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All the latest as the quarter-finals conclude

The Republican from South Carolina was a longtime ally of Israel and an advocate for Ukraine; Trump mulls replacement but too soon' to reveal

Trump says Graham was a true American patriot' while Zelenskyy says he's deeply saddened' by death

Republican served in Senate since 2003 and was sharp Trump critic before becoming one of his most loyal backers

Woman dies after her home is swept away as heavy rainfall batters parts of state, forcing rescues and evacuationsA woman was found dead in Missouri on Saturday after heavy rainfall battered parts of the state the previous day, forcing numerous emergency rescues and evacuations, including at a summer camp with more than 200 children.The body of Faith Gregory, who went missing in Missouri's Crawford county after her home was swept away from its foundation, was found by volunteers late Saturday morning. Her body was discovered about 1.8 miles (3km) downstream from her residence in Huzzah creek, according to the county sheriff's office.Guardian staff contributed Continue reading...

We don't need fewer amateurs running for office. We need far more of them, recruited seriouslyGraham Platner is out of the Maine Senate race, burdened by controversies that include a troubling rape accusation, which he denies. His departure is no doubt a good thing that will make it easier for Democrats to win back the Senate.But progressives should pay attention to the discussion around Platner. His collapse is being turned into something larger, supposed proof that people from outside politics have no business being in it. Continue reading...

The media-savvy mayor's popularity has only grown as the Murdoch-owned tabloid has thrown everything at himThe rightwing New York Post has attacked Zohran Mamdani as a communist, a hater of the police, an antisemite, a driver-away-of-billionaires, and as someone who isn't very good at bench press.But six months into his mayoralty, Mamdani has so far succeeded where most of his predecessors have failed: he has bested the city's most powerful tabloid. Continue reading...

Dozens of projects are in development across US despite concerns over environmental and health risksThe plan to bury carbon under remote Indiana farmland is supposed to be a slam dunk for the climate, according to its supporters - all generously funded by US tax dollars.But as far as Melissa Harrison and some other residents of Clymers, Indiana, are concerned, it just might be the end of their town. This is our place," she says. Generations of her family are buried in the cemetery, and she is raising her five grandchildren in one of several dozen white-clapboard homes among corn fields and industrial plants serving the farming industry. Continue reading...

City official says staffers were performing routine park maintenance' where 15 people have gathered for monthsCity employees in Atlanta, Georgia, recently threw away tents, medication, identification and other belongings of unhoused people at a public park without warning. This led activists and a local official to point to an apparent violation of procedures created after a city employee ran over a tent with a front loader last year, killing a man.The sweep through the park occurred less than a mile from a popular spot for World Cup watch parties, drawing into focus ongoing tension over the issue of what happens to the city's several thousand unhoused people during the month-long event. Continue reading...

Scientists worry that current eradication efforts won't be able to contain parasitic infestation pushing into USWhen conservationists set up cameras in remote regions of Central American forests, they wanted to monitor illegal cattle movement, which can lead to deforestation. But in recent months, they discovered another alarming development: wildlife rapidly infected with the new world screwworm.It's a warning sign of how the fly could spread in the US - and it signals new difficulties in pushing it back south, a process that will probably take years, experts say. Continue reading...

The White House is working to change electoral rules in its favor. Protectors of democracy must have a counterplanThe second Trump administration is systematically eroding the institutional foundations of competitive elections without formally abolishing them. They have a plan to achieve what scholars of democratic backsliding call electoral subversion": changing electoral rules in their favor. Protectors of democracy must have a counter-plan of their own.The White House's approach to electoral subversion has multiple fronts. The administration has rewarded those who used violence to disrupt the last transfer of power, disabled the federal agencies charged with protecting election integrity, moved to extend executive control over voter registration, and threatened to withhold terrorism prevention funding from states who do not change their voting rules. Continue reading...

Trump's immigration architect calls the supreme court's decision outrageous' as he pushes for policy rooted in genetics, not lawNeither of the supreme court majority opinions in Trump v Barbara, the 5-4 decision upholding the constitutionality of birthright citizenship, mention the true architect of the case. Donald Trump's Executive Order 14160, which would deny citizenship to children born on American soil if their parents are undocumented immigrants or on temporary visas, is extensively noted, but not the man responsible for it. The omission of Stephen Miller is like Dracula without Dracula.The vampire identified is chief justice Roger B Taney, author of the Dred Scott decision of 1857, though his notorious statement at the heart of his ruling went uncited: that the framers believed that Black people had no rights which the white man was bound to respect", that they were excluded from the Declaration of Independence's principle that all men are created equal" because of racial inferiority too clear for dispute," and that rendered them no different from an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic." Continue reading...

Tensions between progressive and moderate camps of Democratic party on display in key Senate race in MichiganThe Israel-Gaza war created gaping divisions in the Democratic party and contributed to a resounding loss in a critical presidential election year in 2024. Two years later, the issue continues to dominate races across the country, as progressives try to seize on Israel's falling popularity and a broad anti-war sentiment ahead of November's midterms.A recent debate among two Democrats vying for one of the most competitive US Senate seats in the country openly displayed the tension between progressive and moderate camps of the party. Continue reading...

Sudden shift may be linked to affinity for Erdoan but what might be consequences of erratic behavior towards alliance?Donald Trump's relationship with Washington's Nato allies is nobody's idea of a happy marriage.But the US president's volatile performance at the western military alliance's annual summit in Ankara this week seemed extreme, even by Trumpian standards. As commentators sought toexplain what happened, their usually capacious stock of Trump-fitting cliches was at risk of exhaustion. Continue reading...

Famed art museum, one of 31 buildings to test positive, has already completed remediation, health department saysNew York City's famed Solomon R Guggenheim Museum was among a number of Manhattan buildings that recently tested positive for the bacteria that causes legionnaires' disease.The city health department on Friday released a list of 31 buildings on the Upper East Side that have been ordered to clean and disinfect their cooling towers as the city deals with the latest outbreak of the disease, which is a serious form of pneumonia. Continue reading...

Letter from Democratic senator outlines more no-bid contracts and second botched reflecting pool redoThe US senator Sheldon Whitehouse has sent a letter to the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts detailing allegations from whistleblowers that some renovations were rushed" and federal contracting laws were ignored" to get the center ready for events, including for Donald Trump to receive the Fifa peace prize" during the World Cup draw he hosted there in December.I have received allegations that the Kennedy Center has conducted rushed renovation and maintenance work with disregard to its commitments to Congress and the federal contracting standards the Center has long applied to its own procurements," the Rhode Island Democrat wrote in the letter dated Thursday. Continue reading...

As England prepared for their World Cup quarter-final against Norway, all the talk was about a round of golf 18 months beforeThe brilliant Cold War Steve is back with the latest of his special World Cup 2026-themed collages. Look closely!More from Thomas Tuchel. Seize the day is his message. Continue reading...

Ro Khanna said settlers were armed with US-made weapons and Israel Defense Forces refused to interveneThe US congressman Ro Khanna says armed Israeli settlers detained him during a visit to the Israel-occupied West Bank recently, describing the experience as a first-hand view of the realities faced by Palestinians living under occupation.In an interview with Reuters on Thursday from a Palestinian village, the progressive US House Democrat from California said his detention happened the previous day while his delegation visited an area of the southern West Bank that has experienced repeated attacks by Israeli settlers. Continue reading...

Body of Nolan Wells, 18, found after he traveled to Horn Island over Fourth of July weekend with three white friendsA mother on Friday pleaded for anyone to come forward with information about what happened to her son, Nolan Wells, a young Black man whose body was found on an island off the coast of Mississippi after he traveled there over the Fourth of July weekend with three white friends.We just want to know what happened and why our baby didn't come home," Christine Wonsley, choking back tears, said at a news conference about her son. Continue reading...

Biden sued Patrick Byrne for defamation over claim that he sought bribe to lobby his father to free $8bn in Iran assetsA federal judge on Friday awarded Hunter Biden $1.7m in punitive damages in a defamation lawsuit he filed against former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne.Biden sued Byrne - a Donald Trump ally who denied the results of the 2020 election and funded efforts to overturn them - in 2023, accusing Byrne of lying in an interview that Biden had previously sought a bribe from Iran's government in the fall of 2021. Continue reading...

Outlet said journalists subpoenaed to testify before grand jury after story detailed security concerns with Qatar-gifted planeThe Trump administration has issued subpoenas to several New York Times journalists after the newspaper reported on security concerns with the president's new plane, according to the outlet.The Times said its journalists were subpoenaed on Friday by the US justice department to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan five days later, marking the latest effort by the Trump White House to compel testimony from journalists under the threat of penalty. Agents delivered some of the subpoenas to the Times reporters at their homes, the paper added. Continue reading...

The president wooed farmers in his campaign, but now the USDA is yanking funding, citing DEI' and wasteful spendingIt's just an eighth of an acre, but for Lawrencia Rogers, the plot where she grows broccolini, lettuce and beans on land once tilled by poorhouse residents in eastern Iowa is the closest she has come to living her dream.Iowa is one of the most agriculturally productive states in the country, but getting into farming is not easy, particularly for people like Rogers who have no family connections to the business. It's nonetheless been a lifelong passion for the 33-year-old Iowan: at age six, she planted a rosebush that's still alive today, and managed to grow cantaloupe on a strip of dirt and chain-link fence next to the driveway of her grandmother's house. Continue reading...

New Trump administration rules would undermine longstanding research practices. It's death by a thousand cutsA politician who aims to gradually privatize and ultimately destroy an institution funded by tax dollars - say, a public school system or public transportation network - may choose to do so by strategically disinvesting resources from that institution until it becomes barely functional, leading users to look elsewhere to meet their needs. Eventually, the user-base of the public system gets so low or frustrated that it seems reasonable to scrap the thing entirely, or re-direct public funds to private companies as contractors to provide the needed service". We've seen this strategy play out many times in states and city councils across America.It appears that the endgame of the Trump administration's attacks on science and the research funding ecosystem is similar: grant freezes and administrative disarray at federal funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), new layers of project review by political appointees hunting for forbidden keywords such as disparity" and marginalized", and proposed new restrictions to make international collaboration difficult or impossible all point towards a world where it's just too onerous to do federally-funded scientific research. Is the goal to make scientists simply give up on the endeavor?Daniel Malinsky is an assistant professor of biostatistics in the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University Continue reading...

The former US Senate candidate's spectacular fall has upended the Maine Senate race and left voters fuming at the partyAlmost exactly one year ago, Graham Platner, who has no political experience, was cherry-picked by out-of-state political activists.According to a person familiar with the campaign, Daniel Moraff and Leanne Fan, who have made a name for themselves by recruiting populist candidates across the country, traveled to Maine and rented a house near Platner's home in Sullivan to convince him to run for the US Senate. Throughout the process, Moraff became Platner's right-hand man", the person described, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of backlash. Continue reading...

The senator's health is shrouded in mystery after he was hospitalized. Why can't we get a clear answer?Is Mitch McConnell dead?This shouldn't be a difficult question to answer. The response is either yes", no", or something along the lines of he's on life-support but appears to be brain dead."Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The ruthless gutting and reforming of the Department of Homeland Security has traumatized both workers and the most vulnerable immigrantsFederal officials tasked with implementing the Trump administration's mass deportation" program faced an extraordinary campaign of intimidation inside the Department of Homeland Security during the final months of Kristi Noem's tenure and the arrival of her successor, a Guardian investigation found.Over the past four months, the Guardian spoke with more than three dozen current and former Department of Homeland Security officials who described a climate of fear driven by Trump loyalists in senior positions, who sidelined or removed career officials who raised concerns about possibly illegal acts, and threatened termination or arrest in order to stop dissent. Several have also claimed they were subjected to polygraph examinations conducted by US military personnel. Continue reading...

Acting is about human connection across cultural and social divides. But we can't expect much of that in the Tillyverse'Rejoice, cinema lovers. Tilly Norwood is back! Not familiar? I don't blame you, as she's not exactly a household name yet - though a fleet of well-fed publicists is certainly trying to rectify that. Tilly Norwood is an AI actor", as in, an actor that's not actually an actor at all. Just a series of digital blobs and lines of code designed to resemble a young woman in the lucrative 18-to-49-year-old target demographic. Thus far, Tilly has lived exclusively in easily digestible social media clips and hyperbolic press releases about the future of entertainment". But now, she" (I feel like a complete buffoon for assigning a gender to a computer program) is finally ready for the world of feature films. The company Particle6, which spat out this risible creation, announced that it has commenced development on a motion picture starring this very elaborate and expensive cartoon avatar.The film, titled Misaligned, will see Tilly seduced by a rogue program into experimenting with human emotions - desires, impulses, and ambition", as described by Variety. The company claims that the film will be a coming-of-age story infused with existential AI chaos". I can't help but wonder what resonance a coming-of-age story" can have if the protagonist is a computer program that doesn't understand the concept of time, ageing or mortality. Does Tilly Norwood understand the concept of a 24-hour day? Does she" know the glorious warmth of a mid-afternoon sun? Has she" ever forgotten to move her car because it's street cleaning day on her block? Tilly Norwood, being an animated sprite, is neither coming" nor of age". But then again, isn't acting all about accessing experiences you've never had?Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist Continue reading...

Senator's office has released only sparse details about hospital stay, leaving fevered speculation to fill vacuumMystery surrounding Senator Mitch McConnell's health is deepening as the US Congress prepares to return from recess next week.McConnell, 84, has not been seen in public since he was admitted to hospital in the Washington area on 14 June. Nearly a month later, the Kentucky Republican's office has released only sparse updates, saying he is continuing to improve" and remains engaged with Senate business, while refusing to disclose the nature of his illness or explain why he remains hospitalised. Continue reading...

The former England midfielder is everywhere at this World Cup, having reached a popularity in the US other Britons have rarely achievedWatch US television for any length of time and the endless spume of adverts will eventually separate into three distinct types.The first are adverts for units of generic food-substance, each one essentially the same hand-sized grenade of glossy and salted microminced matter; but each also with its own industrialised repertoire of colours and noise and packaging required to dress it as a distinct genre of actual human food. Try the delicious new Flame Sauced Philly Cheese Taco Wing Waffle Dog Deep Dish MegaDeath Burger Grenade-Shaped Eat Thing. You won't be disappointed. Or you will be. Whatever. Continue reading...

Even White House interference and Fifa's greed cannot spoil the celebrations. At last, an arena in which multiculturalism triumphs and underdogs scoreOf all the outrageous things Donald Trump has done, from bombing other countries to appeasing dictators, his sneaky interference in last week's USA v Belgium World Cup match sparked by far the most united and furious reaction across the world. Condemnation was all but universal. Trump's cheating heart cannot understand the unmatched, ubiquitous power that the beautiful game" exercises over ordinary lives everywhere. It massively surpasses his own. The world truly loves football. It doesn't love him. And then USA lost the match anyway. Karma. This modern morality play joyously illuminated the limits of authoritarianism.In an age dominated by overbearing, illiberal economic and military powers, the men's World Cup is upending the conventional geopolitical pecking order and power balances in refreshing and instructive ways. In this alternative universe, smaller nations - and ordinary people - can and often do get a bigger shout. Despite huge state investment in all aspects of the game, China again failed to qualify. Russia, never much good at football in the first place, was kicked out after invading Ukraine. And despite all Trump's Maga hooliganism, the US remains soccer small fry. So much for superpowers.Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator Continue reading...

President says he would refuse to sign housing bill without passage of voting legislation, but without veto it will still become lawA major housing bill has automatically become law without Donald Trump's signature, after the president said he would refuse to sign the legislation because Congress has not approved new restrictions on voting nationwide.The measure, known as the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, is the biggest change to federal policy for buyers, renters and homebuilders in decades, and Congress approved it with large margins last month after lengthy negotiations between Democrats and Republicans. Continue reading...

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Judge says he's granting request to dismiss prosecutions even though request is clearly based not on facts or the lawA federal judge nominated by Donald Trump during his first term reluctantly agreed on Friday to grant the Department of Justice's motion to dismiss the seditious conspiracy convictions against leaders of the Proud Boys who were convicted by a jury of serious crimes during the attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters on 6 January 2021.The US district judge Timothy Kelly noted in a seven-page memorandum that the Proud Boy leaders Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl were all convicted of multiple crimes, including seditious conspiracy, and a fourth member of the group, Dominic Pezzola, was convicted of assaulting an officer and breaking a Capitol window, thereby helping to create the first entry point through which hundreds of rioters streamed into the building". Continue reading...

Workers observed draining water from Lincoln Memorial pool plagued by algae blooms and peeling paintCrews were observed Friday draining the plagued Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, a landmark at the heart of Donald Trump's mission to beautify Washington DC.Interior secretary Doug Burgum, whose agency oversees the National Park Service, told conservative podcaster Katie Miller in an interview released earlier this week that the new round of draining was planned. He also said that the water might still contain debris from an extensive Independence Day fireworks display over the National Mall. Continue reading...

Lawyer says men who were riding in van are being pressured to self-deport as footage of incident is reportedly with investigators

Habitat destruction strongest driver of species loss, with legislation keeping 99% of listed species from going extinctThe Trump administration repealed a crucial part of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) on Friday, finalizing a new rule that will open habitats of imperiled wildlife to development, logging, mining and other uses.For the last 50 years, the landmark environmental law included a broader understanding of the word harm", which ensured that not just the plants and animals themselves were protected but also the places that are critical to their survival. The inclusion of habitat in the harm" definition was upheld by the supreme court in 1995, which ruled in support of old-growth forest protections relied on by endangered spotted owls. Continue reading...

Paperwork ends Democratic campaign laden with scandals, including most recently accusations of sexual assaultGraham Platner, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Maine, officially withdrew his candidacy on Friday afternoon, ending a campaign laden with scandals.Maine's secretary of state confirmed Platner had filed the paperwork to remove his name from the November ballot, two days after Platner publicly said he planned to exit the race. Continue reading...

Venture between two Pennsylvania senators stokes speculation about Fetterman's future in Democratic partyThe Democratic senator John Fetterman, who has faced mounting political challenges, is joining forces with the Republican senator Dave McCormick to launch a new joint fundraising committee, a move that is likely to fuel additional questions about Fetterman's increasingly rightward lurch.Pennsylvania's two US senators have established a shared fundraising committee that will collect donations benefiting both of their campaigns in an unusual bipartisan arrangement. Continue reading...

Matthew Wielicki frequently criticizes established climate science online, including in videos from rightwing PragerUThe Trump administration has tapped a former geochemist who has railed against climate alarmism" and calls himself an Earth science professor-in-exile" to oversee the federal government's flagship report about climate impacts on the US.Matthew Wielicki, who lacks formal training in climate science, will now lead the nation's Global Change Research Program, which federal officials have gutted during Trump's second term. Continue reading...

Earlier this week, Graham Platner, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Maine, was accused by a former partner of sexual assault. Platner denies the allegations, but on Wednesday, he suspended his campaign, accusing the political establishment" of tanking his candidacy. But this is only the most recent scandal to have surfaced around Platner's campaign - over the past year, the oyster farmer and combat veteran was revealed to have a tattoo that closely resembled a Totenkopf (a widely recognized Nazi symbol), a long paper trail of racist, misogynist and homophobic posts on Reddit, and in June, the New York Times published allegations from three former partners about Platner's toxic" behavior in their relationships, including, in several cases, physical intimidation (allegations Platner denied).

Rule from Mamdani administration bans companies from trapping customers into paying recurring charges and junk fees'New York City has adopted a new rule that bans companies from using deceptive subscriptions to trap customers into paying for gym memberships, streaming services and other recurring charges, the city's consumer protection office said.The new rule, which will start on 1 October, promises hefty fines and aggressive enforcement for violators. Companies that do not provide a simple way to cancel could pay $525 per user subscription, back fees and additional fines. Continue reading...

Advocacy group calls on acting attorney general to lead thorough, transparent federal investigation'The deaths in recent days of two Black men in Tennessee, one in the custody of police and the other at the hands of national guard troops, has prompted the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to demand the suspension of the so-called Memphis Safe Task Force, Donald Trump's anti-crime alliance of federal, state and local law enforcement.In a letter to the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, on Friday, the NAACP also demanded a thorough, transparent federal investigation" into the actions of the taskforce, which it said has surged federal and military officers into Memphis with insufficient training for civilian policing. Continue reading...

Tyler Robinson is accused of shooting the far-right activist at Utah Valley University last yearA five-day preliminary hearing to determine whether the case against Tyler James Robinson, the man charged with killing Charlie Kirk, will advance to trial came to a close on Friday.Final arguments are set to take place in September. US district judge Tony Graf will sift through the evidence presented by the state and Robinson's defense team before issuing a ruling. Continue reading...

Nathan Johnson says if elected he'll investigate state's deal with Elon Musk's SpaceX to provide rural internet

The US's 250th anniversary, the funeral of Ali Khamenei, another brutal heatwave in Europe and the World Cup - the past seven days as captured by the world's leading photojournalists Continue reading...

All the latest news as the quarter-finals continue

Company reports $1.4bn profit despite its highest quarterly fuel expense in historyDelta Airlines saidelevated airfares are likely to last despite a recent drop in oil prices, reporting strong appetite for travel and record-high revenue in its quarterly results Friday.Though the company had its highest quarterly fuel expense in its history, demand has been high enough to pass along 60% of its extra fuel costs to consumers, Delta's CEO, Ed Bastian, told CNBC, with plans to eventually pass along all elevated costs. Continue reading...