The return of Alicia Machado

Former Miss Universe Alicia Machado has spoken out about being weight-shamed by Donald Trump after winning the 1996 pageant, the first under his ownership. The Republican nominee called her “Miss Piggy” and “an eating machine” and turned what should have been a golden year into the most traumatizing one of her life, she told the Guardian. On Monday night, Hillary Clinton made Trump’s remarks to Machado a centerpiece of the ratings-smashing presidential debate. In a call organized by the Clinton campaign yesterday, Machado said mention of her story had moved her to tears. “I never imagined it would matter to someone so powerful,” she said. Meanwhile, young Republicans are grappling with backing a “racist”.

Alicia Machado, Miss Universe weight-shamed by Trump, speaks out Clinton

Post-debate Trump on Clinton: ‘I didn’t want to embarrass her’

Donald Trump has told a crowd of 7,500 that he was holding back during the first presidential debate with Hillary Clinton because he did not want to embarrass her. He insisted that every poll showed him winning the debate, called out “the corrupt corporate media” and criticized Lester Holt, the debate’s moderator. Trump also reiterated his false claim that he had opposed the Iraq war from the beginning, asking the crowd for approval. “And does everybody believe me, I was against going into Iraq?” he asked the crowd. The debate consensus on Trump: tripped-up, yes, but not defeated.

Donald Trump boasts after first debate against Clinton: ‘I didn’t want to embarrass her’

Shimon Peres dies at age 93

Shimon Peres, one of Israel’s defining political figures and a Nobel peace prize laureate, has died at the age of 93, two weeks after having a stroke. Peres had twice served as prime minister of Israel and later as the country’s ninth president. His defining achievement was as one of the key architects of the Oslo peace accords, for which he was jointly awarded the Nobel peace prize with then Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, and Yasser Arafat. Barack Obama described Peres as “the essence of Israel itself”.

Shimon Peres, Nobel winner and giant of Israeli politics, dies at 93

Alabama’s anti-gay marriage judge plans path to governorship

Alabama’s chief supreme court justice, Roy Moore, will go to trial on Wednesday to learn whether he will keep his seat as the state’s top judge. He hopes, almost certainly, to be thrown out. But what’s behind the plan? By carrying his fight against the federal government to the brink of judicial destruction, the notorious anti-gay-marriage judge is appealing to the rebellious nature of Alabamians and positioning himself to run for governor.



Alabama chief justice’s anti-gay marriage fight may be a rebellious bid for governor

A nine-year-old’s testimony on racism

Zianna Oliphant could barely keep her composure as she offered powerful testimony at a city council meeting on Monday about growing up black in Charlotte, where the recent fatal police shooting of Keith Scott has focused national debates about policing. “I feel like that we are treated differently than other people. I don’t like how we’re treated. Just because of our color doesn’t mean anything to me,” she said before breaking down in tears. Meanwhile, tennis superstar Serena Williams spoke out on racism: “I won’t be silent.”

We shouldn’t have to feel like this’: Girl, nine, gives tearful speech in Charlotte

Wells Fargo execs to pay up

Wells Fargo executives will forfeit millions of dollars in the wake of revelations that the bank’s sales quotas led to the creation of more than 2m unauthorized accounts. The bank’s chief executive, John Stumpf, will forfeit unvested equity awards worth about $41m along with his salary for the coming months as independent directors launch a new investigation into Wells Fargo’s retail banking and sales practices. Three weeks ago, the bank agreed to pay $185m in penalties over the practice.

Wells Fargo executives forfeit millions, CEO to forgo salary amid investigation

Secret US nuclear project revealed

A top-secret US military project from the cold war and the toxic waste it conceals, thought to have been buried forever beneath the Greenland icecap, are likely to be uncovered by rising temperatures within decades. Camp Century – part of Project Iceworm – was a nuclear-powered, underground cold war network 124 miles from the coast of Greenland designed to test the feasibility of a missile launch site under the ice. It was abandoned after eight years, in 1967. Now receding ice could reveal it, according to a report in Geophysical Research Letters.

Greenland’s receding icecap to expose top-secret US nuclear project

Elon Musk: humans to Mars in six years

The SpaceX founder has told a meeting of astronautical experts that his only purpose is to “make life interplanetary” and laid out his vision for an “Interplanetary Transport System” that includes a huge reusable booster and the “interplanetary module” that could initially carry up to 100 passengers. It would be named Heart of Gold. “What I really want to try to achieve here is to make Mars seem possible – like it’s something we can achieve in our lifetimes,” Musk told the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk plans to get humans to Mars in six years

Woody Allen’s ‘Crisis’

It’s not entirely clear why Woody Allen’s new show for Amazon Studios is called Crisis In Six Scenes, writes Charlie Lyne. Although there are six episodes, each one contains multiple scenes taking place in different settings. Allen’s first TV series in half a century feels clumsy and full of lame one-liners. Not even Miley Cyrus as a rebel runaway can save it.

Crisis in Six Scenes: Woody Allen’s TV show is proof he’s finally lost the plot

In case you missed it …

The world’s first baby to be born from a new procedure that combines the DNA of three people appears to be healthy, according to doctors at the New Hope Fertility Center in New York who oversaw the treatment. The baby was born on 6 April after his Jordanian parents traveled to Mexico where they were cared for by the US fertility specialists. Experts welcomed news of successful mitochondrial transfer but cautioned against operating in countries beyond regulations.

World’s first baby born from new procedure using DNA of three people