it was old, when the panels were neither black nor white, just brown, having had all the colour kicked out of them.