US news | The Guardian

The Pentagon head proposed a 44% increase - to second world war levels - while woke' programs are gutted

President's remarks follow Houthi strikes on Saudi tankers in the Red Sea and oil prices rising past $100 a barrel again

US president is reportedly preparing fresh wave of sweeping tariffs as previous 10% on much of the world is due to expireDonald Trump's administration will unveil the latest stage of his aggressive trade policy on Thursday, the White House has said, amid reports the US president is preparing a fresh wave of sweeping tariffs.Trump's tariffs policy suffered a damaging blow in February when the US supreme court ruled that many of those tariffs were illegal. While the US replaced those tariffs with a 10% tariff regime on much of the world, these are due to expire on Friday. Continue reading...

No injuries or deaths were reported from early-morning temblor whose epicenter was 68 miles from Amarillo

Forecasters warn of US coastal flooding, heavy rain and dangerous surf as the storm tracks westTropical Storm Bertha made landfall in Louisiana on Wednesday afternoon, and is moving westward toward the Texas coast, where it is expected to reach later on Thursday, bringing rainfall, winds and rising water levels.In a Thursday morning update, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said that Bertha was moving west and that the center of the tropical storm was expected to move near or along the Louisiana and upper Texas coasts over the next several hours before moving inland over Texas on Thursday evening. Continue reading...

State's governor had declared a state of emergency for all 55 counties, and deployed 500 national guard membersPatrick Morrisey, the West Virginia governor, said at least two people were unaccounted for in Upshur county, after torrential rain caused flash floods in parts of the state.Speaking at a news conference, Morrisey said that during search-and-recovery operations state police found an overturned vehicle in Upshur county believed to be connected to two individuals who were reported missing". Continue reading...

Republicans have latched on to the announcement after Trump's lie-laden speech, but experts say DHS's data is designed to create a false argument'Donald Trump and his allies quickly seized on an announcement from Mikie Sherrill, the New Jersey governor, on Tuesday that 6,600 noncitizens had registered to vote because of a software error, and fewer than 400 of them voted, using thedisclosure to escalate false claims that there are scores of noncitizens on the voter rolls.Trump seized on the news days after he said in a primetime speech that the Department of Homeland Security identified 278,000 noncitizens on the voter rolls in New Jersey and three other states. But a Guardian review of the letters DHS sent the states shows the agency expressed less certainty about the number and has offered no explanation of its methodology. Continue reading...

Billionaire in interview with the Economist admits he was too consumed by politics and shares predictions about AIElon Musk has admitted he became too consumed by politics during his volatile alliance with Donald Trump and his brief appointment as the president's financial axman, running the so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge).The world's richest person, and briefly its first trillionaire after his SpaceX company floated on the New York stock exchange in June, made the confession in a wide-ranging interview with the Economist published on Thursday. He shared his positions on subjects from foreign wars to AI, and made a number of eye-opening predictions for the future. Continue reading...

Torrential rains in West Virginia have caused flash flooding that inundated homes and businesses. Authorities say the floods washed out bridges and led to numerous water rescues in portions of the state. Patrick Morrisey, West Virginia's governor, declared a state of emergency for all 55 counties on Tuesday night. No deaths were immediately reported. Morrisey sent 100 National Guard members to the hardest-hit areas in the northern portion of the state with an additional 200 members expected to arrive by late Wednesday morning. The rains were part of wide-ranging storms that produced reports of tornadoes in several states Continue reading...

Congressional Progressive caucus say healthcare should not be a privilege' as they champions single payer systemThe Congressional Progressive caucus (CPC) held a shadow hearing on Medicare for All on Wednesday, led by Pramila Jayapal and Debbie Dingell.The hearing comes as over half of the House Democratic caucus has co-sponsored Medicare for All legislation, and Senator Andy Kim introduced legislation on Tuesday that would enroll all children into Medicaid until the age of 26, while Republicans passed drastic healthcare cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, including nearly $1n in cuts to Medicaid and allowing Affordable Care Act subsidies to expire. Continue reading...

Resolution, which comes after similar one in June, is largely symbolic, as Trump administration says it's unconstitutional

We are now a nation of homogenized open concepts and curb appeal. It's an approach that leads to anxiety and isolationRecently, Jonathan Swan - one of the authors of a new tell-all about Donald Trump's second term - told the hosts of The View that if you had a pie chart of Trump's mind, a pretty substantial slice is devoted to interior decorating". He also revealed that Trump is engaged in design wars" with Melania and moved furniture she had selected into his spaces. The commander-in-chief apparently has even been caught supergluing gilded accents to the Oval Office mantel himself. Though Trump claims taxpayers won't be on the hook for the costs of his renovations, the New York Times reported that the White House's 18 major remodeling projects - from the botched Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool to the paved-over Rose Garden to the looming Arc de Trump" - will probably come with a price tag of $1.2bn.Of course, Trump's renovation compulsion didn't start this year. The president celebrated winning his first term, in 2017, by ripping out the Oval Office's royal blue carpet with the presidential seal and replacing it with a Mar-a-Lago peach version, accented with - what else? - gold. But in his second term, he's gotten bolder, both politically and aesthetically - and more addicted. By the autumn of his first year back in office, he went ahead and tore down the East Wing entirely. Continue reading...

Committee accused of trying to weaponize' justice system via laughably weak and vindictive criminal referral'Democrats have accused the US House of Representatives judiciary committee of a baseless" and vindictive" attack on former special prosecutor Jack Smith after it referred him for criminal prosecution for allegedly lying to Congress over his investigation into Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election.Committee chair Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, wrote to acting US attorney general Todd Blanche on Wednesday night, asserting Smith made willfully and intentionally false statements of material fact" during testimony about obtaining phone records of a number of Republican lawmakers. Continue reading...

Concern over US effort to prosecute Sam Tunick, accused by authorities of wiping his phone using GrapheneOSThe US Department of Justice is attempting to prosecute an Atlanta resident in connection with the movement against the police training center known as Cop City because he had GrapheneOS on his phone, an open-source operating system that enables users to enter a passcode and wipe a phone clean.The case, which had its first hearing on Monday, centers on a little-known US federal statute that makes it a crime to destroy property in an effort to prevent it from being seized. Continue reading...

Staley is latest high-profile figure to testify before House amid investigation into Epstein, convicted sex offenderFormer Barclays boss Jes Staley appeared before by US lawmakers on Thursday in a closed-door interview about his past ties to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Staley, who spent more than three decades at JPMorgan Chase before joining Barclays in 2015, is the latest in a series of high-profile figures to appear in front of the House committee on oversight and reform as part of its investigation into Epstein, who died in prison in August 2019 while awaiting trial over child sex-trafficking charges. Continue reading...

Conflict continues across the region as White House announces nuclear technology agreement. Plus, the artist who flattened a Tesla with a tank

Woolsey died of a stroke at Washington home after facing Havana syndrome' reported by some government officialsR James Woolsey, a national security expert who led the CIA for two turbulent years after his appointment by Bill Clinton, has died. He was 84.Woolsey, who became CIA director in early 1993, died on Tuesday at his home in Washington, according to several newspapers. Conchita Sarnoff Woolsey, his wife, told the newspapers that he died from a stroke. Continue reading...

The justice's opinions have offered the president workarounds to enact his agenda despite clashes with the courtOf the conservative justices on the supreme court, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have in the current session voted most consistently, at 89 and 88%, to support Donald Trump in his cases, according to the Wall Street Journal. Yet perhaps the most influential justice to advance key parts of Trump's radical agenda has a slightly lower rating at 76%, and performed not so much by billowing lofty abstractions of originalism and textualism, but instead by contriving an assortment of glib schemes at justification.Mayhem in the city streets, violence, even killings, renewed rounds of Trump's threats and shakedowns around the world through damaging tariffs, and chaos within the Congress around birthright citizenship, all of which helped fracture the divided Republican leadership on the eve of the midterm elections, have followed the opinions issued by Brett Kavanaugh. By the end of this session, he has clearly emerged as the chief enabler to operationalize Trump's most salient political issues. Continue reading...

Shah will face Republican Jay Freely, a Trump-backed former NFL kicker, in November for battleground seatAmish Shah won the Democratic primary on Wednesday in a hotly contested congressional district in Arizona, delivering another defeat to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which backed a rival, as more voters reject the preferences of party leaders in Washington.Shah, an emergency physician, will face Republican Jay Feely, a former NFL kicker who was endorsed by Donald Trump in his primary, in the fall. Before becoming political opponents, Feely and Shah were part of the same team - the New York Jets. Shah was a doctor on the sidelines, while Feely was the kicker. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Elizabeth Warren claims bank did not meaningfully investigate' Jes Staley's links with sex offenderThe leading US senator Elizabeth Warren has called for urgent answers from Barclays over what she claimed was its apparent failure to meaningfully investigate" ties between the bank's former boss, Jes Staley, and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.In a letter sent privately to Barclays's chair, Nigel Higgins, and seen by the Guardian, Warren - the most senior Democrat on the US senate banking committee - said it was deeply unclear how Barclays, supposedly investigating Staley's connection to Epstein, failed to uncover this decades-long relationship". Continue reading...

Exclusive: Ro Khanna says reindustrialization' effort would provide grants, loans and investments to smaller businessesDemocrats in the US Congress have laid out plans for what they say would be the boldest" bid to revitalize the country's industrial heartlands since the second world war - using revenue raised by tariffs on China.A bill introduced this week would create a new bank to strengthen domestic manufacturing, provided with up to $15bn in funds each year. Continue reading...

A decade ago, experts said I'd be the last reporter to face a subpoena in a leak investigation. How wrong they wereIn 2015, after I won a seven-year battle with the federal government and refused its demands that I reveal my confidential sources for a story I wrote about a botched CIA operation, many media experts predicted that I would be the last journalist ever subpoenaed by the government in a leak investigation. They argued that new surveillance technology made it possible for the government to more readily identify sources inside the government without having to rely on the testimony of reporters. There was no longer any need for the government to go through the lengthy and bitter legal process of trying to haul reporters into court and threaten them with jail if they refused to reveal their sources.Fast forward more than a decade, and it is obvious that those predictions from the experts were wrong. The notion that leak investigations are primarily designed to find leakers now seems quaint.James Risen is a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Continue reading...

A 162-game season guarantees failure as much as success. Inside a losing clubhouse, staying together and believing can become the hardest part of the jobIf you ask professional athletes, they'll tell you. Losing is no fun. But in Major League Baseball, losing big can be especially tedious.An MLB seasons boasts a whopping 162 games (twice as many as the NBA and NHL) and even the best hitters fail two-thirds of the time at the plate. If a pitcher wins half his starts, he's an All-Star. Because of that, says decorated starter Jamie Moyer, a losing campaign takes on a particular consequence. Continue reading...

The 17-year-old dreamed of playing for the Dallas Cowboys. Now he is America's next big track star, with another chance for gold at this week's US championshipsGeorge Lutkenhaus and his family were rushing to the airport. There was a plane to catch and traffic was bad. Inside the car was a tense silence. In the back, a teenager, minding his own business, AirPods in, seemingly oblivious. Wife Tricia turned to George. Are you OK?" she said.No, I am not OK!" he replied. What just happened there was not normal! And he's just sitting there in the back ... " Continue reading...

The agreement offers the Saudis the same options Trump has sworn Iran will never haveThe stark contrast between Donald Trump's nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia and his nuclear demands for Iran would be comical if not so tragic. Trump has handed the Saudis the same nuclear options he swore Iran would never have.To make matters worse, Trump seems to have offered the Saudis this sweetheart deal to make amends for his disastrous war of choice with Iran. Meanwhile, he continues to bomb Iran in a push to open the strait of Hormuz, which was not closed until Trump launched his counterproductive war. Continue reading...

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Shooting happened on street in popular neighborhood lined with restaurants, bars, shops and homesA police officer in Madison, Wisconsin, shot and killed a man Wednesday in an incident that was captured on cellphone footage, sparking local protests.John Patterson, the Madison police chief, acknowledged the shooting at a news conference, but stressed footage circulating was just one perspective of what happened. Continue reading...

Trump administration hails agreement, which comes as the US fights a war with Iran in part to prevent Tehran enriching uranium domestically

Gory details about tarp, mats and inflatable pool come to light during hearing over death of Celeste Rivas HernandezAt singer D4vd's former Hollywood Hills home, law enforcement detected possible bloodstains - invisible to the naked eye - on items including a green tarp, black rubber mats and a crumpled inflatable pool that had the odor of fresh laundry.The gory details came to light on Wednesday, the second day of a hearing to determine whether there was probable cause for the musician, whose full name is David Anthony Burke, to stand trial for the murder and sexual abuse of Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Continue reading...

President visits swing state to promote Trump accounts' and says high prices lingering from Joe Biden's presidencyDonald Trump scoffed at the word affordability" as a political message, describing it at a campaign rally on Wednesday as a term concocted by Democratic political consultants to criticize his presidency. Yet even as the president dismissed the notion of affordability, he devoted much of his speech at Wheeler high school to touting the bread-and-butter benefits of his economic policies.So I just want you to remember that if you're paying a little bit more - a lot of it's come down now, we got it coming down very rapidly actually," Trump said in Marietta, an Atlanta suburb, casting higher prices today as a lingering effect of the Biden administration. Continue reading...

GOP-controlled chamber paves way for reconciliation bill, while making long-shot attempt at new voting restrictionsHouse Republicans on Wednesday agreed to begin the process of writing a $95bn bill to fund the war with Iran as well as provide new aid to farmers, while making a long-shot attempt to impose new restrictions on voting nationwide.In a virtually party-line 216-214, the Republican-controlled chamber passed a budget resolution that paves the way for the creation of a reconciliation bill, which can advance through the Senate under special rules that circumvent the Democratic filibuster and requires only a simple majority to pass. Two Republicans - Warren Davidson of Ohio and Thomas Massie of Kentucky, as well as Kevin Kiley, an independent of California who aligns with the GOP - joined all Democrats in opposing the measure. Continue reading...

Donald Trump approves agreement to help country make fuel for civilian nuclear programmeDonald Trump signed a nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia on Wednesday that could enable the kingdom to enrich its own uranium for nuclear reactions.The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, signed a peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement" and an accompanying bilateral safeguards agreement," according to a statement from the US Department of Energy. Continue reading...

Three-year-old girl landed in ICU after snake bit her while grabbing a package outside her family's Santa Clarita homeA three-year-old girl landed in the intensive care unit earlier this month after a rattlesnake bit her while she was trying to grab an Amazon package.Addy, the young girl, ran out with her mother on 13 July to pick up a package dropped over the gate to their home in Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles. Continue reading...

Passage of annual bill complicated by Trump's decision to join Israel in attacking Iran without congressional approvalThe US House of Representatives passed a $1.15tn defense policy bill in a near-party-line vote on Wednesday, after Democrats refused to back the measure amid the war with Iran and Donald Trump's push to impose new restrictions on voting nationwide.A key plank of the president's plan to spend $1.5tn on the military in the 2027 fiscal year, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), passed the Republican-controlled chamber by a 216-212 vote, with all but six Democrats opposing its passage. Seven House Republicans broke ranks to oppose the measure, which now goes to the Senate. Continue reading...

Andy Biggs wins nomination to challenge Katie Hobbs as Alex Kolodin won party's primary for secretary of stateDonald Trump-backed candidates in Arizona prevailed in key primary contests on Tuesday, setting up a fall campaign that will test whether Republicans can reverse some of their recent losses in the presidential battleground state.Andy Biggs, the hard-right congressman endorsed by Donald Trump, easily won the Republican nomination to challenge the incumbent Democrat, Governor Katie Hobbs. Continue reading...

Juan Jairo Coronilla Duran ran into traffic and killed by semi after federal officials approached him at Florida gas stationThe Mexican man who was hit and killed by a semi-truck in Florida when running away from federal immigration officials was vacationing in the US with a tourist visa, according to news reports this week.The 28-year-old, Juan Jairo Coronilla Duran, was killed on 14 July after an encounter" with federal officials, including those with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a state highway patrol spokesperson said last week. Continue reading...

Trump's response to the Iran war's mounting death toll and astronomical costs? It won't have any impact on me'

Venezuelan president and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been held at Brooklyn jail and both have pleaded not guiltyThe ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, will go on trial on US drug trafficking charges starting on 1 June 2027, a judge said on Wednesday.Maduro wore beige prison garb as he was led into a Manhattan courtroom by US marshals for a hearing before district judge Alvin Hellerstein in one of the most consequential criminal cases in recent history. Continue reading...

Mamdani admits he lacks power to arrest Israeli prime minister after saying he's not welcome' in New York CityZohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, doubled down on his support for the international criminal court (ICC) on Wednesday and called on federal authorities to execute the court's warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu's arrest should he visit the city in the fall.I call on the federal government to join the international criminal court and to execute both this warrant as well as any warrant the international criminal court holds," Mamdani told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Independent exam of Black teen found cause and manner of death undetermined' as family questions timeline

Trump's 50% tariff threat means there will be no ribbon-cutting celebration of Gordie Howe International BridgeA planned joint US-Canada ceremony on Friday celebrating the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, is no longer expected to take place after Donald Trump announced a 50% tariff on most Canadian goods.In announcing the tariffs, the president accused Canada of unfairly discriminating against US automobiles, alcohol and dairy products, escalating tensions with one of the United States' closest allies. Continue reading...

More than 20,000 unaccompanied children risk going to US immigration court alone after federal funding cutsThousands of immigrant children who came to the United States without being accompanied by a parent or guardian are now at imminent risk of losing the attorneys assisting on their legal cases, amid cuts in government funding, advocates warned this week.The Trump administration has severed ties with nearly a hundred legal organizations across the country that provide immigration advice and has been funneling kids into fast-tracked court hearings. Continue reading...

Appointments mark a shift in the city's development agencies as the mayor reshapes his economic agenda

The $3 purchase was authenticated as a rare piece from Chamberlain's final NBA seasonAn Oregon teenager admitted I got very, very lucky" after a basketball legend's jacket he picked up at a thrift store for pocket change sold at auction for almost $90,000.Quinn Brown said he was in a Goodwill store in Portland in January when he saw somebody throw the bright yellow jacket into a clothing bin. Continue reading...

Outbreak has been traced to Upper East Side cooling towers, but Mamdani believes source of exposure was eliminatedA fifth person has died in New York City in connection with the legionnaires' disease outbreak on Manhattan's Upper East Side neighborhood, according to the city's health department.In an update issued on Tuesday, the department said that 82 cases of legionnaires' disease have now been identified and five people have died. Eight people remain hospitalized, while 56 have been discharged. Continue reading...

To win in this year's midterm elections, the party must highlight that Trump has made huge financial gains while millions struggle to make ends meetIf the Democrats hope to maximize their chances of winning in this November's elections, there's a subject they need to scream far and wide about: Donald Trump's immense and unprecedented corruption. The Democrats need to make clear to every American that Trump has shamelessly used his second term to increase his wealth by an astounding amount - by more than $2bn - all while millions of Americans are struggling to make ends meet, their struggles made worse by Trump policies that have pushed up inflation and gas prices.Every day through election day, the Democrats should convey loud and clear that America's billionaire president has focused far more on making himself richer than on improving the lives of average Americans. Trump's corruption and conflicts of interest are so vast and outrageous that many Americans have little idea how vast and outrageous they are: ranging from Trump's making more than $1.4bn from crypto last year to granting pardons to criminals whose families have donated to Trump's campaign to his sons' investing in start-up companies that receive generous help from the Trump administration.Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labor and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues Continue reading...

Stephen Miller warned of a leftwing cancer' threatening civilization. As a critical care doctor, I have a response to his diagnosisThe presumption that US elections are legitimate died last week in Washington. It was 237 years old. It did not die of one wound. It died of three, inflicted in a single day, in daylight, on the record. And the country, running to the loudest of them, never examined the one most likely to kill.In critical care we distinguish the mechanism of death from its cause. The mechanism was a Thursday. The cause was chronic, progressive and untreated.Robert B Shpiner is a clinical professor of medicine in pulmonary and critical care at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA Continue reading...

After ICE raids and protest crackdown, the LA team's supporters are ambivalent about the World Series winners' visitLike many children of Latino immigrants in Los Angeles, Juan grew up a Dodgers fan. He watched their baseball games from home when he was little - even though his parents, who are Guatemalan, were more interested in soccer and basketball - and has been to Dodger Stadium many times as an adult. He sports a Dodgers logo, among other symbols, on an elaborate tattoo on his left forearm.These days, though, he's not sure about his allegiance. Juan - whom the Guardian is only identifying by his first name amid the Trump administration's immigration crackdown - saw his family ripped apart when his father, who had been in the US for close to 30 years, was plucked off the street last year and deported. From that moment on, a team that many immigrants in LA see as a symbol of integration and belonging became, for him, an organization unwilling to stand up for its large immigrant fanbase. Continue reading...

Pete Hegseth reveals costs so far as Trump administration seeks more funding. Plus, rediscovered plane wreck that changed flying for ever