The White House has confirmed that Trump appointees to military service academy advisory boards, among them former press secretary Sean Spicer and adviser Kellyanne Conway, have been asked to step down or be fired. During a White House press briefing Jen Psaki responded to questions about whether this risked politicising these appointments: 'I will let others evaluate whether they think Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer and others were qualified, or not political, to serve on these boards, but the president’s qualification requirements are not your party registration, they are whether you’re qualified to serve and whether you’re aligned with the values of this administration.'

White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked for her response to Texas governor Greg Abbott’s latest defense of the six-week abortion ban in his state. Abbott pledged to 'eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas' when he was asked why rape and incest victims should be forced to carry a pregnancy to term. Psaki said in response: 'If governor Abbott has a means of eliminating all rapists or all rape from the US then there’d be bipartisan support for that'. She went on to say that no leader in the history of the world has been able to eliminate rape and that is one of the many reasons that women in Texas should have access to safe abortions through their healthcare.

The former nurse pleaded guilty in 2019 to charges related to her role in the cult-like group that turned some women into sex slavesA former nurse who co-founded and once ran the cult-like Nxivm group, where prosecutors say women were brainwashed, branded like animals and coerced into sex, was sentenced to 42 months in prison.Nancy Salzman, the former president and co-founder of Nxivm, must also pay a $150,000 fine, US district judge Nicholas Garaufis said on Wednesday. She has agreed to forfeit more than $500,000 in cash, several properties and a Steinway grand piano. Continue reading...

Emma Raducanu produced another accomplished performance to move into the last four of the US Open by defeating Belinda Bencic in straight sets9.54pm BSTAnd here is Tumaini Carayol’s latest bulletin – reaction from Emma Raducanu:Related: Emma Raducanu admits she expected an early exit at US OpenRelated: Emma Raducanu admits she expected an early exit at US OpenRelated: Emma Raducanu overcomes early nerves to extend fairytale of New York | Bryan Armen Graham9.51pm BSTAnd finally, from Raducanu, the first British woman to reach the last four of the US Open since Jo Durie in 1983: “I’ve actually got no idea about any of the records, at all. It was the first time I heard today that I was the first qualifier to make the semis, I had no idea before that... I’m not here to chase any records right now. I’m just taking care of what I can do on the moment, and on the match ahead. I haven’t even started thinking about the next one yet.“Off the court I’m a pretty relaxed person. I don’t really stress out about many things. One day there was bad traffic getting in, because of the hurricane the night before, and yeah, I was saying to my coach, ‘It’s OK if I miss the practice’ ... and they were all like: ‘What do you mean if we’ve missed practice!’ But I trust myself, and it’s all mental at the end of the day.” Continue reading...

State warns residents may not get care they would normally expect as case numbers rocket and governor urges people to take vaccineIdaho public health leaders have activated “crisis standards of care” allowing healthcare rationing for the state’s northern hospitals because there are more coronavirus patients than the institutions can handle.Related: New Zealand to rethink plan to reopen borders amid Delta outbreak Continue reading...

The officers have resigned and the matter is being investigated by the US attorney’s office in Burlington and by the FBIThree Vermont state troopers have resigned after being accused of creating fake Covid-19 vaccination cards, state police announced on Tuesday.In a statement released on Tuesday, Vermont police said the three former troopers are suspected of having “varying roles” in creating false Covid-19 vaccine cards. Continue reading...

Elated crowd cheered the removal of the bronze monument to Confederate general, erected more than 130 years ago in RichmondFor 131 years it loomed over Richmond, Virginia, once the capital of America’s slave-owning south, sending a chilling message about the resilience of white supremacy to generations that passed beneath.But at 8.55am on Wednesday, daylight reappeared between a giant statue of the Confederate general Robert E Lee and its granite pedestal, now covered with Black Lives Matter graffiti. In warm sunshine the towering sculpture was hoisted by work crews and lowered to the ground amid cheers, songs and whoops from a watching crowd. Continue reading...

A bronze statue of General Robert E Lee was removed from its pedestal in Richmond, Virginia, the former capital of the Confederacy.In summer 2020, after Black Lives Matter protests connected to the death of George Floyd, it was ordered that the statue, one of the largest Confederate statues in the US, should be taken down. It was removed after a year of litigation.Crews took down the statue in front of a crowd of about 200 chanting people

Congresswoman explains basic biology to Greg Abbott after he claimed six weeks was ample time to get an abortionDemocrats including New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have decried Greg Abbott’s “deep ignorance” after the Texas governor inaccurately defended his state’s new anti-abortion law, saying that it does not require victims of rape and incest to carry pregnancies to term because it provides ample time for a person to get an abortion.The law, which took effect on 1 September, is the most extreme anti-abortion measure in the US and essentially bans most abortions, offering no exceptions for rape or incest. Continue reading...

DNA analysis used to identify Dorothy Morgan and man whose name is being withheld, as 1,106 of 2,753 victims still unidentifiedNew York City investigators have identified two more people killed at the World Trade Center on 9/11 as the US approaches the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.Related: Far-right terror poses bigger threat to US than Islamist extremism post-9/11 Continue reading...

US judge says shareholders lost billions after board ignored safety warnings about aircraftBoeing’s board of directors must face a lawsuit from the planemaker’s shareholders over two fatal crashes of its 737 Max aircraft, which killed 346 people in less than six months, a US judge has ruled.Delaware judge vice-chancellor Morgan Zurn found that the company had ignored “red flags” about the safety of the new aircraft and its anti-stall system, which the board “should have heeded but instead ignored”, following the crash of Lion Air flight 610 in October 2018. Continue reading...

Leaders of the religious right would have us believe that Roe v Wade mobilized apolitical Christians. The real story is very differentThe supreme court’s refusal to block Texas’s restrictive new abortion law suggests that the end to country-wide legal abortion might be at hand. For white evangelicals, the rank and file of the anti-abortion movement who have worked tirelessly to overturn the 1973 Roe v Wade decision, this represents the culmination of efforts that date back to – well, about 1980.Although leaders of the religious right would have us believe that the Roe decision was the catalyst for their political mobilization in the 1970s, that claim does not withstand historical scrutiny. What prompted evangelical interest in politics, in fact, was a defense of racial segregation. Continue reading...

It used to be ‘Don’t talk about my private life!’ to avoid a tabloid onslaught. Thankfully there’s more acceptance todayMichael Grandage’s film My Policeman, which has just finished filming in Brighton, tells the story of a married couple in a loving and enduring menage a trois. The third party is the husband’s male lover.The adaptation of Bethan Roberts’ novel covers a period in recent English history – stretching from the 1950s to the 90s – when attitudes to homosexuality underwent significant change. What was once illegal, and supposedly scorned by right-thinking members of society, became accepted to the extent that, in 2014, same-sex marriage was recognised in law. Continue reading...

The US is convening a meeting to discuss cooperation with new Afghan government. Plus, animals ‘shapeshift’ in response to climate crisisGood morning.The Taliban have announced an all-male caretaker government including an interior minister wanted by the FBI, on a day when at least two people were killed by violent policing of street protests against the new authorities. Continue reading...

The South Carolina native says she has spent her whole life physically resisting violence. So mixed martial arts holds few fears as she prepares for her debutA mother’s love should be unconditional. Alana McLaughlin learned that isn’t always the case when she was sitting in her dorm room at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina in 2003. The 20-year-old had done everything her parents wanted, faithfully attending every conversion program they’d asked her to for over a decade. She couldn’t sit through one more.McLaughlin’s mother wouldn’t even say the word “transition”, although gender reassignment was something Alana had asked for from a young age. It had never been an option, no matter how many times she asked for it and no matter how many conversion schools she attended. Over the phone, there was silence. Mother and child were now at an impasse. Continue reading...

Supermarket works on basis that offers from US private equity firms CD&R and Fortress are not finalMorrisons has announced it is in talks with both of its US private equity suitors, as well as the UK’s Takeover Panel, which regulates acquisition activity, to begin an auction procedure to settle who takes control of the country’s fourth largest supermarket chain.Last month, the board of the grocer recommended that shareholders back an offer by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) that would value the supermarket chain at £7bn (or £9.7bn including debt). Continue reading...

The 18-year-old is ‘super-appreciative’ as she prepares to face Belinda Bencic in the US Open quarter-finalsOne of the greatest cramming sessions of the year continues. Emma Raducanu began her full-time senior career before Wimbledon with no experience at the very top level of professional tennis, but with every match she plays across this delirious summer, she is learning new information and improving each time. Now 26 matches later, she is a US Open quarter-finalist. She has already grown as much in 10 weeks as some players do in years, and she only wants more.The breakout performances from other teens in New York offer a helpful reference point for Raducanu’s inexperience and why the most remarkable part of her story is not that she is just 18 and recently received her A-levels. Leylah Fernandez, who turned 19 on Monday, is only two months older than Raducanu, and reached the semi-finals on Tuesday, made her tour-level debut in 2018 and her steady growth has been easy to follow across the 34 tour-level tournaments she has played since. Raducanu has played four: Nottingham, Wimbledon, San Diego and the US Open. Continue reading...

The president named one of the most diverse cabinets ever but efforts to reform voting rights and other priorities are bogged down by legislative and legal obstaclesDefying the punishing August heat, the Rev Al Sharpton recently led a gathering thousands strong through the streets of the nation’s capital on the 58th anniversary of the March on Washington, when Martin Luther King Jr delivered his immortal I Have a Dream speech on that day in 1963.Now, as then, there was an urgency to their march. In statehouses across the country, Republicans are proposing – and passing – new voter restrictions that activists say amount to the greatest erosion of voting rights since the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, a crowning achievement of the civil rights movement. Continue reading...

Since the 9/11 attack, far-right extremists killed more people in the US than did American-based Islamist fundamentalistsDonald Trump’s presidency was bookended with two of the ugliest outbursts of white nationalist violence in 21st century America – the 2017 far-right rally in Charlottesville and the 2021 storming of the US Capitol by his extremist supporters to sabotage the election results.Rightwing apologists like to downplay these lethal events or dismiss them as aberrations, but experts warn this is a form of terrorism that’s not only entrenched but has ballooned to become the biggest domestic security threat in the US. Continue reading...

US president Joe Biden has emphasised the danger of the climate crisis after touring Hurricane Ida-impacted neighbourhoods. ‘People are beginning to realise this is much, much bigger than anyone was willing to believe,’ Biden said during a tour of Queens, New York. ‘Even the climate skeptics are seeing that this really does matter.’

Site was removed from GoDaddy before being censored by new host Epik, known for providing services to far-right groupsTroubles are mounting for a Texas website used to report violators of the state’s extreme anti-abortion legislation after the site was forced offline by two different web hosting platforms.The site ProLifeWhistleblower.com was removed from its original web host by the provider GoDaddy on Friday before being suspended by its new host, an agency known for providing services to far-right groups. Continue reading...

The teenage rising star triumphed in a deciding tie-break after a thrilling battle, while Daniil Medvedev also advanced to the last four10.55pm BSTTime to sign off – I’ll leave you with our report as Leylah Fernandez’s fairytale run continues. And you can join us later tonight and on Wednesday to see if Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu can continue the teenage revolution in New York. Thanks for joining me. Goodnight!Related: US Open: Giant-killer Leylah Fernandez topples Svitolina to reach semi-finals10.39pm BSTSvitolina looked pretty devastated as she walked off there – that must be a big disappointment, after looking like the tournament’s form player. Fernandez won that, rather than Svitolina losing it – she came back from a set down, served to save the match three times, and lost to a net-cord bounce in the final tie-break. Continue reading...

Average number of deaths was over 86% higher than same period last year as Delta variant continues to spreadThe number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals across the US this Labor Day weekend was nearly 300% higher than this time last year, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The average number of deaths was over 86% higher than the same period last year.The surge in patients comes as the highly contagious Delta variant continues to spread across the US, and coincided with a weekend that saw a spike in travel. According to the Transportation Security Administration, more than 3.5 million people travelled across the country on Friday and Saturday for the Labor Day holiday, despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation for unvaccinated people to refrain from traveling. Continue reading...

Pre-trial process for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others defendants is in its ninth year with no clear end in sightNearly 20 years after the 9/11 attacks, the man accused of orchestrating the plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, has appeared along four other defendants, for the first hearing in over 18 months at a Guantánamo Bay military tribunal.The trial of the five accused for their role in the attacks has yet to begin. The session which began on Tuesday was the resumption of pre-trial hearings, now in their ninth year and with no clear end in sight. They have been bogged down in procedural problems and the central issue haunting the entire process, the admissibility of evidence obtained by the CIA under torture. Continue reading...

Irishwoman had a storied amateur career at American university and in her first Solheim Cup she stole the showIt wasn’t quite the “Hello world” of Tiger Woods in 1996. Nonetheless, Trans World Sport’s feature on 13-year-old twins in rural Ireland taking the “junior golf world by storm” at least hinted at greater things to come. Now 26, Leona Maguire’s rise to the top has been steady rather than sharp; and completely by design.Maguire was easily the star of the show as Europe retained the Solheim Cup in Toledo, Ohio. Four and a half points from a possible five made this one of the finest team golf debuts in history. Continue reading...

Largest US LGBTQ rights group said Alphonso David was fired after an investigation by the New York attorney general, Letitia JamesThe Human Rights Campaign has fired its president, Alphonso David, over his involvement in former New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s response to allegations of sexual misconduct.Related: Time’s Up chief resigns amid outrage over ties to Andrew Cuomo Continue reading...

Decision marks a milestone in the fight against the fire, which still remains only 48% contained and threatens areas south of the townMandatory evacuation orders have been lifted for South Lake Tahoe, allowing the resort town’s 22,000 residents to return home and marking a confident milestone in the fight against the Caldor fire.Related: How a Tahoe refuge saved owls, coyotes and raccoons from wildfire Continue reading...

In further twist, Alex Murdaugh, who discovered bodies, quits law firm amid reports of missing money and enters rehabIn the latest bizarre twist to a South Carolina murder case that has captured attention across the US, a lawyer from a prominent family who found his wife and son shot dead at their home in June was injured on Saturday when a bullet grazed his head as he changed a tire on a quiet rural road.Alex Murdaugh found the bodies of his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and their 22-year-old son Paul, outside their home on 7 June. Both had been shot several times. Continue reading...

The former president is thinking about standing again. While I’d love to laugh at the idea of him winning a second time, the polls offer a heavy note of cautionSay what you like about Melania Trump, the woman is consistent. She displayed zero interest in being first lady in 2016, and it seems she has zero interest in being first lady ever again. According to mysterious sources who recently spoke to CNN about Melania’s mindset, she has no desire to ever return to the White House. Should her bitter half decide he wants to prove the losers and haters wrong and run for president in 2024, she won’t be accompanying him on the campaign trail. Instead, CNN reports, one of his adult sons’ partners will probably do the honours.Could Donald Trump really run for president again? In an April interview with Fox, he said he was “100% thinking about running again”. In May he told the rightwing media personality Candace Owens that “people are going to be very, very happy when I make a certain announcement”. And just last week it was reported that congressman Jim Jordan said Trump was “ready to announce after all of this craziness in Afghanistan”. Continue reading...

Increasing numbers of Americans identify as more than one race. But that’s not the same as white population declineThe Census Bureau released the first detailed results of the 2020 census this month, and many media reports highlighted the nation’s growing diversity, which is real, and the dramatically shrinking white population, which is … not so much.First the data: The white population didn’t “shrink” to 57.8% as widely reported – unless you believe in the old “one-drop” rule, where one ancestor of another race means you are not fully and authentically accepted as white. Moreover, this statistic excludes people who checked the Hispanic box, many of whom identify as ethnically Hispanic but racially white. Continue reading...

US attorney general responds to state’s strict anti-abortion law. Plus Michael K Williams, star of The Wire, dies aged 54

Low vaccination rates fueling crisis as four pregnant women die in a Mississippi hospital and Kentucky governor calls situation ‘dire’Military doctors and other federal emergency personnel are shoring up exhausted health teams in some parts of the US south where low vaccination rates are fueling the latest Covid-19 crisis.As many hospitals struggle to avoid being overwhelmed, one hospital in Louisiana praised Pentagon medics for helping them cope, while health officials in Mississippi reported that four pregnant women died of Covid-19 in one a hospital there, and the governor of Kentucky called the situation in his state “dire”. Continue reading...

Centrists are concerned about the price tag, while progressives say they will oppose attempt to cut funding in the proposalCongress will return from its summer recess later this month, and some Democrats are already gearing up for a political fight – with each other.Democratic lawmakers are looking to pass their $3.5tn spending package, after the House and the Senate approved the blueprint for the budget bill last month. The ambitious legislation encompasses much of Joe Biden’s economic agenda, including proposals to expand access to affordable childcare, invest in climate-related initiatives and broaden Medicare coverage. Continue reading...

Athletes are now able to make money from sponsorship. But many players believe that the NCAA maintains racial dynamics that are endemic in the US“I think NIL is just to keep kids from going overseas, especially in basketball, to keep them in college. They’re still not getting the cut they deserve. I think it’s still a slave mentality.”That’s how CJ Watson, a former University of Tennessee and NBA player, characterized the 1 July move by the NCAA, the main governing body of US college sport, to liberalize its policy on name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights. The decision permits college athletes to make money from things such as sponsorship and public appearances, activities that were once prohibited under the dubious rationale they would compromise the integrity of amateur sport (amateur sport, incidentally, in which the coaches and administrators often make millions of dollars a year). Continue reading...

The building blocks of our culture stop us seeing the famous as people. That is not the function we have assigned themNaomi Osaka gave a press conference on Friday night. She’s started doing them again, by the way; I mention this only because after opting out of media duties during the French Open this year, lots of people immediately decided that she was weaponising her own mental health as a sly ruse to evade media scrutiny. Still, a lot of red-faced talk-show hosts and newspaper columnists got to lecture a 23-year-old woman on her personal choices, so maybe that was the most important thing.It was a tough watch. Osaka had just lost in tempestuous circumstances against Leylah Fernandez at the US Open and, as she announced her intention to take a short break from tennis, she reflected with teary equanimity on a sport that, for whatever reason, was no longer working for her. “Recently, when I win I don’t feel happy, I feel more like a relief,” she said. “And then when I lose, I feel very sad. I don’t think that’s normal.” Continue reading...

Digital ID systems are a powerful development tool, providing a legal identity to millions, but their misuse can be deadlyThe Taliban have openly talked about using US-made digital identity technology to hunt down Afghans who have worked with the international coalition – posing a huge threat to everyone recorded in the system. In addition, the extremists now also have access to – and control over – the digital identification systems and technologies built through international aid support.These include the e-Tazkira, a biometric identity card used by Afghanistan’s National Statistics and Information Authority, which includes fingerprints, iris scans and a photograph, as well as voter registration databases. It also includes the Afghan personnel and pay system, used by the interior and defence ministries to pay the army and police. Continue reading...

Behind the glitz many of those working in movies and TV face low wages and conditions that strike at the industry’s diversityWorking in Hollywood may sound glamorous but the vast majority of workers in entry-level, assistant and support staff positions are vulnerable to pervasive poor working conditions that ensure poor levels of pay and pose safety risks. Problems include low wages, gender pay disparities, long hours, increased workloads in regards to Covid-19 safety protocols without additional compensation, and bullying from managers who gatekeep the opportunities for advancement and success in the entertainment industry.Marisa Shipley, vice-president of IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) Local 871 and an art department coordinator in the industry, explained workers in the industry in these positions, from script coordinators to writers and production assistants, are typically paid little more than the minimum wage of $15 an hour in Los Angeles, California. Continue reading...

Shirin Neshat has been crowned a Photo London Master of Photography thanks to her black and white portraits of people from the American south-west Continue reading...