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Sales at UK’s biggest supplier of Rolex and Omega watches rise 43% on pre-pandemic levelsThe UK’s biggest seller of Rolex and Omega watches said sales had surged as Britons splashed lockdown savings on luxury watches and jewellery, including wedding and engagement rings.Watches of Switzerland’s UK sales rose 43% compared with the pre-pandemic levels in the 13 weeks to 1 August, as the company bounced back from the coronavirus lockdowns. Continue reading...

About 70 senators appear poised to carry the bipartisan package to passage with final Senate vote expected Tuesday morningAfter weeks of fits, starts and delays, the US Senate is on track to give final approval to the $1tn bipartisan infrastructure plan, with a growing coalition of Democrats and Republicans prepared to lift the first phase of Joe Biden’s rebuilding agenda to passage.Final Senate votes are expected around Tuesday mid-morning, and the bill would then go back to the House of Representatives for further consideration. Continue reading...

Two more of the state’s largest school districts announced mask mandates as a county-owned hospital in Houston raised tentsThe Texas governor, Greg Abbott, appealed for out-of-state help to fight the third wave of Covid-19 in his state amid dire warnings while two more of the state’s largest school districts announced mask mandates in defiance of the increasingly hardline Republican.Abbott’s request came on Monday as a county-owned hospital in Houston raised tents to accommodate their coronavirus patient overflow. Continue reading...

A new docuseries offers a fresh perspective on the infamous 2004 melee that changed the shape of basketball as we know itFor my money, the indelible image from the Malice in the Palace – the notorious 2004 on-court riot that pitted NBA players against spectators and changed the shape of basketball as we know it – wasn’t Ron Artest pouncing on that wide-eyed fan in the stands. Or Artest and his fellow Indiana Pacers making their off-court escape as the unruly crowd hailed down their half-consumed concessions from on high. Or even the hard foul Artest committed on the Detroit Pistons’ Ben Wallace at the end of this nationally televised Pacers blowout that kicked off the ugly affair.Related: Untold review – gripping doc series delivers an irresistible sports fix Continue reading...

If the Evia fire ferry video seems extraordinary, it’s not only because of what it shows but because of how it shows itTo have lived through the last few decades is to have, in our minds, an all too accessible video library of historical nightmares. The assassinations of JFK, MLK, RFK. The collapse of the Twin Towers. Derek Chauvin’s knee on George Floyd’s neck. The 6 January insurrectionists swarming the Capitol building. We can call up these scenes whenever we choose. They haunt us, uninvited.The latest grim addition to that ineradicable collection is a video that surfaced, days ago, of a tourist ferry sailing across the water from the raging fire incinerating the Greek island of Evia. Continue reading...

Some say the greenback’s dominance of cross-border payments will be erodedThis week marks the 50th anniversary of “the weekend that changed the world”, when the US president Richard Nixon suspended the dollar’s convertibility into gold at a fixed price and rang down the curtain on the Bretton Woods international monetary system. The subsequent half-century brought many surprises. From a monetary standpoint, one of the greatest was the dollar’s continued dominance as a vehicle for cross-border transactions.Under Bretton Woods, the dollar’s supremacy was readily explicable. The financial position of the US coming out of the second world war was impregnable. Changes in the price at which dollars could be converted into gold were unthinkable, first because of that financial strength and then, as the country’s monetary position weakened, because of the possibility that one devaluation would create expectations of another. Continue reading...

US president expected to deliver climate legislation after damning UN report. Plus: the robot dog that is supposed to have ‘real emotions and instinct’Good morning.A stark UN report showing that the US, like the rest of the world, is running out of time to avoid disastrous climate impacts is turning up the heat on Joe Biden, who will be keen to do his part in preventing a critical global heating threshold of 1.5C being breached far earlier than previously expected. Continue reading...

Their ancestors were exterminated and displaced – now Indigenous leaders are being asked to help bring in tourism dollarsThis story was published in partnership with the Texas Observer.Texas, which exterminated or displaced most of the Indigenous people in the state, now wants to cash in on them. Continue reading...

The three conditions feed off each other to create a vicious cycle, demanding urgent actionNorthern California’s Dixie fire this weekend swelled to become the single largest fire incident the state has ever recorded, a mammoth that has leveled mountain towns, produced flames that shot 200ft in the air, and scorched through close to 490,000 acres.“It is just the perfect storm,” says Rick Carhart, the California department of forestry and fire protection (Cal Fire) public information officer, adding that the difficult and steep terrain, parched vegetation, and hot, dry weather had all come together to fuel the conflagration that has sent flames 200ft into the sky. Continue reading...

The governor is facing calls for dismissal after a report found he sexually harassed 11 women. But how does impeachment work?New York governor Andrew Cuomo is on the brink of being impeached by the state legislature and, if he doesn’t resign first, he could lose the job he has held for a decade.Related: Kathy Hochul: lieutenant governor who could take over for Cuomo Continue reading...

The landmark IPCC report paints a bleak picture for our planet’s future. We asked five climate change experts how they are staying strongThe latest report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has left many of us feeling despondent and full of despair for the future of the planet. It is often said that action is the antidote to anxiety and despair. The problem for most people though is what action should that be? Recycling, or riding to work can feel futile when at the same time political leaders announce a new coalmine the size of Sydney. Here is why I am still feeling hopeful. Continue reading...

Mary Trump’s new book The Reckoning, seen by the Guardian, describes a national trauma worsened by her uncleDonald Trump was “afraid” when he put on a display of bravado at the White House after being treated for a severe coronavirus infection, his estranged niece Mary Trump has claimed.The then US president had a pained expression that Mary recognised from her grandmother, but dared not admit his fear even to himself, she recalls in a scathing new book seen by the Guardian. Continue reading...

15 September deadline could be pushed up if vaccine receives final US regulatory approval by FDAMembers of the US military will be required to have the Covid-19 vaccine beginning on 15 September, under a plan announced by the Department of Defense (DoD) on Monday and endorsed by Joe Biden.That deadline could be pushed up if the vaccine receives final US regulatory approval, beyond its current emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), or if rising infection rates continue. Continue reading...

Elaine Thompson-Herah was a star, the new sports shone and the hosts were friendly, despite not being able to attendBest moment of the Games Continue reading...

Roberta Kaplan is latest prominent figure to quit in wake of scandal engulfing CuomoRoberta Kaplan has resigned as chairwoman of Time’s Up after facing widespread criticism for allegedly advising New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration on sexual harassment allegations against him.Kaplan, a prominent lawyer who founded Time’s Up legal defense fund and represents the writer E Jean Carroll in a defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump, resigned on Monday, becoming the latest prominent figure to quit in the wake of the scandal engulfing Cuomo. Continue reading...

As our departure date loomed, I worried about the results – but it was the soaring prices and small print that sent me into an anxiety spiralIt started next to a caravan at the back of a church. We were going to Morocco – but only if the kids first had negative PCR tests. From a distance, it’s a formality, like checking in online and carefully confirming that you haven’t got a Swiss army knife in your hand luggage. Only when the date loomed up close did the reality kick in that they might actually have Covid and it would be wiser not to get too excited until we had the results.By then, of course, it was too late. I was already too excited and all that anticipation segued effortlessly into nail-biting dread. My son was also biting his nails, which my daughter hates, but nothing drives her more bananas than when we both do it at the same time. It’s not the biting, apparently, but the melodramatic terror in our eyes. He wasn’t even worrying about the test, he was worried that the testing lady hadn’t got his passport number right and that he would get turned back on a technicality. “She asked me to check it against my passport and I said I had, but I’d only skimmed it.” Continue reading...

Dixie fire grew to an area of 765 sq miles by Sunday evening and was just 21% containedFirefighters battling the second largest wildfire in California history faced a return of fire-friendly weather, as the thick smoke that held down winds and temperatures from the scenic forestlands picked up.The changing weather conditions near the Dixie fire, which is burning the state’s far north, concerned firefighters working in unprecedented conditions to protect thousands of threatened homes in rural communities of the Sierra Nevada. Continue reading...

David Lindstone, 81, says he’s grateful for fundraising efforts and offers to help after a fire destroyed the cabin where he lived“River Dave,” an 81-year who was recently jailed after refusing to vacate a New Hampshire cabin where he had been squatting for 27 years, has expressed his thanks for a wave of support after his home burnt down.David Lidstone said he was grateful and overwhelmed by fundraising efforts and offers for a place to live. Continue reading...

Melissa DeRosa was linked in the state attorney general’s report to efforts to cover up the governor’s actions and retaliate against one of his accusersA senior aide to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned on Sunday in the wake of a state attorney general’s report that the governor sexually harassed 11 women.Melissa DeRosa, secretary to the governor, was linked in the report to efforts to cover up the governor’s actions and retaliate against one of his accusers. Continue reading...

City implores residents to stay home, mask up and get vaccinated as ICU capacity in hospitals dwindles to single digitsWith Covid-19 cases skyrocketing exponentially and intensive care unit capacity in hospitals dwindling to single digits, officials in the Austin area are warning of “catastrophe” as Texas again becomes an center of the pandemic.Austin’s local governments issued an urgent message through their emergency notification system Saturday, imploring residents to stay home, mask up and get vaccinated. Continue reading...

American athletes topped the medal table but they also displayed traits that have often been forgotten in the turbulent five years since the Rio GamesJoe Biden held a Zoom call with Team USA Olympians on Saturday as the Tokyo Games drew to a close.“You handle yourself with such grace, and such decency,” Biden said. “You made me so damn proud.” Continue reading...

Members of ‘Deseret nationalist’ movement accused of harassing other Mormons and posting racist material on social mediaA new group of religious extremists in the United States is seeking to promote and defend an ultra-conservative vision of Mormon belief and harass perceived opponents of those beliefs, which are often racist and bigoted or promote violence.The conduct of so-called “Deseret nationalists” or “DezNats” has raised questions about how the Mormon Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) is responding to the movement, whose members direct harassment at other Mormons, including those working in church-sponsored institutions such as Brigham Young University (BYU). Continue reading...

Human activity is changing our planet’s climate in ‘unprecedented’ ways, the world’s leading authority on climate science has said. Plus: flight attendants struggle with sharp rise in disruptive behaviour onboardGood morning.Widespread devastation and extreme weather are likely to become inevitable within the next two decades thanks to human behaviour causing rising temperatures, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned. Continue reading...

The lack of data around breakthrough infections is giving many Americans a false sense of securityThe Delta variant was first identified in the United States in April and by May it was well onto its exponential growth curve, doubling every 10-12 days, as the basis for Covid infections, now reaching over 96% prevalence. Ironically, on 1 May, the CDC announced it would stop monitoring post-vaccination breakthrough infections unless they led to hospitalizations or deaths. This decision can be seen as exceptionally ill-advised and has led to a country flying blind in its attempt to confront its fourth wave of infections – one that has rapidly led to well over 100,000 new cases per day and more than 60,000 hospitalizations, both higher than the US first and second pandemic waves. It is unfathomable that we do not know how many of these are occurring in people who were vaccinated.Most people who get Covid infections after being fully vaccinated have mild to moderate symptoms, and generally have been thought to avoid hospitalizations. But that sense of confidence about vaccine protection was built upon the pre-Delta data when the CDC was monitoring breakthroughs. Still being reported by CDC, from their latest website data, and a constant refrain from public health officials, is that “99.99% of people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 have not had a breakthrough case resulting in hospitalization or death.” That could not be further from the truth. In the July Provincetown Delta outbreaks that the CDC reported on the risk of fully vaccinated requiring hospitalization was 1%, not .01%, and that may not be a reliable estimate for the incidence of such infections occurring throughout the country. Continue reading...

Low-income renters who have been waiting months for aid say they are facing eviction threats and rising debts: ‘This is a nightmare’California’s ambitious program to provide rent relief to every low-income tenant struggling during the pandemic has been plagued by delays and challenges, and some renters who are waiting for the aid to arrive say they are now facing eviction threats.California officials have been working since March to distribute funds to landlords whose tenants fell behind on rent during the pandemic, and in June authorities promised that the state would pay off the entirety of the rent debt of qualifying tenants. But the program has been slow to roll out, with eligible tenants across the state having difficulties applying while others say they’ve had to wait months for funds. Continue reading...

The truth of how the bill – which is not yet finished – has come to be is a little more self-interest than national interestThe Biden administration’s infrastructure proposal is still making its way through the congressional sausage making process but it has already been lauded as a rare victory for bipartisanship in a divided America.Pledging to unify America after his 2020 election win, Biden and his top supporters see the roughly $1tn package not just as a chance to repair America’s tattered and torn infrastructure but also as a model for reaching across the US’s political divide and getting things done. Continue reading...

UK’s Takeover Panel says private equity group has until 5pm on 20 AugustThe bidding war for Morrisons has taken another twist after one of its suitors, the US private equity group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, was given more time to consider a rival offer.The UK’s Takeover Panel, which regulates takeover activity, said it had given CD&R until 5pm on 20 August to announce a firm intention to make an offer for Morrisons or walk away, known as a “put up or shut up” deadline, an extension of the previous 9 August deadline. Continue reading...

As Americans return to the skies, the US flight authority has investigated more than 600 incidents this yearThe latest high-profile incident of air rage in American skies came on 31 July. Video from a Frontier Airlines flight showed a passenger bound with duct tape to his seat, after he had acted aggressively and allegedly grabbed a flight attendant’s breasts.It was far from the first case of unruly behavior this year in the US. In the first six months of 2021, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has investigated more than 600 incidents involving unruly passengers, nearly double the number in the previous two years combined. Continue reading...

Brittany Commisso, a former aide, identified herself publicly and is one of 11 women who have accused Cuomo of sexual harassmentA former executive assistant who filed a criminal complaint against New York governor Andrew Cuomo last week for allegedly groping her has said he “needs to be held accountable”.Brittany Commisso is one of 11 women Cuomo is accused of sexually harassing, according to a devastating investigative report released by the state attorney general’s office last week. Continue reading...

Trump says it ‘will be very hard for me to endorse anyone foolish enough to vote in favor of this deal’ as session to resume at noonSenators resumed a weekend session toward passage of a $1tn bipartisan infrastructure package on Sunday amid threats from former president Donald Trump who raged against any Republicans who support the measure.Majority leader Chuck Schumer stressed to colleagues that they could proceed the “easy way or the hard way”, while a few Republican senators appeared determined to run out the clock for days. “We’ll keep proceeding until we get this bill done,” Schumer said. Continue reading...

From Caeleb Dressel’s glory to a star turn from Sunisa Lee, Guardian writers on the big stories from this year’s OlympicsGable Steveson. The 21-year-old Minnesotan, named after 1972 Olympic champion Dan Gable and competing in only his second senior-level international tournament, scored a pair of late takedowns in the 125kg final – the second with less than a second remaining – to dramatically turn an 8-5 deficit into a 10-8 victory over Georgia’s Geno Petriashvili and win America’s first heavyweight gold in freestyle wrestling since 1992. Even on a US wrestling team that brings home more medals than any non-host nation in history, Steveson’s star-making run managed to steal the show. BAG Continue reading...

Chuck Schumer warned that coming to a bipartisan compromise could be 'hard' as Republicans joined Democrats to advance a $1tn infrastructure bill in the US Senate, remaining in session over the weekend.The bill represents the biggest spending in decades on American infrastructure including roads, bridges, airports and waterways, in what Joe Biden has called a 'historic investment' in public works.

Wildfire’s cause is under investigation but utility company has admitted its equipment may have been linked to the devastationAs relatively cool temperatures and higher humidity slowed the Dixie fire raging across northern California on Saturday, attention shifted to the role an already disgraced utility company may have played in the gigantic blaze.By Saturday evening, the Dixie fire covered 447,723 acres and had destroyed 370 structures, including residential, commercial and other buildings. The fire was only 21% contained, and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection did not expect full containment until 20 August. Continue reading...

Dick Farrel was a vociferous critic of Dr Anthony Fauci and urged people not to get vaccinatedA rightwing TV and radio host who was a vociferous critic of Dr Anthony Fauci and who urged his listeners not to get vaccinated against Covid-19 has died after contracting the virus.Dick Farrel, who had described Fauci as a “power-tripping lying freak” who conspired with “power trip libb loons”, had urged people not to get vaccinated as recently as June. Continue reading...

Eric Ulis began search near spot where skyjacker is believed to have buried wads of cash after parachuting out a half century agoAn amateur crime historian has begun a two-day search along Washington’s Columbia River, close to a spot where notorious skyjacker DB Cooper is believed by some to have buried wads of cash after parachuting out of the back of a Boeing 727 half a century ago.Eric Ulis began the dig to looking for a parachute and briefcase on Friday, working under the theory that Cooper could have buried the items close to where $6,000 of Cooper’s $200,000 skyjack ransom was discovered in 1980. Continue reading...

It’s the second summer of alternative plans, and the city’s parks, libraries and pools suddenly seem remarkableThe rules of New York City’s public swimming pools are stringent: no flotation aids, no coloured T-shirts, no food, no diving – and, most remarkably in this city of punitive cost, no charge. For the space of the summer, the 50-odd outdoor pools across the city’s five boroughs provide relief and recreation for thousands of New Yorkers – and something more nebulous, too. The locker rooms might be shabby, but every few years, when a local news outlet tests the water in a cross section of pools, the results are deeply satisfying and often the same. While the water in the city’s most expensive hotel pools is discovered to be teeming with germs, the public pools are almost always sparklingly clean.This reminder of how good public services in the city can be feels particularly pertinent this summer, the second in a row of altered plans. If last year was the summer of reduced expectations – no one expected to go anywhere and made alternative local arrangements – this year is much choppier, with Covid rules changing seemingly every five minutes and travel plans being repeatedly cancelled. As a result, and by default, many of us have ended up doing something we might not have done for years, which is spending August in the city. New York, famously hostile to life in the summer, is suddenly a great place to be. Continue reading...

Trump Republicans are falling back on their proven method of deflecting attention by blaming immigrants crossing the southern borderAs America reaches the milestone of 70% of adults with at least one dose of a vaccine, the highly contagious Delta variant is surging.Public health officials are trying to keep the focus on the urgent need for more vaccinations. Continue reading...

On a population-adjusted basis, the weekly average of US children admitted to hospitals with Covid-19 is rising faster than any other age groupThe Delta variant is the latest setback on our path toward a new normal. This is the fourth major Covid-19 wave, and there’s a palpable sense of morbid familiarity. We know the drill: cases rise, hospitals are pushed to their limit, and then the deaths start piling up. We have grown numb to the ongoing mass casualty event, even as friends and neighbors share their stories of debilitating chronic symptoms. But data from around the world signal that the Delta variant is different, particularly when it comes to children.Given everything we know about Delta and long Covid in children, it is immoral to send unvaccinated kids, teachers, and staff into classrooms Continue reading...

Early on, we were told we were all in the same boat. Is that true? The answer has important implications for our politicsIn spring of last year, when the full severity of the pandemic began to get clearer, it became common to claim that we were all in the same boat (as Madonna also explained to us from a video taken in her bathtub, since deleted). Today, conventional wisdom would suggest that the Covid crisis has actually demonstrated the opposite: the stubborn persistence of inequalities. Rather than all of us being in the same boat, it turned out that some quickly drowned, some have been rowing frantically just to stay alive, and some were never in our boat to begin with; instead, we watched them sail off on their luxury yachts.It is notable that few leftwing parties seem to have been strengthened by the pandemic. In Germany, where federal elections with likely far-reaching implications are scheduled for September, Social Democrats are languishing in the polls; their rivals to the left, Die Linke, are actually declining. Perhaps people just want to forget about the whole Covid nightmare as quickly as possible. It may be that voters take the return of some kind of day-to-day normality as reason to re-legitimate the old political regime: if I can go on holidays this summer, or so the reasoning might go, I just won’t vote for any radicals. Continue reading...

The US men failed to win an individual gold for the first time ever at a fully attended Olympics. What went wrong?When Noah Lyles finished third in the 200m final this week, he called his hardware “boring”. When Grant Holloway took silver in the 110m hurdles, he repeatedly used the word “sucks” with reporters after the race.Both men seemed glum, disappointed. They’d lost. They’d failed. Never mind that Lyles’s time was the fastest he’s run all season, that only 16 men have ever finished the race faster than he did this week. And we should totally disregard the fact that Holloway’s finish was all of 50 milliseconds slower than the gold medal time. Continue reading...

Ron DeSantis has promised cut off state funding to any district that forces children to wear face coverings – but some schools are bucking his ultimatumWith about two weeks to go until the start of a new school year, Miami father Jerry Greenberg is feeling anxious.With the more contagious Delta variant of Covid-19 fueling record-breaking positive cases across Florida, Greenberg’s biggest fear is that his son and daughter will catch the deadly respiratory disease even if they are wearing masks. Continue reading...

Dirt is good, environmentalists are telling us. Fine by me. Let’s start by not doing so much washingDon’t rinse your plates before putting them in the dishwasher,” said Boris Johnson’s spokesperson, and then I sank to my knees. This wetness on my face, was it tears? I was shaking, and laughing, my hands reaching skywards in raw and screaming thanks, as I learned finally, how to save the world.To my left, the city was flooding, cars wading through the dark water of drowned streets, and over there the path was littered with the corpses of bees, and in the distance fossil fuel companies were merrily going about their days responsible for over a third of all greenhouse gas emissions while billionaires popped to space for the afternoon. But here, on my kitchen floor, I was weeping with thanks. I can make a difference, I whispered, hoarse now, holding my ketchupped plate aloft. The future is mine! Continue reading...