The Guardian

It’s a game where futility is expected and frustration is always simmering. At least it’s a decent metaphor for Trump’s presidency

We have already tumbled past the first 100 days of the second Trump presidency, careening down the hill with reckless abandon. One hundred days is, of course, a totally arbitrary milestone – a nice, round number that looks monumental because of the number of zeros attached.

With inflation and looming tariffs continuing to hobble commerce, shouldn’t we extend this marker in kind? If you go by the rate of inflation since the final year before Donald Trump’s ascension to power, we should be looking at the first 133.25 days. Time itself is arbitrary, speeding up or slowing down based on context and personal perception. A minute can feel like an eternity if you’re stuck in traffic on Sunset Boulevard.

PC, PS5, Xbox; id Software/Bathesda Softworks
This prequel takes a blunt force trauma approach to problem-solving and demon-killing, with a slower pace but more spectacular weaponry

Billed as a prequel to id Software’s 2016 revival of Doom, The Dark Ages is about as different as it could be from its predecessors while remaining recognisably part of the series. Where 2020’s Doom Eternal was about speed and evasion, The Dark Ages emphasises standing your ground. Where Eternal involved picking off enemies one by one, The Dark Ages empowers you to obliterate dozens of demons simultaneously. Where Eternal saw you juggling rapid-fire weapons in a finger-cramping frenzy, The Dark Ages lets you solve most problems by hitting things ferociously hard. Ripping and tearing are out. Blunt force trauma is in.

Rümeysa Öztürk was arrested for political speech and is being held in Louisiana, where she says she’s suffered multiple asthma attacks

• US politics live – latest updates

A federal judge in Vermont on Friday morning is set to consider the release on bail of a Tufts University student arrested in March for her political speech and now held in Louisiana in what she and her lawyers argue is a breach of her constitutional rights.

Groups say plan to resume limited humanitarian assistance under strict Israeli rules ‘risks enabling war crimes’

• US politics live – latest updates

Aid groups have voiced alarm at US moves to pressure them into accepting an Israeli proposal to resume limited humanitarian assistance to the war-ravaged territory under strictly controlled conditions.

The Trump administration has attempted to strong-arm international agencies – including the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) – into accepting Israel’s stringent rules for resuming deliveries, according to sources familiar with the discussions and news reports.

Oscar nominee warns ‘truth itself is under revision’ while receiving award at Smithsonian American history museum

Ava DuVernay, an Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning director, has urged artists and historians to hold the line against a “criminal” US president at a time when “truth itself is under revision”.

DuVernay, whose films include Selma, which chronicles Martin Luther King’s campaign for voting rights, issued the rallying cry while receiving an award at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington.

Donald Trump has directed officials to grant refugee status to Afrikaners who he claims suffer discrimination

The US has granted refugee status to 54 white Afrikaner South Africans, who could arrive as soon as Monday in Washington DC, where they will be welcomed by government officials, according to media reports.

Donald Trump suspended the US refugee settlement programme in January on his first day in office, leaving more than 100,000 people approved for resettlement stranded, having fled war and persecution in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan.

Finally, a British prime minister has landed a trade agreement with the US. It’s just a shame it’s not a very good one

A huge day in import-export yesterday, as even Rome’s billion-per-cent tariff on American popes was lifted. The much bigger news, though, concerned the partial easing of recently imposed import taxes on British goods in the form of a starter UK-US trade deal, leaving the biggest little country in the world basking in the glow of an achievement our own prime minister seemed to hint had something of VE Day to it. In Britain, we have an old saying about dejection – “you look like you’ve lost a pound and found a sixpence” – but this was an entirely new spin on that scenario, given we were mostly celebrating being back to paying 10% more tariffs than we were subject to a few weeks ago. Yessss! A sixpence! Good times.

Findings show for first time how plastic chemicals throw off the body’s internal clock by up to 17 minutes

Chemicals in everyday plastics may disrupt the body’s natural 24-hour sleep-wake cycle and circadian rhythm in a way similar to coffee, which increases the risk of sleep disorders, diabetes, immune problems and cancer, new in vitro research shows.

The study looked at chemicals extracted from a PVC medical feeding tube and a polyurethane hydration pouch, like those used by long-distance runners. PVC and polyurethanes are also used in everything from kids toys to food packaging to furniture.

Government sources say some of West Midlands plant’s 30,000 staff were at risk before agreement to cut car tariffs

The UK’s limited trade deal with the US has immediately prevented job losses at Jaguar Land Rover’s plant in the West Midlands, Britain’s ambassador to the US has said.

“This deal has saved those jobs,” Peter Mandelson said in an interview on CNN. “That’s a pretty big achievement, in my view, and I’m very pleased that the president has signed it.”

Exclusive: University College London acquires Gollancz archive that was in danger of being dispersed forever

George Orwell’s correspondence, contracts and readers’ reports relating to his earliest novels are among historic papers that have been saved for the nation after an outcry over their initial dispersal.

University College London (UCL) said it had acquired the archive of the Nineteen Eighty-Four author’s publisher as “a valuable piece of Britain’s cultural heritage”.

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