Along with 11 fake electors, seven allies of the ex-president including Mark Meadows and John Eastman were also charged

An Arizona grand jury has charged 18 people involved in the scheme to create a slate of false electors for Donald Trump, including 11 people who served as those fake electors and seven Trump allies who aided the scheme.

Kris Mayes, Arizonaas Democratic attorney general, announced the charges on Wednesday, and said the 11 fake electors had been charged with felonies for fraud, forgery and conspiracy.

Federal prosecutors looking at relationship with Purdue Pharma and other drug manufacturers, and its role in US opioid crisis

McKinsey is under criminal investigation in the United States over allegations that the consulting firm played a key role in fueling the opioid epidemic, with federal prosecutors homing in on its work advising OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and other drugmakers, three people familiar with the matter said.

The consulting firm and the US justice department declined to comment.

Congressman Adam Smith says atotalitariana protesters are atrying to silence anyone who dares to disagree with thema

Protesters calling for Israel to cease fire in its war with Hamas who have disrupted US public events and infrastructure are practicing aleftwing fascisma or aleftwing totalitarianisma, a senior US House Democrat said, adding that such protesters are achallenging representative democracya and should be arrested.

aIntimidation is the tactic,a said Adam Smith of Washington state, the ranking Democrat on the House armed services committee. aIntimidation and an effort to silence opposition a| I donat know if thereas such a thing as leftwing fascism. If you want to just call it leftwing totalitarianism, then thatas what it is. It is a direct challenge to representative democracy now.a

Three Republicans join Democrats to support repeal of law first approved in 1864, with measure now heading to state senate

Lawmakers in the Arizona house have voted to repeal a controversial 1864 law banning nearly all abortions, amid mounting pressure on the stateas Republicans.

Three Republicans joined with all 29 Democrats on Wednesday to support the repeal of the law, which predates Arizonaas statehood and provides no exceptions for rape or incest.

Joe Biden gave missiles to Ukraine under prior funding, after the US reportedly warned Russia against using long-range missiles in Ukraine. What we know on day 792

Atacms long-ranges missiles capable of hitting targets 300km away had already arrived in Ukraine this month at the presidentas direction, before the US security package was passed by Congress on Wednesday, the state department has said. Vedant Patel, a state department spokesperson, explained that the weapons were part of a March aid package for Ukraine a not the one just approved by Congress and signed by Joe Biden. aWe did not announce this at the onset in order to maintain operational security for Ukraine at their request.a

Ukraine has begun using the long-range Atacms, bombing a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian forces in another occupied area in recent days, two US officials have told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity. One of them said the Biden administration previously warned Russia that if it used long-range ballistic missiles in Ukraine, Washington would provide the same capability to the Ukrainians. Russia has since done so.

Separately, Adm Christopher Grady, vice-chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, told the Associated Press that long-range weapons would help Ukraine take out Russian logistics and troop concentrations behind the frontlines. He explained how the decision to supply them was considered carefully and at length. aI think the time is right, and the boss [Biden] made the decision the time is right to provide these based on where the fight is right now.a

Ukraineas foreign minister has praised US politicians for approving the long-delayed $61bn military aid package for Ukraine, but said western allies needed to recognise that athe era of peace in Europe is overa and that Kyiv would inevitably need more help to fight off Russia, Dan Sabbagh and Luke Harding write from Kyiv.

Ukraine has stopped issuing new passports at offices abroad to some military-aged male citizens, according to legislation published on Wednesday, as part of measures to push them to return home amid manpower shortages in the army. The announcement came a day after the suspension of consular services for men aged 18 to 60 living abroad until the new law on mobilisation is implemented. Ukraineas foreign ministry said the passport suspension applied only to new applications and that any requests previously submitted would be honoured.

In Warsaw, Poland, hundreds of Ukrainians crowded outside a closed passport office in a confused scene. There was anger among those who felt they were being unfairly targeted. aThis is a fight against people who are fleeing the army,a said Maksym, a 38-year-old truck driver. aWe are not asked on what grounds we went abroad a| Why am I a draft dodger if I went abroad legally?a Ukraineas ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Zvarych, told AFP that aall applications submitted to the consular offices of Ukraine before April 23 a| will be processed in full and passport documents will be issued to such peoplea.

Ukraineas president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said a group of Ukrainian children were ain Qatar for medical, mental, and social recoverya, after Russia claimed an exchange of displaced children was taking place. aAll of them had previously been forcibly deported to Russia, but thanks to our friendly Qataras mediation efforts, they have been released,a said Zelenskiy, without addressing Russiaas claim that 48 children were involved in an exchange. Russiaas childrenas rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, who is wanted for war crimes by the international criminal court, claimed Russia was handing over 29 children to Ukraine and 19 were going to Russia.

Ukrainian drones attacked oil facilities in western Russia, defence sources in Kyiv confirmed on Wednesday. Officials in the western Russian regions of Smolensk and Lipetsk first announced the attacks, blaming Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles for starting fires at energy sites. Another drone attack targeted the Lipetsk region further south, which houses metallurgical and pharmaceutical sites, governor Igor Artamonov said. Russian forces hit a Ukrainian drone production facility and a Ukrainian army fuel depot, Russiaas defence ministry said on Wednesday.

Moscow described the security council resolution, which would have called on countries not to deploy weapons of mass destruction in outer space, a adirty spectaclea

Russia has vetoed a UN security council resolution calling on all nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space, describing it as aa dirty spectaclea.

The resolution, sponsored by the United States and Japan, would have called on all countries not to develop or deploy nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction in space, which are already banned under a 1967 international treaty.

Illnesses such as dengue and malaria to reach unaffected parts of northern Europe, America, Asia and Australia, conference to hear

Mosquito-borne diseases are spreading across the globe, and particularly in Europe, due to climate breakdown, an expert has said.

The insects spread illnesses such as malaria and dengue fever, the prevalences of which have hugely increased over the past 80 years as global heating has given them the warmer, more humid conditions they thrive in.

Wall Street Journal reporter, held since March 2023 on espionage allegations, to remain in Russian jail for at least two more months

The American journalist Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested over a year ago in Russia, will remain in jail for at least two more months after a Moscow court rejected his appeal against his detention.

Gershkovich, a 32-year-old reporter for the Wall Street Journal, has been held in the Lefortovo prison on the outskirts of Moscow since March last year on allegations by the Russian authorities of espionage while on a reporting trip in the city of Ekaterinburg.

In criminal investigation, New Orleans judge demands paper trail from archbishop Gregory Aymond all the way to the Vatican

The criminal investigation into child sexual abuse in New Orleansa Roman Catholic archdiocese has entered a major new phase, after a judge ordered the church to turn over records to Louisiana state police showing how it responded to abuse allegations over the last several decades.

The order signed on Monday seeks files that would identify every priest and deacon accused of abusing children while working in the USas second-oldest archdiocese; when those complaints were first made; and whether the church turned those cases over to police, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

Day-trippers will have to pay a!5 to visit Italian city under scheme designed to protect it from excess tourism

Authorities in Venice have been accused of transforming the famous lagoon city into a atheme parka as a long-mooted entrance fee for day trippers comes into force.

Venice is the first major city in the world to enact such a scheme. The a!5 (APS4.30) charge, which comes into force today, is aimed at protecting the Unesco world heritage site from the effects of excessive tourism by deterring day trippers and, according to the mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, making the city alivablea again.

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 arat holea 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 Chicagoas 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.

Exclusive: Hungaryas PM and EUas most isolated leader says he is pursuing afriendship with everybodya a particularly the former US president

Europeas most isolated leader was beaming.

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

A New York court has heard how the tabloid deployed a practice known as acatch and killa to aid Trump in 2016

• US politics a latest updates

A New York court has heard evidence of how Donald Trumpas long and tumultuous journey to secure the Republican nomination a and later the presidency a was aided by a US tabloid known for printing gory pictures of murder scenes and questionable journalistic ethics.

Testimony from David Pecker revealed how the former publisher of the National Enquirer had pledged to be Trumpas aeyes and earsa during his 2016 presidential campaign.

The justices must decide whether Idaho doctors can terminate a pregnancy to save a womanas health or only if her life is at risk

The supreme court heard its second abortion rights case of the term on Wednesday, this one focused on how states can regulate emergency abortions a exceedingly rare procedures that often save a womanas life or her future fertility.

The case may seem technical because it focuses on a small subset of emergency abortions and federal law that governs emergency room care.

Do you love reading a but all too often find yourself just scrolling through your phone or watching TV? Here is how to get lost in literature again

In the age of digital distractions, it is easy to struggle to find the time and headspace to get lost in literature. How can you get back into the habit? Librarians share the best ways to rediscover reading, make it a regular habit a and their tips for the most unputdownable books.

Appleas new drama series Franklin, starring Michael Douglas as the founding father, recalls a vital time in US history as he travelled abroad for help

aA long life has taught me that diplomacy must never be a siege but a seduction,a says Michael Douglasas Benjamin Franklin, raising a wine glass in a world of candlelit tables, baroque music and powdered wigs. aThink of America as a courted virgin. One that does not solicit favours but grants them. And nothing speaks to romance quite as loudly as a dowry worth half a hemisphere.a

This is the first episode of Franklin, now streaming on Apple TV+, which tells the story of author, printer, postmaster, scientist, statesman and all-round Renaissance man Benjamin Franklinas late-life secret mission to France, aimed at persuading the country to help America win the Revolutionary war and gain independence from Britain.

The fortysomething turned her wildest fantasy a about running off with a boyband member for hot sex in fabulous locations a into a bestseller. As it hits the screen, Lee talks about writing steamy scenes in Starbucks a and her terror of being judged

Late one night, while her husband was away and her children were asleep, the writer Robinne Lee came across something that would change the course of her life. The US author, who now lives in Paris, found herself watching a particular boyband on YouTube a she refuses to name which a and felt attracted to one of them. When her husband came back from his business trip, she told him: aI found this perfect guy. Iam going to run off and follow him and his band around the world.a He laughed and said: aYouare crazy. But that would make a really good story.a

He was right. This really good story became Leeas debut novel, The Idea of You, which snowballed into a lockdown hit, attracting legions of obsessed fans around the world via word-of-mouth recommendations. Now, the story of SolA"ne Marchand, a sophisticated US divorcee on the cusp of 40, and Hayes Campbell, her 21-year-old British pop star boyfriend, has been turned into a film starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine.

Everton were set on closing down their rivals from the off and the tactics sapped the belief from the title challengers

It is little wonder JA1/4rgen Klopp is running out of energy when he is having to come up with a new lineup every few days. For the Merseyside derby defeat to Everton there were six changes to follow on from the half-dozen made for Sundayas win over Fulham. On this occasion, however, it did not work.

The latter weeks of the season are a tricky balance for any coach with so much at stake. Trying to maintain a rhythm and build momentum while keeping everyone fresh for crucial fixtures is an unenviable task. It cannot help a manager when hours before the match a starter withdraws but not even the riches of football can dictate when a mother-to-be enters labour.

They can swallow road signs and trigger lethal neighbour feuds. From the suburbs of Britain to the deserts of Arizona, we explore a show celebrating glorious green borders

Somewhere in the leafy depths of British suburbia, a thick circular hedge sprouts from the top of a grassy hill in the middle of a roundabout. The top of the hedge is carefully trimmed with rectangular crenellations, giving it the look of a motte-and-bailey castle, while a second more threadbare hedge encircles the foot of the mound, like another layer of defence. The surrounding streets are lined with more hedges, some neatly trimmed, some left wild, some poking up behind high brick walls, others climbing even higher than the homes they shield.

This single image, taken by photographer Gareth Gardner, somehow encapsulates all of the anxieties and ambitions of the great British hedge. This trophy clump of privet a part defensive barrier, part symbol of domestic pride a stands as a shrubby monument, raised aloft on a grass plinth for all to admire, as they drive past on the way back to their own hedge-fringed homes.

Gardner happened upon the roundabout by chance, in Kingsmead, near Northwich in Cheshire, when he was retracing the footsteps of the late architecture critic Ian Nairn. In the 1950s, Nairn undertook a rage-fuelled road trip from Southampton to Carlisle, railing against what he called asubtopiaa, the kind of mindless identikit sprawl that was taking over the country like acreeping mildewa.

Shares jump after carmaker says it is looking to accelerate production of lower-price EVs

• Tesla sees biggest revenue drop since 2012 but shares still surge
• Electric and hybrid car sales to rise to new global record in 2024

Teslaas plans to bring a more affordable electric vehicle to the market appear to have moved a step closer.

On Tuesday, the companyas share price shot up by 12% after an update revealed the carmaker was hoping to accelerate the production of lower-priced EVs, with production of the first cars beginning as early as this year.

Late-night hosts discuss another day in court for Donald Trump, where he once again violated a gag order to not harass witnesses

Late-night hosts talked Donald Trumpas violation of another gag order during his criminal hush-money trial and witness testimony from the former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker.

Unfinished Portrait of FrA$?ulein Lieser resurfaced in private collection but questions remain about its journey and its subject

A painting by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt that was considered lost for 100 years has sold for a!30m (APS26m) at an auction in Vienna.

Entitled Portrait of FrA$?ulein Lieser, the unfinished picture was painted in the spring of 1917, when Klimt was one of the most celebrated portraitists in Europe, and a year before his death.

This Passover, we donat need or want the false idol of Zionism. We want freedom from the project that commits genocide in our name

Iave been thinking about Moses, and his rage when he came down from the mount to find the Israelites worshipping a golden calf.

The ecofeminist in me was always uneasy about this story: what kind of God is jealous of animals? What kind of God wants to hoard all the sacredness of the Earth for himself?

A conviction would prove, once and for all, that Trump is not the normal politician that many in the media act like he is

• Get Margaret Sullivanas latest columns delivered straight to your inbox

Donald Trump, who once bragged that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters, has gotten away for years with unimaginable amounts of malfeasance.

He grifted and insulted and lied his way into the White House, embarrassed the nation while president, refused to accept his defeat to Joe Biden in 2020 and then incited a riot at the US Capitol as he tried to overturn the election.

Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist

I thought finding Karma a yes, that is the catas name a would make me beloved and cherished by my neighbourhood. Unfortunately, not so much

A couple of weeks ago I went to go see a woman about a cat. The woman was my neighbour (weall call her L) and she had lost her tabby, Karma. (Thatas the catas name a Iam not saying L had it coming.) Karma had been gone for weeks and her family was distraught. The entire neighbourhood had been trying, without luck, to look for her.

And then, one day, when I was looking out of the window, I saw Karma peeking out from the dilapidated shed at the bottom of my garden, just a couple of doors down from her official home. I was thrilled. Not just because Iad get to reunite the pet with her family but a rather more selfishly a I thought this might elevate me to alocal heroa status in my Philadelphia neighbourhood.

Just because we find a political leader ludicrous, that doesnat mean theyare not dangerous

Thereas something I heard that I canat get out of my mind. Itas one line in a very long book full of other very good lines. This was the audiobook of Ian Kershawas seminal biography of Adolf Hitler. Itas absorbing, exhaustive, fascinating and alarming in equal measure. But there is this one line that wonat leave me alone. I was driving on a bleak day on a country road when I heard it for the first time. I instantly rewound to hear it again, and then again. And then when I got to where I was going I bought the book itself so I could see it as well as hear it. The line torments me still. And since a problem shared is a problem halved a or whatever the expression is a I ask you to bear the burden with me.

It comes in a chapter called The Beerhall Agitator, about the absurd-looking little rabble-rouseras activities during the early 1920s. As a kid I always wondered how they could all have been taken in by such an apparently ludicrous man. The awful truth, of course, was that enough people thought him ludicrous for this ludicrous man to be calamitously underestimated.

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.