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Firefighters describe being pushed to limit by a brutal wildfire season, with key leadership roles going unfilledThe US has faced a critical shortage of firefighters at the US Forest Service (USFS) this summer as thousands of fires erupted across the country.Despite officials' claims that the firefighting workforce was stronger than ever, the agency has failed to keep pace with escalating conditions and the catastrophic fires fueled by them, according to nine firefighters who spoke to the Guardian anonymously, because they are barred from disclosing the information to the public. Continue reading...

Compton's Cafe is one of the earliest examples of LGBTQ+ resistance. Today, a prison company occupies the siteOne of the earliest documented examples of LGBTQ+ resistance against police happened on a hot summer night 60 years ago this month. It started not with the throwing of a brick, as it did in New York City's 1969 Stonewall riots, but with the throwing of a coffee cup inside Compton's Cafeteria in San Francisco.When police attempted to raid Compton's - a hub for the drag performers, trans people and sex workers in the city's Tenderloin neighborhood - hundreds of people in the community fought back. A drag queen threw a coffee mug at a police officer; others threw dishes and chairs outside. It was the culmination of years of police harassment, arrests and violence against the community and the beginning of the city's trans movement. Continue reading...

Michael Caruso, once praised by Ron DeSantis, removed from Palm Beach county civic official roles after arrestFlorida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has suspended a former close ally and senior civic official who was arrested on felony child sexual abuse charges.Michael Caruso, who was removed as clerk of court and comptroller for Palm Beach county on Tuesday, was a vocal supporter of a law signed by DeSantis in 2023 that allowed the death penalty for anybody convicted of the sexual battery of a child under 12. Continue reading...

Sunday incident created significant traffic disruptions' and a foul odor as crews worked to clear cephalopod remainsMore than 20 tons of squid spilled on to a Rhode Island highway during a traffic accident, creating hours of delays for motorists and a foul stench as crews worked in baking sunshine to scrape up the remains of the fast-decaying cephalopods.The incident occurred Sunday morning in Narragansett when the driver of a tractor-trailer transporting the squid failed to make a turn, and the vehicle fell on to its side, the town's police department said in a statement, reported by ABC News. Continue reading...

Storm also caused destructive flooding and damage to homes and infrastructure with one woman dead

Some restraint on Trump's excesses might be accomplished if November's midterm elections give Democrats more powerDonald Trump is essentially unrestrained when it comes to enriching himself during his second term, with no sign of stopping. If anything, he's ramping things up.The numbers so far are astonishing. He amassed $2.2bn in 2025 revenues, the Guardian and other news outlets have reported. Continue reading...

Result tees up marquee race in US midterm elections, which could decide if Republicans or Democrats control SenateIncumbent Dan S Sullivan, the US senator, advanced in Alaska's nonpartisan primary race for his seat on Tuesday alongside Mary Peltola, a former Democratic congresswoman.With the top four candidates moving forward from Alaska's open primaries to the general election, the Associated Press reported that Sullivan and Peltola, had qualified for the November's general election. Continue reading...

New findings further call into question scientific judgment of current health leaders in the Trump administrationA French researcher whose work was praised by Donald Trump and Dr Mehmet Oz during the Covid-19 pandemic published hundreds of papers with substantial" ethical and legal concerns, according to a new analysis.An international team of scientists found concerns in 853 articles published by the Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Mediterranee Infection, or the IHU, hundreds more than previously flagged by past investigations into work at the large research hospital. Of those, institute founder Didier Raoult was listed as co-author on 758 of them, according to one of the researchers behind the new analysis. Continue reading...

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's co-opting of conservative language to discuss a movement against state-sanctioned killings of Black people is damningAugust has brought us a referendum on Woke 1" - a term that reductively brands 2020's social justice movement - as prominent liberal voices reflect on that time period with disappointing hindsight. During a recent appearance on ABC's This Week, when asked about 2020-era demands to abolish prisons and police, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the US congresswoman from New York, abandoned her previous support of the defund the police" movement, and instead joked: Woke 1 was crazyyyyy."Ocasio-Cortez, a democratic socialist, implied that the still-resounding calls for municipalities to reduce police budgets and to divert aid to poor communities were worth advocating for during the 2020 uprising, but are now crazyyyyy". In 2020, she noted that a lot of people cannot fathom what an abolitionist America looks like. Tell them it looks like a suburb. Affluent white communities already live in a world where they choose to fund youth, health, housing more than they fund police." But she has since backtracked on that idea. Continue reading...

Klaire Rhodes was attacked by a brown bear in state park but spray helped her escape with relatively minor injuries'An Alaska marathon athlete used a repellant spray to fend off an attacking bear that officials say injured her while she ran on a popular trail recently - an encounter that she has since described as a nightmare come to life".The particularly harrowing episode unfolded on 13 August, when a woman who later identified herself online as marathon winner Klaire Rhodes, 28, was running alone on the Wolverine Bowl trail in Chugach state park, officials with Alaska's fish and game department said. A brown bear on the trail attacked and injured her, according to the agency. Continue reading...

Poll after poll shows the same thing. The American people know that the current economic system is riggedThe media pundits have written article after article desperately trying to understand why progressive candidates, despite being heavily outspent, keep defeating establishment Democrats in primaries around the country. Well, the answer is not complicated.Whether it is a corrupt campaign finance system, unprecedented income and wealth inequality, a broken and wildly expensive healthcare system, the enormous threats posed by AI or an immoral and destructive foreign policy, progressives are talking about the real issues facing working families. And they are providing real solutions. Establishment Democrats are not. Continue reading...

Speculation about US president's executive assistant sparks furious backlash from White HouseWearing shoulder-length blonde hair, gold earrings and a red dress, cancer survivor Natalie Harp introduced herself to the 2020 Republican national convention as a formerly forgotten American from California" and compared Donald Trump with George Bailey, the everyman hero played by James Stewart in the classic film It's a Wonderful Life.George Bailey's father was right," smiled Harp, her voice echoing in the Andrew W Mellon auditorium in pandemic-hit Washington. All you can take with you is that which you've given away. Mr President, that makes you the richest man in the world." Continue reading...

Baseball showman Bill Veeck's most audacious stunt sent Eddie Gaedel to bat for the lowly St Louis Browns in 1951 - and created an unforgettable diamond spectacleBill Veeck had a track record for designing some of the most elaborate marketing promotions during his four stints as a Major League Baseball owner, including an exploding scoreboard in 1960. But his most outlandish publicity stunt was sending 3ft 7in inch pinch-hitter Eddie Gaedel to the plate at a game 75 years ago Wednesday.Sporting uniform number 1/8, Gaedel was greeted with a standing ovation at Sportsman's Park in St Louis as he came to bat in the second game of a doubleheader on 19 August 1951 for the St Louis Browns. A famous AP photo shows Detroit Tigers catcher Bob Swift sitting on his knees with a ball in his glove, towering over Gaedel and his tiny strike zone. Not surprisingly, he walked on four pitches, and was immediately lifted for a pinch-runner. Continue reading...

US president delays 50% tariffs by three days, and says contentious oil project may be awoken from the grave'Canada has temporarily avoided a bruising 50% US tariff, reaching a Tuesday-evening agreement with Trump administration officials hours before a hike that would have affected $20bn worth of goods was set to take effect.Donald Trump posted late on Tuesday on social media that he had paused the tariffs for three days based on the fact that Canada and the USA, subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL!" Continue reading...

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Nixon bested Alexander Vindman to win Democratic nomination and now faces Republican Ashley Moody in November

Congressman had pledged to implement president's agenda if he gained governor's seat

Potential presidential hopeful running for re-election in Georgia intensifies White House feud after remarks about Natalie' drew ire of president and alliesThe Democratic senator Jon Ossoff called Donald Trump a draft-dodging, crook president" while defending the senator Mark Kelly as a hero during a Tuesday campaign appearance in Georgia, escalating his public feud with the US president.I don't think anything illustrates the times more aptly than that the draft-dodging, crook president, who has plunged our nation recklessly into a war he knows not how to end or to win, tried to imprison this man, who embodies American heroism," Ossoff said while appearing alongside Kelly and his wife, the former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Continue reading...

Police report shows Brian Hickerson and his brother, Zach Hickerson, were at Greenville, South Carolina, residenceHayden Panettiere's on-and-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson and his brother, Zach Hickerson, were at the South Carolina apartment where the actor died over the weekend, according to a police report released on Tuesday.A Greenville police officer who responded to the residence on Sunday afternoon was met by the brothers and then observed paramedics performing CPR on an unresponsive woman, the report states. Continue reading...

US supreme court declined to halt execution of William Frances Silvia, and state has two executions next monthA Florida man convicted of fatally shooting his estranged wife and wounding his mother-in-law was executed on Tuesday, continuing the state's aggressive use of the death penalty in the final term of the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis.William Frances Silvia, 61, was pronounced dead at 6.11pm after receiving a three-drug injection at the Florida state prison near Starke. Continue reading...

National Trust for Historic Preservation filing comes after president made emergency bid for construction to continueA historic preservation group that sued to block construction of Donald Trump's White House ballroom urged the US supreme court on Tuesday to suspend the project while it considers whether the work can continue.The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed its request less than a week after the Trump administration asked the nation's highest court to allow the White House to continue construction on its $400m ballroom project during the appeals process. Continue reading...

Larry Montes, already facing state charges, allegedly attacked 63-year-old woman and security guard on FridayThe man accused of attacking a woman and security guard at a New York City synagogue during Shabbat services Friday has been charged with hate crimes in Manhattan federal court, prosecutors said.Larry Montes, who is already facing state-level hate crime charges, allegedly struck a 63-year-old woman as security was trying to boot him from Central synagogue. He allegedly spat at, and head-butted, a security team member and damaged synagogue property, authorities said. Continue reading...

Almost 45m acres of national forests could be potentially opened to road construction, drilling and loggingThe Trump administration said on Tuesday it plans to rescind the roadless rule" that has protected old-growth forests in the US for 25 years, potentially opening up almost 45m acres of national forests to road construction, drilling and logging.Conservationists had feared the announcement was coming since last summer after Brooke Rollins, Trump's secretary of agriculture, targeted a rule brought in by Bill Clinton's administration, describing it as overly restrictive" and an absurd obstacle" to development. Continue reading...

Harvard, Yale, Stanford and others face directive to review and cut alliances Pentagon deems national security riskThirty US universities could lose federal funding unless they review and cut foreign academic partnerships the Pentagon considers a national security risk within the next two weeks, under a Pentagon directive aimed largely at ties to Chinese institutions.Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown and Cornell are among the institutions ordered to conduct and report the reviews - and end partnerships deemed problematic - by 31 August, according to a US official who provided the full list to the Guardian. Continue reading...

Riley English said she was in the grips of a mental health crisis and abusing drugs, and that she planned to kill Scott BessentA Massachusetts woman who told police that she brought homemade firebombs to the US Capitol to kill Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, was sentenced on Tuesday to just over six years in prison.Riley English, a 26-year-old transgender woman, said she was in the grips of a mental health crisis and abusing drugs when she drove to Washington in January 2025 and told Capitol police that she was there to kill Bessent on the day of his Senate confirmation. Continue reading...

Minnesota attorney general sues Texas governor in case of ICE agent charged with wounding a man in MinneapolisMinnesota's attorney general has sued the governor of Texas to force him to extradite an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent charged with wounding a man and then lying to justify the shooting during the US agency's controversial crackdown in Minneapolis.Keith Ellison, Minnesota's attorney general, is asking a federal judge to bar the sheriff in Cameron county, Texas, from releasing ICE agent Christian Castro, and to order Greg Abbott, Texas's governor, to sign his extradition warrant so that Minnesota officers can take custody. Continue reading...

Rodney Greer accused of securing unauthorized prescriptions for GLP-1 drugs and selling them to customersAn Illinois man who allegedly impersonated doctors - and evidently referred to himself online as $hotboy1" - is facing criminal charges that he secured unauthorized prescriptions for Ozempic and Mounjaro, pharmaceutical drugs that facilitate weight loss and are taken by some people for cosmetic rather than legitimate medical reasons.Rodney Greer purportedly launched the alleged scheme in early 2023, according to court filings from federal prosecutors and a US justice department news release issued on Monday. Continue reading...

Jacque St Ann, 17, and his friends broke into Plaza Tower and he fell as they were descending an interior staircaseA high school student recently fell to his death after entering an abandoned high-rise tower in downtown New Orleans with his friends - in an apparent case of urban exploration highlighting the dangers of unaddressed city blight.New Orleans police said Jacque St Ann, 17, and his friends, of the nearby community of Belle Chasse, Louisiana, traveled into the city and broke into the fenced-off, 45-story Plaza Tower in the central business district, which has stood derelict for years. Continue reading...

Network alleges FCC is trying to send chilling message' in retaliation for content the administration disapproves ofABC has sued the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), arguing that it is being retaliated against for content-based reasons in a move it warns threatens the independence of the press.The network filed the lawsuit on Tuesday after being forced to apply early to renew its license to broadcast on the eight local television stations it owns. It is waiting to hear whether the Brendan Carr-led FCC approves its renewal requests, or, more likely, holds a hearing on their merits. Continue reading...

Attorneys for Abrego, who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador, say the DoJ's appeal was flat wrong'The Trump administration has asked a federal appeals court to reinstate criminal charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia that were dismissed in May by a judge who said the prosecution of the man who unwittingly became a symbol of the White House's mass deportation campaign was vindictive in nature".In a filing to the US sixth circuit court of appeals, the justice department insisted that human smuggling allegations against Abrego are genuine - and not retaliation for challenging his wrongful deportation to El Salvador in March 2025. Continue reading...

Funding boost worth $100,000 has recently materialized in form of new marmot-themed cryptocurrencyScientists who turned to OnlyFans to help save long-running research into marmots have raised more than $100,000 after harnessing the support of another, very modern, funding avenue - cryptocurrency.The 60-year project of continuous study of marmots - stout, ground-dwelling rodents that are the largest members of the squirrel family - across the US west was facing termination following science funding cuts imposed by Donald Trump's administration. Continue reading...

Edward Zimbardi, 59, who had fled US, will appear in court in Los Angeles on wire fraud and money-laundering chargesA man from Flowery Branch, Georgia, has been deported from Fiji to face charges in his home state accusing him of defrauding more than 6,000 investors and causing more than $165m of losses in a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme, the US attorney in Atlanta said on Monday.Edward Zimbardi, 59, was indicted on 12 counts of wire fraud, 12 counts of money laundering and one count of money-laundering conspiracy. Continue reading...

Brent crude rises above $90 a barrel for the first time since 30 July after US president tells Tehran to surrender

Several US states have accused Instagram and Facebook's parent company of deliberately causing young people harm with its products. Plus: the Italian nuns fighting to keep control of their spot in the sun

Officials have had to remove thousands of tons of sargassum from Florida's beaches amid the climate crisisDealing with seaweed is the bulk of Chris Bumpus's job during the summer. As chief of conservation for Miami-Dade county's parks, recreation and open spaces department, Bumpus is in charge of cleaning sargassum off 17 miles (27km) of county beaches. But some days, the odds are stacked against him and his team.More and more sargassum, a kind of floating brown algae, has been washing up on the beaches of south Florida, west Africa, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. Continue reading...

Health data appears to be most affected by administration's attempt to wipe findings that don't align with its priorities, tracker showsA database of federal law enforcement officer misconduct records. A survey measuring physical, sexual and emotional violence against children and youth. Real-time pollution readings collected by air quality monitors from US embassies around the world.These are among the hundreds of federal datasets that the Trump administration has taken down or altered as part of its aggressive campaign to wipe all mentions of data findings that do not align with the administration's priorities. Continue reading...

Politics that worked for Democratic candidates in New York, Minnesota, Michigan won't cut it in red Florida, analysts sayIf primary elections elsewhere this summer were tussles between progressives and moderates for the direction of the Democratic party's political future, Tuesday's contests in Florida could not be more different.In a former swing state that has in recent years become reliably red, moderate Democratic candidates Alex Vindman and David Jolly are heavily favored to become the party's nominees for November's Senate and governor's race, respectively. Continue reading...

Authorities blamed Nanner for knocking over a heat fixture, but Brittany Jacobs contends it was trying to escape blazeThe snake didn't start the fire. So says a Virginia science teacher who owns a python that was found outside its enclosure in a middle school classroom that caught fire recently.Authorities, meanwhile, have publicly blamed the fire on the snake, named Nanner, alleging the python knocked over a heat fixture in her owner's classroom, igniting a blaze that caused damage at Bedford county's Forest middle school and killed a tortoise there. Continue reading...

The former Dallas Cowboys star is on indefinite leave after being arrested on suspicion of drunk driving. His future in a competitive business is now in doubtAfter Tony Romo's arrest last month, TMZ published a 31-minute extended cut" of the body-camera footage from the Wisconsin police officer who arrested CBS Sports' star NFL analyst on suspicion of operating a vehicle while under the influence.It's an uncanny watch. The former Dallas Cowboys quarterback's familiar goofy geniality collides with the gravity and stilted formality of an encounter with law enforcement. The video of a disoriented Romo struggling to answer basic questions and failing a field sobriety test, and his rictus-grinning, disheveled, head-askew mug-shot, form a glaring contrast with his smart-suited look a year earlier: beaming as he posed in the spotlight with his play-by-play partner, Jim Nantz, at the network's preseason media preview. Continue reading...

CNN says attack beneath the office' after Kristen Holmes asked president about Jon Ossoff's comments on key aideThe White House launched a personal attack against a CNN reporter on Monday with a social media post that mentioned her children and accused her of asking a disgusting and inhumane question".A White House post targeted Kristen Holmes, a senior White House correspondent for the network, after she asked Donald Trump to respond to a widely shared comment by Democratic senator Jon Ossoff in a speech on Sunday. Continue reading...

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President, who has decried mail-in ballots amid false claims of election fraud, issued March order to curb voting by mailDonald Trump voted by mail in Florida's Republican primary, Politico reports, citing Palm Beach county voting records. The White House has confirmed the president's mail-in vote, according to the New York Times, which added that this is at least the third time the president has mailed his ballot.In March, the president signed an executive order restricting the use of mail-in ballots ahead of the November midterm elections that will decide control of US Congress. Trump has repeatedly criticized mail-in voting, calling for restrictions on the policy for years and falsely claiming that his 2020 election defeat was the result of widespread voter fraud. Continue reading...

Shasta county, hotbed of US election denialism movement, set to appoint ex-Colorado clerk who served prison termA northern California county that has become a hotbed of activism for those who sow doubts about the reliability of voting machines plans to hire Tina Peters, the prominent Colorado election denier recently released from prison, to work on elections.Clint Curtis, the top election official in Shasta county, told the Guardian he plans to hire Peters as a consultant to replace Brent Turner, his top deputy, who has been on medical leave. He said Peters would not have access to the county's voting system and did not directly respond when asked what her responsibilities would be. Plans to hire Peters, who is still on parole and must receive permission to travel outside of Colorado, were first reported by Action News Now. Continue reading...