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Arwa Mahdawi

Arwa Mahdawi

The Guardian

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The media industry is dying – but I can still get paid to train AI to replace me

Say what you like about the Germans, you can always count on them to find just the right word for anything. Take “ weltschmerz ”, for example,...

wednesday 20

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

How did Kamala Harris go from being a rising star to a damp squib?

Remember Kamala Harris? Just a few years ago the first female vice-president of the US was surrounded by fanfare, splashed on the cover of Vogue and...

16.04.2024 10

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy Trump’s latest claim? That he has moderate abortion views – but don’t be fooled

In recent years, Donald Trump has sold NFTs, sneakers, and bibles. Now the perennial marketer is busy selling a new and improved version of himself to...

13.04.2024 3

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

What sets me apart in the US? I’m car-free by choice

My wife and I tick a lot of “minority” boxes: we’re a same-sex Jewish-Palestinian couple with an ethnically ambiguous child. But you know what...

10.04.2024 6

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

Is Melania the Trump campaign’s secret weapon?

She is a riddle inside an enigma wrapped in Valentino. One of the few things anyone can say with certainty about Melania Trump is that the former...

09.04.2024 10

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy What a surprise! Free speech absolutist Elon Musk doesn’t really love free speech

Let’s check in on the platform formerly known as Twitter shall we? Let’s have a gander at how it’s doing since Elon Musk, the world’s...

06.04.2024 30

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

You can get a lot of great products in the US – so why do the deodorants stink?

My mum, who lives in England, is coming to visit me in Philadelphia soon and I have given her strict instructions on what to bring from the...

03.04.2024 10

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

Why you probably look much older than you think

Sit your old bones down, because I’ve got bad news: you probably look older than you think you do. Don’t shoot the messenger – blame science. A...

02.04.2024 3

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy Trump selling Bibles may be desperation – but that shouldn’t cheer anyone up

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and, of course, Donald John Trump. The former US president, as we all know, and as he has...

30.03.2024 10

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

There is a perfect time to shower – and it’s not when you think

One of my favourite things to do in my middle age is lie on the sofa eating crisps while Googling low-effort ways to optimise my life. Thanks to...

26.03.2024 10

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy As Gaza is destroyed, Israel is killing dozens of children in the West Bank

“The depth of the horror surpasses our ability to describe it,” James Elder, a spokesperson with the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef),...

23.03.2024 100

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

Want to get rich quick? Business influencers have some new advice – and it’s terrible

Did you miss out on getting rich quick via bitcoin? Don’t worry: TikTok’s legions of personal finance influencers have you covered with a cunning...

20.03.2024 20

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

My year of wellness is not going well – from accidental laxatives to heatstroke in a sauna

‘Nobody tells you this!” For the first year of my now almost-three-year-old’s life, that was my catchphrase. I would say it nonstop. Nobody...

19.03.2024 7

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy Are progressive politics the real reason why US lawmakers are spooked by Tiktok?

Tick tock, tick tock … that’s the sound of time running out for Gen Z’s favourite app. On Wednesday the House of Representatives overwhelmingly...

16.03.2024 60

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy Opposing oppression is a feminist act – don’t look away from Gaza

I want to state the following as clearly and unequivocally as possible: Israel, with the help of the US, is deliberating starving the population of...

09.03.2024 40

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

Missouri: home to child marriage, corporal punishment and sick ‘child welfare’ ideas

Did you know that child marriage is still legal in much of the US? About 300,000 children and teenagers were legally married in the US between 2000...

07.03.2024 90

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy Brouhaha over Oprah on Ozempic shows technology advances faster than attitudes

Big news in the weight-loss world this week: Oprah Winfrey is exiting WeightWatchers. The talkshow host has been the public face of the company for...

02.03.2024 30

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

If Biden loses in November, don’t blame voters who are angry over Gaza

Here we go again, eh? For a short but wonderful period, it looked like Donald Trump’s political career was over. An indicted former president...

28.02.2024 30

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The latest billionaire trend? Doomsday bunkers with a flammable moat

What’s your plan for the apocalypse? I’ll tell you what mine is: death. I am not really built for battle – I need five cups of coffee just to...

25.02.2024 100

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy Anti-abortion extremists in the US are waging a holy war against women

Friends, Romans, frozen extrauterine children, lend me your ears. Except for the extrauterine children, that is – they obviously don’t have ears....

24.02.2024 30

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy Despite Republican rumours, Michelle Obama probably won’t be the next president

I hope you’re not squeamish, because we are about to journey into the murky depths of the rightwing mind where brain worms abound. First up is the...

17.02.2024 5

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

I tried out an Apple Vision Pro. It frightened me

If you ever worry that technology might be getting a little too intelligent and robots are poised to take over the world, I have a quick and easy way...

15.02.2024 30

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy Why are we still considering Nancy Pelosi a feminist icon?

Does the fact that over 11,500 children have been slaughtered in the past four months in Gaza bother you at all? Are you in any way disturbed that...

10.02.2024 6

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy For all his obsession with innovation, Peter Thiel has some stone-age views

Have you ever dreamed up a completely deranged business idea but lacked the cash to execute it? Peter Thiel, the secretive tech billionaire who...

03.02.2024 30

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

John Fetterman wants us to respect his pain – even as he mocks Palestinians’

John Fetterman is a workwear icon. The Democratic senator from Pennsylvania has made a national name for himself by wearing baggy basketball shorts...

02.02.2024 30

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy If anyone can get the US government to take deepfake porn seriously, it’s Swifties

Sexually explicit photographs of Taylor Swift are all over the internet. Except they are not actually pictures of Swift: they are deepfakes created...

27.01.2024 40

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy Worried about airline safety? Blame diversity, say deranged rightwingers

You’d better be careful out there. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but planes are currently disintegrating in mid-air because of diversity....

20.01.2024 3

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy AI girlfriends are here – but there’s a dark side to virtual companions

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a computer must be in want of an AI girlfriend. Certainly a lot of...

13.01.2024 5

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

What is going on with ChatGPT?

Sick and tired of having to work for a living? ChatGPT feels the same, apparently. Over the last month or so, there’s been an uptick in people...

12.01.2024 40

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

Is it OK to speculate about Taylor Swift’s sexuality?

For about 18 months there was incredibly disruptive construction going on next door to me. It drove me mad. Like verging-on-a-nervous-breakdown mad. I...

10.01.2024 8

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy The year in patriarchy: abortion bans, circumboob and deepfake porn

2023 was the hottest year on record. And it wasn’t just a year of extreme weather – the political climate also became more heated, with the...

30.12.2023 7

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy Nikki Haley as first female US president? Unlikely but not impossible

Donald Trump is ending 2023 on quite the low. On Tuesday a Colorado supreme court ruling barred the former president from the state’s presidential...

23.12.2023 10

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The elves spill on Santa: is he naughty or nice?

22.12.2023 4

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

Are we laughing at George Santos or is he laughing at us?

George Anthony Devolder Santos was born in 1988 with a serious congenital condition which means he is incapable of feeling shame or embarrassment....

22.12.2023 4

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy Saudi Arabia wants to host the Women’s World Cup – but should it?

Saudi Arabia scored a major PR victory earlier this year when it became the only bidder for the 2034 men’s World Cup, all but guaranteeing it will...

16.12.2023 6

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy Republicans will do anything to ban books, even saying they cause porn addiction

A moment of silence, please, for 20-year-old Lanah Burkhardt, who has suffered through a harrowing ordeal that should chill us all to the very core....

09.12.2023 5

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy Why would Elon Musk want to deliberately destroy X?

Look, I’ll be the first to admit that I am not a billionaire, nor am I the CEO of multiple companies. Nevertheless, I think I’ve got a good grasp...

02.12.2023 4

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy ‘Rizz-first’ Tinder painfully desperate to woo young people back to dating apps

I met my wife the old-fashioned way: on a dating app. When our now-toddler is older we’ll tell her this story and she’ll look at us like we’re...

25.11.2023 9

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy US women living six years longer than men – but American life expectancy is still dire

“We’re the United States of America, for God’s sake,” Joe Biden scoffed to 60 Minutes last month after he was asked if the US was capable of...

18.11.2023 10

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

Is it too much to ask people to view Palestinians as humans? Apparently so

I do not want to ever hear western democracies lecture the rest of the world on human rights ever again. As I write this more than 10,000 Palestinians...

07.11.2023 550

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy How healthy is America’s renewed love affair with weight loss medications?

For a while it was a secret that only the A-listers were in on. Now, however, Ozempic – the diabetes drug that is being used off-label as an...

07.10.2023 10

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy Linda Yaccarino has a coveted gig – but Elon Musk would never give her control

This time last year Linda Yaccarino was flying high. She had a prestigious job spearheading ad sales at NBCUniversal and a reputation as one of the...

30.09.2023 7

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

Why don’t Americans put butter on their sandwiches?

S ometimes it takes a random TikToker to make you realise you don’t know your wife quite as well as you thought. In my case, the revelation came via...

20.09.2023 6

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

Drew Barrymore was America’s sweetheart – but her baffling video was a terrible misstep

G al Gadot must be giddy with relief. For the past few years, the Wonder Woman actor has held the No 1 spot in the category of most cringeworthy and...

19.09.2023 6

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy The war on women who use abortion pills takes a terrifying new turn

Have you ever come across a scientific study and immediately thought to yourself: why? What was the point of this work exactly? Why were resources and...

16.09.2023 5

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

Jamie Oliver’s son, Adam Sandler’s daughters: ‘nepo babies’ are taking over showbiz. What about the rest of us?

T he year is 2223. You’re back home after a long day at work (work still exists in the future, I’m afraid) and flick on your virtual reality...

13.09.2023 10

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

The Week in Patriarchy Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner’s divorce is making the media ask the worst questions

This time last week I wouldn’t have been able to pick pop star Joe Jonas out of a police line-up. If you’d asked me what I’d thought about him...

09.09.2023 10

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

Even for Tucker Carlson, his supposed Obama sex exposé was ridiculous

O h, how the mighty have fallen. This time last time year Tucker Carlson had a prime time spot on Fox News where his hate-heavy, fact-light sputtering...

07.09.2023 1

The Guardian

Arwa Mahdawi

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