Retribution, by Jonathan Karl, describes backroom squabbling over Kristi Noem and Sean Duffy appointments

Donald Trump picked Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary as a personal favour to his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski despite objections that she was “obviously unqualified”, according to a new book.

The factional infighting behind Trump’s cabinet selection, where inexperience was no barrier to success, is detailed by journalist Jonathan Karl in Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign That Changed America. The Guardian obtained a copy.

Obama once joked about what a gaudy Trump White House would like – the president seems bent on proving him right

When Barack Obama roasted Donald Trump at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, the icing on the cake was a cartoon illustration of what the White House might look like if Trump ever became US president.

The name “Trump” was emblazoned across the top in giant capital letters, followed by “the White House” in lurid purple cursive, then “hotel • casino • golf course” and “presidential suite”. The parody imagined gold pillars, a giant crystal chandelier and two scantily clad women sitting at reception.

The start of construction on the president’s $250m ballroom marks a regression to his property wheeler-dealer days

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The press corps crowded into the East Room – crystal chandeliers, moulded ceilings, portraits of past presidents – on Monday for an event celebrating student baseball champions from Louisiana. But first Donald Trump had something else on his mind.

“Right behind us we are building a ballroom,” he said, gesturing towards a gold curtain. “I didn’t know I’d be standing here right now ’cos right on the other side you have a lot of construction going on, which you might hear periodically.”

She’s been a true Maga believer in the past, but the Georgia representative has lately shown a streak of independence

For years she was one of Donald Trump’s most loyal foot soldiers. Marjorie Taylor Greene trafficked in racist statements, indicated support for executing Democrats and even floated conspiracy theories about Jewish space lasers. Beneath a red “Make America great again” cap she became an instantly recognisable face of the Maga movement.

Yet in recent months the Georgia congresswoman has surprised friend and foe alike. On issues ranging from healthcare to Gaza to the Jeffrey Epstein files, she has broken ranks with Republicans and won unlikely fans among Democrats. The streak of independence has stirred speculation about her motives – and future ambitions.

In a new essay collection, the dean of Columbia University’s graduate school of journalism makes a compelling argument that everything is connected and nothing is inevitable about racial justice or democracy

“From the vantage point of the newsroom, the first story is almost never the full story,” writes Jelani Cobb. “You hear stray wisps of information, almost always the most inflammatory strands of a much bigger, more complicated set of circumstances.”

The dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in New York could be reflecting on the recent killing of the racist provocateur Charlie Kirk. In fact, he is thinking back to Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African American student from Florida who was shot dead by a white Latino neighbourhood watch volunteer in 2012.

Morgan Library & Museum, New York

Famed impressionist painter’s lesser-seen drawings are the focus of a major new exhibition that invites us into the stages of his artistic process

His luminous colours and sensual brushwork adorn countless mugs, posters and tote bags as well as blockbuster exhibitions. But the commodification of Pierre-Auguste Renoir and his fellow impressionist painters has been missing something.

Renoir was an accomplished draftsman who produced a distinguished but largely unheralded collection of drawings, pastels, watercolours and prints.

Outside the supreme court, protesters invoked the legacy of civil rights giants with a key Voting Rights Act plank at stake

Wearing a T-shirt proclaiming “We won’t Black down”, Wanda Mosley had made the trip from Atlanta. “I had to be here because the Voting Rights Act is on life support,” the 55-year-old explained. “Today the court will synthesise the arguments and decide if they’re going to kill it – or allow it to live.”

Mosley was among a few hundred protesters who gathered in warm October sunshine outside the supreme court on Wednesday. Inside the building, whose facade was obscured by scaffolding, justices were weighing arguments in a case involving Louisiana electoral districts and section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst lead the acclaimed new comedy drama about an escaped prisoner hiding in a toy store and deceiving a local woman

Leigh Moore was meant to be celebrating her 40th birthday. Instead she received a visit from the FBI. “They told me the man that you’ve been seeing is not who you think he is; he is on America’s Most Wanted,” she recalls.

When agents showed her a picture of her boyfriend to prove it, Moore “fell to pieces” and cried. “They shattered my whole world. I was devastated, like someone had just died.”