US news | The Guardian

All the latest news from a huge World Cup Wednesday

Clayton, if confirmed, would replace Bill Pulte, and is facing senators for confirmation as the US's top spyJay Clayton, the US attorney for the southern district of New York, refused to say that Joe Biden won the 2020 election during his Wednesday confirmation hearing to become the nation's next intelligence chief.Clayton opted instead to say that Biden was certified" as president. Clayton also skirted questions about his previous election integrity claims and whether or not a White House official asked him to subpoena a group of New York Times journalists as part of an alleged national security investigation. Continue reading...

Trump's nominee for attorney general - also his former personal defense lawyer - faces questions from senators as he attempts to take the top justice department role

Move comes after Trump rebuked his own homeland security department and insisted ICE maintain policyThe White House overturned a one-day old homeland security department (DHS) memo that said they would be halting traffic stops in the wake of recent stops that left two men killed in the space of a week on Wednesday morning, hours after Donald Trump insisted ICE keep making them.Federal officers across the US had been told to temporarily stop pulling drivers over on Tuesday. That directive came after ICE agents fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston on 7 July and Joan Sebastian Duran Guerrero in Maine on Monday. Both men were unarmed, neither was the intended target of the operation that killed him, and in both cases the agents involved wore no body camera to record what happened. Continue reading...

Trump's nominee will face tough questions over purging of career prosecutors, Epstein files and moreTodd Blanche is testifying in front of the Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday, as one of Donald Trump's most loyal and powerful enforcers in government aims to be confirmed as the nation's top law enforcement officer.Few officials have been more instrumental in Trump's crusade to transform the federal government in his second term than Blanche. Trump tapped Blanche, his former personal attorney, to serve as the deputy attorney general, the justice department's No 2 position, at the start of his term, where he steered the department's day-to-day work as career employees were purged over their connection to Trump investigations and the president oriented the department towards punishing political rivals and investigating debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Continue reading...

Kathryn Ruemmler welcomes closed-door interview and says she had no knowledge of ongoing criminal activitylKathryn Ruemmler, who served as White House counsel under Barack Obama, is testifying on Wednesday morning before the House committee on oversight and reform about her ties to Jeffrey Epstein as part of the panel's investigation into the convicted sex offender.Ruemmler came under scrutiny earlier this year after her name appeared thousands of times in the records related to Epstein that were released by the justice department under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. She announced in February that she would be resigning from her role at Goldman Sachs as chief legal officer effective on 30 June. Continue reading...

Republican Trump ally has spent years promoting discredited claims about 2020 electionDonald Trump has endorsed Mike Lindell's bid for Minnesota governor, calling the MyPillow founder one of America's greatest and most hard working Patriots" in a Truth Social post on Wednesday.Trump described Lindell as someone who had sacrificed" more than almost anyone else in fighting for our country, especially when it comes to Election Integrity", invoking Lindell's years spent promoting discredited claims about the 2020 election. Trump said Lindell will MAKE MINNESOTA GREAT AGAIN" and gave him full-throated support ahead of the state's 11 August Republican primary, where early voting is already under way. Continue reading...

More density would also narrow racial pay gaps, while a decline in density correlated to surges in wealth inequalityTripling union membership in the US would lead to a 14.5% raise for the median US worker, shifting $1.2tn to workers annually and significantly narrowing racial wage gaps, according to a new report released on Wednesday.The report from the Economic Policy Institute notes that union membership rates across the workforce, also known as union density, was once three times as high as it is today. Union density in the 1950s was more than 30% before it started to decline in the 1960s. By the 1980s, union density dropped to 22.2% only to decline even further in recent decades, to 10% in 2025. Continue reading...

Different Seasons, which incudes stories that inspired films such as Stand by Me and The Shawshank Redemption, judged to contain objective sensitive material'

Demonstrators across Maine gathered to call for an end to ICE operations after the fatal shooting of a Colombian national, Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero, by an ICE agent. In Biddeford and Portland, speakers called for accountability and protesters marched holding anti-ICE signs. Outside an ICE facility in Scarborough, arguments broke out between protesters and an armed supporter of ICE

Rev Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III to lead August march after court rulings weakened voting rightsA coalition of civil rights leaders have announced plans to march on Washington in defense of voting rights following a string of federal and supreme court rulings that have weakened protections against racial discrimination in US elections.The Rev Al Sharpton's National Action Network is leading the 28 August action, joined by Martin Luther King III, Arndrea Waters King, and several civil rights groups. The March on Washington 2026: Defend the Vote" will take place on the 63rd anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's I Have a Dream speech. Continue reading...

Arrested suspect tells police he intends to kill Muslims' after alleged attack on kiosk worker at West Valley City millA man was arrested in Utah for stabbing a Muslim man multiple times and stated that he targeted the victim because of the victim's religion, police said in court records on Tuesday.Police said the suspect told them he intends to kill Muslims" and that he constituted a substantial danger to the public if released based on his violent actions ... ideologies and pre-planned mass casualty events". Continue reading...

The next great climate divide will be between countries that have the resources to adapt and those that don'tThis summer, much of the media's attention has focused on record temperatures across Europe and the United States. Television coverage has been filled with familiar images: heat maps shaded deep red, schools closing, rail lines slowing, wildfires spreading and emergency rooms treating growing numbers of people with heat-related illnesses.Public officials have responded with equally familiar advice: stay indoors, drink plenty of water and, if possible, turn on the air conditioning. Continue reading...

Polls suggest many Democratic voters oppose the projects as party leaders champion AI investmentSarah Brabbs used to be a fan of Michigan's Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer.I have her book; I appreciated her stewardship and guidance during the pandemic," Brabbs, who has voted Democrat for basically her entire life, says. I will never not appreciate who she was during that time." Continue reading...

US president says power plants and bridges could be targeted, which would probably constitute war crimes. Plus, the bear that raided an elderly couple's fridge, and a stolen cat involved in a bank robberyGood morning. Donald Trump has threatened to expand US strikes on Iran next week to target civilian infrastructure including power plants and bridges if Tehran does not agree to a deal. Trump made similar comments in March. Destroying civilian infrastructure such as power and water facilities would be illegal under international humanitarian law and would probably constitute a war crime.The US president, meanwhile, has U-turned on a threat that ships would have to pay a 20% fee to the US for security" in the strait of Hormuz. He said he had decided to scrap the toll based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership", and touted massive" investments. He said the US would continue to blockade Iranian ports.How have Democrats responded to renewed hostilities? Senate Democrats blocked the advancement of a must-pass defense bill. Chuck Schumer, the Senate's top Democrat, said his party could not support advancing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) as long as the fighting continued.Top House Democrats, meanwhile, have vowed to oppose a bid to cut US military aid to Israel as the party grapples with a rebellion among their voters over the party's support for the Middle Eastern ally. Continue reading...

Guardian analysis found the removals coincided with the Trump administration's push to weaken efficiency rulesAs millions of Americans prepare for another brutal heatwave, it's now harder to find information about ways to stay cool while saving energy and keeping utility costs down.At least 1,662 department of energy webpages offering guidance on protecting the electrical grid during heatwaves have gone dark as of 3 July, according to a Guardian analysis of a list of deleted URLs provided by researchers at the Internet Archive, a non-profit that hosts a repository of more than a trillion archived webpages. Continue reading...

Oil giant has denied involvement, but climate activists are closely watching court case against Israeli private investigator for answersA group of American climate activists are closely watching a US court case that could reveal who hired hackers to target their inboxes a decade ago.In 2015, a set of explosive media reports revealed that ExxonMobil's own scientists determined as early as 1982 that the extraction and burning of fossil fuels caused the climate crisis - but Exxon went on to fund climate denial campaigns anyway. The reports prompted attorneys general to investigate the company. Continue reading...

Agents killed Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero in Maine and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas, even though both were not targets of enforcement actionUS officials are facing mounting calls to remove US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from American streets after federal agents killed two men who were not the target of enforcement action in less than a week.Advocacy groups, including the National Police Accountability Project and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, described the fatal shootings of Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero in Maine and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas as extrajudicial killings. Continue reading...

Plaintiffs allege profound' chilling effect on protected work of international criminal court officials and othersTwo US advocacy groups sued the Trump administration on Wednesday, alleging that sanctions targeting Palestinian rights organizations, international criminal court (ICC) officials and a UN expert have unlawfully violated Americans' first amendment rights.The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, argues that the administration's sweeping 2025 sanctions package has had a profound" chilling effect on Palestine-related advocacy, compelling Americans to sever professional relationships and abandon constitutionally protected work. Continue reading...

The senator is alive, a key requirement to maintain one's job in the US SenateLike any good proof-of-life photo, it featured that day's newspaper. After a nearly month-long disappearance, when it was clear that he had been rushed to the hospital but not clear why or in what condition, Mitch McConnell broke his silence, as they say in the tabloids, by releasing a photograph of himself sitting upright in a hospital bed. He wore a pink button-up shirt, and his vacant, lipless mouth seemed to form something meant to resemble a smile. Beside him was his wife, the comparatively pert former Trump transportation secretary Elaine Chao, her coiffed hair as stiff as the couple's determination. In a statement, McConnell said that he had been hospitalized after a fall, and was being treated for pneumonia.The picture was meant to put an end to the rampant speculation over whether the senator, aged 84, was dead or not. You would think this would be a simple enough question to answer. If the man himself wasn't available to clear up the matter, couldn't someone have held two fingers to the inside of his wrist to check for a pulse, or propped a hand mirror under his nose to see if it fogged? No such luck, apparently. The Kentucky senator was missing for weeks, with no word, his office only releasing vague and repetitive acknowledgements that he had been hospitalized. Public emergency services records indicate that paramedics were called to his Washington address on 14 June, where they administered CPR on an unconscious person who was allegedly suffering a cardiac arrest - one whose identity has been withheld. McConnell had been in a Washington DC area hospital ever since.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Match officials are enforcing tweaks to the laws of the game that have hardly been tested. The results? Drama, mistaken identities' and lots of confusionIn the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, the titular characters occasionally played a game known as Calvinball.The rules were amorphous. At any moment, something like a 30-yard base wicket" may become part of the game. Determining a winner" was besides the point, as the score for one game was given as Q to 12." The fictional, farcical sport entered public consciousness and was even cited by US supreme court justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in a blistering dissent last year. Continue reading...

Police say suspect stole three-and-a-half-month-old tuxedo kitten Magnolia before attempting to rob a PNC bankLaw enforcement agencies are accustomed to dealing with cat burglars - but now a Maryland police department is saying it grappled with a cat-wielding bank robber.The Prince George's county police department said its officers arrested a man suspected of stealing a cat and then taking the animal with him to a PNC bank branch in the local community of Beltsville to rob the establishment on Monday morning. Continue reading...

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Another 16 people rescued after pontoon pleasure boat' sinks about 600 yards from famous tourist attractionOne person was killed, two were missing and 16 were rescued after a pontoon boat capsized and sank near San Francisco's Alcatraz Island on Tuesday, authorities said.Nineteen people were aboard the vessel at the time of the incident. Continue reading...

Man who was 74 was one of three older prisoners scheduled for execution within the span of a monthFlorida put to death one of its oldest prisoners in its state history on Tuesday, a 74-year-old convicted murderer who was one of three older prisoners scheduled for execution within the span of a month in the nation's busiest death penalty state.Dennis Sochor was pronounced dead at 6.16pm after a three-drug injection at Florida state prison near Starke. He was convicted of killing Patricia Gifford on 1 January 1982, just hours after meeting the 18-year-old woman at a New Year's Eve party. Continue reading...

Boston cone' arrives to fanfare in first-class seat from Glasgow before planned trip to raise money for mental healthFresh off its first-class flight from Glasgow, it received a reception befitting a visiting dignitary: a bagpiper in full regalia playing inside Boston Logan international airport. Waiting to greet it were diplomats, the governor and Boston's mayor.The guest of honor? An orange traffic cone. Continue reading...

Clarence Frazier Jr charged with murder over killing of Drew Hanson and could face death penalty if convictedA federal agent was fatally shot while trying to help authorities capture a man who failed to show up to his sexual battery trial in Louisiana, according to the US justice department.Clarence Frazier Jr, 48, was charged with murder in the killing of deputy US marshal Drew Hanson, authorities said. Frazier could face life imprisonment or the death penalty if he is eventually convicted of murdering Hanson.Rae Walberg of WWL Louisiana, a Guardian reporting partner, contributed Continue reading...

Sunshine Protection Act has bipartisan support, including backing of Trump and some Democratic co-sponsors, and will head to the Senate nextThe US House of Representatives on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to approve a bill that would end the practice of changing clocks twice a year and make daylight saving time permanent.The bid to end clock-changing, dubbed the Sunshine Protection Act, has bipartisan support, including the backing of Donald Trump and some Democratic co-sponsors. Following the 308-117 tally in the House, the bill next goes to the Senate. Continue reading...

Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett appear before House lawmakers in rare testimony to ask for more protectionSupreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett told House lawmakers that a sharp rise in threats against her and other justices is increasingly affecting her personal and family lives.Barrett and fellow supreme court justice Elena Kagan made the case for increased security in rare House testimony to discuss the court's budget request. The last time a sitting justice answered questions on Capitol Hill was 2019. Continue reading...

Spain grandly swatted aside strangely subdued France to reach Sunday's finalFrance and Spain have only met once before at the World Cup. That was 20 years ago, back in the day when Les Bleus very much had La Roja's number (the Euro 84 final, the Euro 2000 quarters, all that).Spain have had the better of the tournament football since. Wins in the Euro 2012 quarters and the Euro 2024 semis, plus an absurd 5-4 victory in last year's Nations League semis. France did win the 2021 Nations League final, though. Continue reading...

Enchanted' visitors queued for hours to see two of largest - and smelliest - plants flower in San MarinoTwo corpse flowers have bloomed at a southern California research institution, where thousands of visitors had the rare chance to watch two of the world's largest - and most odorous - plants flowering at the same time.The two titan arums, named Odorysseus and Odora, attracted more than 7,000 people on Monday at the Huntington library, art museum and botanical gardens in San Marino, about 12 miles (19km) from downtown Los Angeles, after they bloomed over the weekend. Continue reading...

House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, calls amendment overly broad' as party grapples with backlash over Israel

Death of unidentified 28-year-old man marks third immigration enforcement-related death in one weekA person died during an encounter with federal immigration officials on Tuesday morning in Florida, a state highway patrol spokesperson confirmed, marking the third death in one week linked to immigration enforcement operations.Officials with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which is a component of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), had an encounter" with four men in a vehicle in the parking lot of a convenience store along a busy road in St Augustine, Florida, the highway patrol spokesperson said. As the four men fled from the agents, one of them ran into the busy road and was struck by a semi truck. The person died at the scene. Continue reading...

Lindsey Graham's younger sister appointed by South Carolina's governor three days after senator's death

Lawsuit alleges administration coordinated with online surveillance groups to criminalize solidarity with Palestine'Mahmoud Khalil filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Trump administration officials and several pro-Israel groups, accusing them of conspiring to target him and others as punishment for their support of Palestinian rights.The former Columbia University graduate student became the face of the Trump administration's crackdown on pro-Palestine speech after he was detained last year. A permanent US resident, Khalil is also fighting in court against the government's effort to deport him. Continue reading...

Darline was 13 when her brother became her legal guardian - and was a key presence as he rose in the Republican ranksWhen Lindsey Graham was in college, his parents died, just over a year apart. But he worried most about his sister, who, at 13, was suddenly an orphan. Graham became her legal guardian - and later adopted her so she could receive his benefits through his service as an air force lawyer.On Tuesday, following Graham's sudden death, that sister, Darline Graham, was sworn in to serve the remainder of her late brother's Senate term. Lindsey took care of his little sister in years long departed," Henry McMaster, South Carolina's Republican governor, said at a press conference on Monday convened at the state capital in Columbia. It's my honor to ask his little sister, Darline Graham, to finish his work for him now." Continue reading...

Deaths of Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo prompt calls for independent investigationsFederal immigration officials have been instructed to stop pulling over vehicles until further notice, according to a homeland security source, following two recent deadly shootings in Texas and Maine during which officials shot and killed immigrants in vehicles.Other news outlets, including Fox News and CNN, confirmed that officials nationwide received the instructions, with the former reporting some vehicle stops would be allowed to target the most egregious criminal aliens". Continue reading...

Chuck Schumer says Republicans are ignoring the nation's most urgent national security crisis' amid US exchange of fire with Iran

A boy, 16, and girl, 15, were charged with murder after the family members were shot at three different locationsTwo teenagers were charged with murder Tuesday in the killings of five members of an Illinois family who were shot at three different locations.A 16-year-old boy will be prosecuted as an adult, while the case against a 15-year-old girl will start in juvenile court before a possible transfer to the St Clair county criminal court, the county prosecutor's office said. Continue reading...

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says they are scouring food supply chain for culprit, which may be lettuce

A collision of online conspiracy theories came for two of the most powerful Republicans in the Senate in recent daysIt was Russia. It was Israel. Could it have been Iran? Or maybe it was a Covid-19 booster. What about the Clintons?After US senator Lindsey Graham died suddenly over the weekend from what a preliminary medical examiner report said was an aortic dissection, conspiracy theories spread quickly claiming - without evidence - that any number of foreign adversaries or other frequent conspiracy subjects might have orchestrated the Republican's death. Continue reading...

Carl McDaniel, 65, from Washington state suffered broken bones after he was charged by a 2,000lb (900kg) bull during a visit to Yellowstone with his grandson on Friday. The encounter was recorded by Mike MacLeod, a professional photographer, who said the animal was 'agitated, pissed off and charging anything and everything'

France v Spain build-up and Atlanta police step up security for England v ArgentinaAtlanta police are increasing staffing and resources for Wednesday's World Cup semi-final between England and Argentina.The department says additional officers will be deployed around the stadium and across the city's entertainment and high-traffic areas, with large crowds expected before and after the match:As Atlanta prepares to host an upcoming World Cup semi-final match and welcomes increased numbers of residents and visitors, the Atlanta Police Department has enhanced its citywide public safety and security posture. Additional personnel and resources are already deployed and will continue to be strategically assigned in and around the event venues, entertainment districts, and other high-traffic areas to help ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone. These proactive measures are designed to protect the public, deter criminal activity, and ensure residents and visitors can safely enjoy this historic event." Continue reading...

Recent strikes have sent oil prices climbing again, with average gas price per gallon up by 70 cents on last yearInflation cooled to an annual rate of 3.5% in June as the brief US-Iran ceasefire, which has since ended, brought energy prices down, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.The consumer price index (CPI), which measures a basket of goods and services, has been elevated since the start of the war, largely because of higher energy prices. After mostly staying under 3% since mid-2024, CPI reached a three-year high of 4.2% in May - up from 2.4% in February. Month-over-month, CPI fell 0.8% in June, the largest one-month decrease since April 2020. Continue reading...

The US government has been forced to pay billions in refunds to companies that were hit by Donald Trump's liberation day' tariffs. The US has paid out $81bn (61bn) this fiscal year after the supreme court ruled the tariffs were illegal. Lucy Hough speaks to Chris Michael, an international editor for Guardian US Continue reading...

US government says it wants to systematically disable' The Hague-based international criminal courtA spokesperson for the EU has pushed back against the Trump administration's assertion that the international criminal court poses a threat to US sovereignty, a day after the US government said it would work to systematically disable" a global tribunal that seeks to prosecute some of the world's gravest crimes.We stand firm in our support for the international criminal court (ICC)," an EU spokesperson, Anouar El Anouni, said on Tuesday. Attacks or threats against the court-elected officials, personnel or those cooperating with the court are simply not acceptable." Continue reading...

The reported infections are the latest in a series of health concerns at the federal immigration jail in AuroraAt least 12 people detained at a federal immigration jail in Colorado have contracted tuberculosis in recent days, according to testimony from inside the facility where dozens of others have reportedly been placed in quarantine.Those affected by the outbreak are also being made to endure their isolation without air conditioning, one detainee who has been at the facility in Aurora since December told the Guardian, through his partner, in a telephone call on Monday afternoon. Continue reading...

Skeleton judged to be one of the largest and most complete ever unearthed was excavated on a ranch in South DakotaA vast, fossilized Tyrannosaurus rex nicknamed Gus sold at Sotheby's in New York on Tuesday for $50.1m with fees (37.4m) to a phone bidder - making it the most valuable dinosaur fossil sold at auction.It also sold well above a pre-sale estimate of $20m to $30m (15m to 22.4m). Continue reading...

Rapper paid JM Burkman & Associates $600,000 to push for president's pardon but firm says no partial refund promisedLouisiana rapper Boosie Badazz is reportedly looking to claw back $300,000 from a firm of Washington DC lobbyists after they failed to secure a Donald Trump pardon that he hired them to pursue over his conviction on charges of possessing a loaded weapon at music video shooting in 2023.Boosie - whose legal name is Torence Hatch and who hails from his home state's capital of Baton Rouge - paid JM Burkman & Associates $600,000 in 2025 to advance his push for a pardon from the US president, according to a report on Monday from Notus, which covers the federal government. Continue reading...