Day: July 1, 2024

The U.S. Supreme Court soon before the court announced its decision in a case on whether former President Donald Trump has immunity from criminal prosecution on July 1, 2024.

(Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images)

Monday’s Supreme Court ruling granting far-reaching presidential immunity gives the lie to decades of right-wing propaganda about the real purpose of the long conservative campaign to take over the court.

Generations of conservative pseudointellectuals have argued that the mission of the Federalist Society, the powerful conservative legal group that has seeded the Supreme Court with its zombie-like members, was to bring the court back to its original mandate under the Constitution. The right-wing pundits who promoted the Federalist Society were always a little vague on what their version of “originalism” really entailed, which led to widespread suspicions that it just meant whatever was politically beneficial to conservatives.

The ruling on presidential immunity is just the latest piece of evidence that shows that originalism was just a confidence game by the right to gain power. The court’s conservative majority has revealed itself to be a corrupt political machine with both short- and long-term goals. Today, the court is determined to protect Donald Trump and the Republican Party; longer-term, its mandate is to protect and defend the powers of those who will enable white minority rule in America for years to come.

The court’s immunity ruling is nearly a blank check for Donald Trump.

The court’s immunity ruling is nearly a blank check for Trump, a brazen attempt to protect him from his ongoing criminal cases and to grant him virtually unlimited power if he gets back into the White House. With its ruling, the Supreme Court’s right-wing block has made it clear: They are tired of democracy. The justices want a dictator.

But they only want a right-wing dictator. It is not hard to imagine how differently the justices would have ruled if the question of presidential immunity had come before them in a case involving a Democratic president. 

The right-wing court is engaged in a radical revolution, and its objective is to rewrite modern American history. Through their rulings, the conservative justices are revealing what the American right has until recently tried to keep quiet, which is that the right doesn’t accept any of the major changes that have happened in American society since World War II. They have in their minds a fantasy version of 1940s America, even though almost none of them were alive at the time. What they yearn for is a nation before integration and civil rights, before women’s rights and reproductive rights, before gay rights, before the modern expansions of free speech and press freedom. Above all, they want a return to a less diverse America, a nation in which white male power was unquestioned. They want it so badly that they are willing to abandon democracy to get it. 

The radicalized court, with the Federalist Society’s approval, are in the process of demolishing the landmark Supreme Court rulings of the post-World War II era.

In order to get confirmed, Trump’s appointees to the court lied to the Senate by claiming that they saw Roe v. Wade as settled law; they ripped it up as soon as they consolidated their power on the court. In quick succession, they have gone after voting rights, affirmative action, gun control, environmental regulations, while sending out the word that now is a good time for conservative lawyers to bring their most extreme lawsuits to the court in order to create more right-wing precedents. This court could ban access to contraceptives next; another target could be a reversal on the legalization of gay marriage. The court is now so radical that it would not be surprising to see it go after Brown versus Board of Education, the historic Supreme Court ruling that declared that separate but equal schools were unconstitutional and which helped formed the basis for integration.

This court will be remembered like the justices behind the Dredd Scott decision, the worst ruling by the Supreme Court in American history. Their robes don’t hide their naked grab for political power.      

The post The Supreme Court Wants a Dictator appeared first on The Intercept.

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The best Android phone has the features you want for a worthwhile price.

Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider

Choosing the best Android phone depends on the features you prioritize and your target price range. There are many Android phone brands, each with distinct approaches to hardware and software, and price tags vary widely. 

We’ve tested more than a dozen current phones to land on a definitive list of the top Android phones you can buy now. For transparency, we don’t aim to point out which Android phones have the most features or the highest benchmark scores; you can look at a publicly available specs sheet for that. Rather, based on our testing, we favor those with the best balance of high-quality features, performance, and value.

Our top pick among the best Android phones is the Samsung Galaxy S24, a stellar overall phone that would suit the vast majority of Android users. If you’re looking for something with a more modest price tag, the Google Pixel 8a comes enthusiastically recommended.

Our top picks for the best Android phones

Best overall: Samsung Galaxy S24 – See at Amazon

Best budget: Google Pixel 8a – See at Amazon

Best camera: Google Pixel 8 Pro – See at Amazon

Best battery life: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra – See at Amazon

Best small phone: Samsung Galaxy S24 – See at Amazon

Best foldable phone: OnePlus Open – See at Amazon

Best overall

With its three cameras, unmatched performance, interesting AI features, and sleek minimalist design, the Samsung Galaxy S24 outclasses the Android competition in its price range. There is simply no finer Android phone you can buy in the current 2024 season. And if you prefer larger displays, the Galaxy S24 Plus is basically a larger version of the Galaxy S24 with a couple of extra benefits, like more RAM and faster charging. 

Specifically, the Galaxy S24’s versatile triple-camera system and sheer performance set it apart from its main competitor, the Google Pixel 8. The Galaxy S24 runs on the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor as the $1,300 Galaxy S24 Ultra, and it’s among the few phones in the $800 range with three cameras. The Galaxy S24’s MSRP is $100 more than the Pixel 8’s, but it’s worth the added cost if you’re looking for a premium Android phone and are willing to pay for one to begin with.

Samsung’s Galaxy S24 has the fewest compromises for the best value.

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Indeed, we feel you wouldn’t regret paying a little more for the Galaxy S24’s performance today, and a few years from now. It imparts more confidence than other Android phones that it’ll stay snappy and smooth for a considerable time.

The Galaxy S24 takes great photos, but it should be said its camera quality is the weakest in the premium phone market. Even though Samsung successfully addressed the near-neon oversaturated colors, the lighting in Galaxy S24 photos can be inconsistent. It results in occasionally bland, depthless photos or overexposure in brighter details, and it happens more often than we’d like.

Still, the Galaxy S24’s cameras are good enough, and the 3x zoom lens offers versatility that most other Android phones in this price range don’t match. If you often use your current phone’s zoom lens or wish you had one to take better photos of far-away subjects, the Galaxy S24 is an excellent choice in the $800 range.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy S24 review and see our guide to the best Samsung Galaxy S24 cases to protect the phone.

Best budget

Google’s Pixel 8a is a pragmatic budget-conscious champion; it’s all most people really need. For $499 at MSRP, it offers the same Google Tensor G3 processor as Google’s flagship Pixel 8 phones for high-end performance, it has a 120Hz display for a smooth experience, and its cameras can easily rival those on phones that cost twice as much. 

Its more affordable price is a reflection of its plastic back, thicker borders around the display, and a slow but acceptable 18W charging speed. In everyday use, none of these less-than-premium traits negatively affect the experience of using the Pixel 8a. 

The Pixel 8a is the top Android phone you can buy in the $500-and-below range.

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In our intensive battery test, the 6.1-inch Pixel 8a’s 61% result exceeded that of premium phones with similar screen sizes, like the 6.2-inch Galaxy S24 (59%) and even some with bigger screens, like the 6.7-inch Galaxy S24 Plus (60%). 

To be sure, a $500 price is high in terms of a “budget” option. Yet, the Pixel 8a offers such good value for a near-premium experience that we think it’s well worth the splurge. It’s a splurge that makes up for its price, too — primarily, the Pixel 8a’s performance will stay sprightly for years longer than less expensive phones with less powerful processors.

Read our full Google Pixel 8a review and see our guide to the best Google Pixel 8a cases to protect the phone.

Best camera

The Android phone with the best camera system is Google’s Pixel 8 Pro because, quite simply, it takes the best photos out of all the Android phones we’ve tested so far. We also get the most confidence that photos will look good after every snap than with other Android phones. 

The Pixel 8 Pro’s cameras capture memories in beautifully natural colors while maintaining the best balance of brightness and contrast. As the best Google Pixel phone for video and photography, it produces results less prone to overexposure than competitors and offers gorgeous depth thanks to superior dynamic range. 

The Pixel 8 Pro might not have four cameras like the Galaxy S24 Ultra, but its photo quality is consistently better.

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We also found that the Pixel 8 Pro isn’t as dependent on optimal lighting conditions as Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra to capture sharp photos of moving subjects, like kids and pets. Indeed, images taken in less ideal lighting conditions with the Galaxy S24 Ultra can appear somewhat blurry and grainy. 

The Pixel 8 Pro’s three cameras — a 50MP main camera, a 48MP 5x zoom camera, and a 48MP ultrawide camera — offer plenty of versatility. 

The Pixel 8 Pro uses a highly effective digital zoom between its main and 5x lenses. It combines the main and ultrawide cameras to produce a photo nearly as sharp as a dedicated optical lens at 3x zoom. 

Still, Google’s solution for digital zoom isn’t quite as high-quality as a dedicated zoom lens, like the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s 3x zoom lens. The Galaxy S24 Ultra takes slightly better photos at 10x zoom, too. That said, we stand by our pick for the Pixel 8 Pro, as overall photo quality is still better and more balanced on the Pixel 8 Pro. 

The Pixel 8 Pro also takes first-rate videos with equally excellent color, brightness, and contrast as its photos.

Read our full Google Pixel 8 Pro review and see our guide to the best Google Pixel 8 Pro cases to protect the phone. 

Best battery life

Phones with bigger displays almost always have the best battery life, and the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra with a 6.8-inch display and 5,000mAh battery obtained the best result in our battery stress test among flat Android phones, ending the test with a whopping 66% remaining. 

That’s a phenomenal result. The traditional Android phone with the next best score is the Google Pixel 8 Pro with 62%. Indeed, most phones with large displays score between 60% and 62%.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra holds the highest score in our battery test for a traditional phone (non-foldable).

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The battery stress test simulates a blend of lighter and heavier workloads. It includes five runs of the intensive Geekbench 6 app, two runs of the intensive 20-minute 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test, two hours of video streaming, and one hour of music streaming while connected to a Bluetooth speaker.

While you’re unlikely to change your charging habits too much, the Galaxy S24 Ultra has the most potential of any Android phone we’ve tested to last a couple of days of light use. Its battery life also gives you more confidence that it’ll last through your typical day.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review and see our guide to the best Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra cases to protect the phone.  

Best small phone

Not only is the Samsung Galaxy S24 the best Android phone overall, it’s among the most compact and lightest Android phones available in the US. It has a 6.2-inch display, but the black borders of the display are so narrow that it keeps the phone incredibly compact. It’s also incredibly lightweight at only 5.9 ounces.

The Galaxy S24 is slightly more compact and lighter than the Pixel 8.

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The Galaxy S24 surprised us with its battery life. It ended our battery test with 59%, which is a good score for a small or large phone. The Galaxy S24 Plus, for example, scored 60% in the same test.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy S24 review and see our guide to the best Samsung Galaxy S24 cases to protect the phone.

Best foldable phone

When it comes to foldable phones, we prefer the book-style design over clamshell flip-style designs. Book-style foldables are significantly more expensive, but they offer vastly greater functionality with their tablet displays, and you don’t have to worry as much about battery life or performance as you do with clamshell foldables. 

The first foldable phone we’d recommend to anyone who asks is the OnePlus Open, thanks to its premium, solid design and build quality, large-than-average cover and tablet displays, and excellent performance. The OnePlus Open’s cameras are stellar, too, even if they’re a little dependent on ideal lighting conditions, and battery life proved solid in our tests.

The OnePlus Open is the most impressive foldable phone we’ve tested thanks to its build quality that feels a step above, and its larger cover and tablet displays.

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We’ve tested and considered other book-style phones, including the Google Pixel Fold and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5. However, the OnePlus Open’s build quality and large 7.6-inch tablet display sets it apart from the others with 7.6-inch tablet displays. To be sure, the other foldables we mentioned have great build quality, but the OnePlus Open is simply a step above. 

We also love the OnePlus Open’s large 6.3-inch cover display, as it’s wider than the Galaxy Z Fold 5’s awkwardly narrow cover display and larger than the Google Pixel Fold with its stout 5.8-inch cover display. The Open offers a comfortable experience familiar to a regular phone’s display, which is important, as you don’t want to feel like you constantly need to unfold the phone for basic tasks, like replying to a message or quickly searching the web.

Read our OnePlus Open hands-on assessment and see our guide to the best foldable phones for other top options. 

Which is the best Android phone?

The best Android phone we recommend to most people is the Samsung Galaxy S24. For its $800 starting price, the Galaxy S24 offers an ideal balance of performance, camera quality, camera options, and features. 

Specs	Samsung Galaxy S24	Google Pixel 8a	Google Pixel 8 Pro	Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra	OnePlus Open
Starting price	$799.99	$499	$999	$1,299.99	$1,699.99
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Optimized for Galaxy	Google Tensor G3	Google Tensor G3	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Optimized for Galaxy	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
Release date	January 2024	May 2024	October 2023	January 2024	October 2023
Display	6.2 inches, 1080p OLED, 1-120Hz	6.1 inches, 1080p OLED, 120Hz	6.7 inches, 1344p OLED, 1-120Hz	6.8 inches, 1440p OLED, 1-120Hz	7.82 inches, 2268p, AMOLED, 1-120Hz (unfolded); 6.31 inches, 1116p, AMOLED, 10-120Hz (folded)
Rear cameras	50MP main, 12MP ultrawide, 10MP 3x zoom	64MP main, 13MP ultrawide	50MP main, 48MP ultrawide, 48MP 5x zoom	200MP main, 12MP ultrawide, 10MP 3x zoom, 10MP 5x zoom	48MP main, 64MP 3x zoom, 48MP ultrawide
Storage	128GB, 256GB	128GB, 256GB	128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB	256GB, 512GB, 1TB	512GB

How we test Android phones

We put every phone through the same tests and extended personal use.

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We test Android phones as if they were our daily drivers for at least several days, often much longer. That way, we can get the best anecdotal feel for their performance, battery life, cameras, and new features. Our extensive experience covering, reviewing, and comparing phone models from various companies at different price points means we know what to expect, and any failings become apparent quickly. 

We also conduct standard tests on all the phones we review and include in our guides.

For performance, we put the phones through a gamut of benchmarking apps to check for performance discrepancies between phones, at least on paper. These benchmark tests also help us evaluate how many years a phone could maintain its performance compared to other phones. We’ve used Geekbench 6 for general performance and the 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test to get a sense of extended heavy gaming performance. 

For camera testing, we photograph a set gamut of scenes with every phone; you may have seen our barn photos repeatedly. We take photos and videos with each lens on each phone and compare them to their direct competitors. We even compare premium phone cameras to budget options to evaluate the difference. 

For battery life, we run each phone through a stress test that simulates a mixture of typical daily workloads, like streaming a video and music, and high-intensity workloads, like playing demanding games. The battery stress test includes five runs of the Geekbench 6 app, two runs of the 3DMark Wildlife Stress Test, two hours of video streaming at a set average brightness, and one hour of music streaming with a Bluetooth speaker connected. At the end of the test, we note the remaining battery percentage on the phone.

Other Android phones we tested

Aside from the Android phones listed or mentioned above, we’ve tested all the latest flagship phones from Samsung and Google for our guides to the best Samsung phones and best Google Pixel phones, along with most of the current mid-range and budget phones from both companies.

From Motorola, we’ve tested the latest Motorola Razr foldable phones. We’ve also tested the 2024 Moto G and Moto G Power 5G as contenders for the best budget Android phone. Out of the two, we’d only consider the Moto G Power, thanks to its superior performance. It’s less expensive than the Pixel 8a, and it would be a solid pick if you can’t justify $500.

We’ve also tested the latest OnePlus 12 phones. We were convinced they’d feature in this guide, but we faced issues when using the Geekbench 6 benchmarking app, which we use to test battery life. 

For some reason, both the OnePlus 12 and OnePlus 12R obtained inconsistent and significantly lower scores in Geekbench 6 than we’d expect from their processors, which put our battery test results for the phones in doubt. The odd benchmark results also questioned whether we were experiencing the intended performance and full potential of both OnePlus devices. 

We’ve been communicating with OnePlus to figure out the issue and retesting the OnePlus 12 and OnePlus 12R with every new Android update and Geekbench 6 app update. In the dozens of tests we’ve run with Geekbench 6 on both OnePlus 12 phones, very few instances produced the expected results. 

FAQs

Who owns Android? 

In simple terms, Google owns the Android operating system.

Google bought the company that developed the software, Android Inc., in 2005. Other companies like Samsung and OnePlus can run Android on their phones because Google makes it freely available as an open-source operating system for anyone to use. Even you, the reader, could build your own phone that legally runs the Android operating system.  

The Android operating system looks and works differently on phones from different companies because phone makers modify it by adding their own software layers on top of Android for users to interact with.

For example, while Samsung phones run the core Android operating system, which gives them access to the Google Play Store apps, they also run Samsung’s user interface (UI) layer, One UI, which adds a distinctive look and feel to the company’s phones. 

Which Android phone gets the most updates?

The best support window for Android phones is the seven years of Android operating system and security updates offered by the Samsung Galaxy S24 series and the Google Pixel 8 phones, including the Pixel 8a. 

The OnePlus Open has the shortest support window among our top picks, with a still-respectable four years of software updates and five years of security updates from its October 2023 release. 

In ruling that Trump enjoys ‘absolute immunity’ for ‘official acts’ as president, the court has set a disturbing precedent

Is the president a king? The US supreme court thinks so. On Monday, in its very last ruling of the term, the chief justice, John Roberts, writing for the court’s six conservatives, held in Trump v United States that Donald Trump has “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution for all acts that can be interpreted as part of the official course of his “core” duties, and “presumptive” immunity for all other official acts.

The move dramatically extends executive authority, insulates past and future presidents from prosecution for illegal or even treasonous actions they carry out while in office and renders the former president largely criminally immune for his role in the January 6 insurrection.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

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France’s far-right has never been closer to power after winning the first round of snap legislative elections Sunday. It’s a stunning result that could see the far-right taking control of the government — and a far-right prime minister ahead of the Paris Olympics — if it wins big in the second round of voting July 7. The left and center are now calling for an alliance against extremism in one of Europe’s largest countries. Lisa Bryant reports from Paris.

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