Brittany Clark struggled for her life before dying from brutal injuries in rare attack, autopsy report confirmsA woman who was killed in a rare alligator attack while swimming with her boyfriend in Florida struggled for her life before dying from the brutal injuries inflicted on her by the animal, newly released autopsy results confirmed.The report containing the results of Brittany Clark's autopsy, published on Thursday, also contained new details about the extent of the 28 June mauling that unfolded in Seminole county's Little Big Econ state forest. Continue reading...
In an increasingly dangerous world, our European neighbours are finding safety in numbers - but Britain is on the outside. The new PM's task is to change thatThere is an orange cloud in the sky. I'm not referring to the wildfires ravaging parts of Europe and East Anglia, though they are connected. I mean the looming pall from across the Atlantic that threatens to spoil the sunny start to the premiership of Andy Burnham - and whose name is Donald Trump.Burnham's first 10 days or so in office have gone about as well as he or any of his team could have dared hope. His net approval rating has risen by 17 points, according to one early poll, gaining ground with every category of voter except supporters of Reform UK, though they too like some of what they see. His easy manner, no-notes speech-making and agility on social media have won plaudits, including from a usually sceptical press.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
by Presented by Lucy Hough with Julian Borger ; produ on (#77CDS)
Donald Trump has declared a breakthrough in negotiations over the disarmament of Hamas in Gaza and the withdrawal of Israeli forces, but IsraelI government officials have voiced scepticism over the deal.
A six-time world champion and three-time World Cup MVP, Japan's Ayami Sato joins the new Women's Professional Baseball League hoping to help build the sport's futureWhen Ayami Sato takes the mound as the starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Queens on Saturday, it will be the culmination of a professional career that has spanned 16 years and three countries. The right-handed hurler is largely considered the best pitcher in the history of women's baseball. She has the awards and experience to prove it, and now she's taking on America when she makes her debut in the Women's Professional Baseball League, the first pro women's baseball league in the United States since the 1950s.Even though most Americans tuning into the WPBL may not have heard of her, Sato's resume speaks for itself. Sato's fastball has been clocked at nearly 80mph and her curveball has a devastating spin rate that is higher than many Major League Baseball pitchers. As a member of the Japan National Team since 2010, Sato has won six gold medals. She is the only player in Women's Baseball World Cup history to win three consecutive MVP awards. As a member of the now-defunct Japan's Women's Baseball League, Sato led the league in strikeouts in three of the last four seasons. And most recently, in 2024 she became the first woman to play pro baseball in Canada as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the Intercounty Baseball League. Continue reading...
The World Cup gave MLS unprecedented momentum. Keeping it will depend less on signing aging icons than convincing America's best young players to stayThanks World, we'll take it from here," is Major League Soccer's message to the American public. Yet two moves in the last week were emblematic of the issues the league faces in taking on the mantle of North America's hosting of the game's grandest stage.A rising, under-the-radar homegrown player left for Europe, and a veteran with immense pedigree arrived, likely to close out his career. Sebastian Berhalter's swapped title-chasing Vancouver Whitecaps for Middlesbrough of the EFL Championship. Free agent Brazil legend Casemiro traded Manchester's Old Trafford for Nu Stadium in Miami. Continue reading...
by Andy Vasoyan with visuals by Rajah Bose on (#77CAA)
The handcrafted leather boots are a century-old tradition - but with money tight, the cost of up to $800 is harder to justifyFor 18 years, one of the most important relationships in Luke Mayfield's life was with his boots. As a hotshot - one of the US's elite firefighting crews sent deep, on foot, into wildfires - Mayfield hiked a thousand miles a fire season in his boots, stood in them 16 hours a day and slept near them on assignments that lasted weeks in terrain no truck could reach.Like every wildland firefighter, he learned the rituals of their upkeep: how to grease them, how to lace them, how soon before the season to break in a new pair so the blisters came during training instead of on duty. Continue reading...
Move seeking $3.25m in damages six months after mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie was last seen safeTwo men questioned early in the search for NBC's Today Show host Savannah Guthrie's missing mother said they will file a $3.25m wrongful arrest lawsuit against the sheriff who detained them, as the investigation passes the six-month mark this weekend.Nancy Guthrie, 84, was last seen safe while at her Tucson, Arizona, home on 1 February. Authorities, including the FBI, believe she was kidnapped. But despite a number of leads and blood spatters at the house, no further trace of her has been found, and no suspects have emerged. Continue reading...
You've got to admire the Fifa president's chutzpah in trying to flog off football's greatest prize. If only Uefa wasn't being so pesky about it allImagine a plan so distasteful that even the Americans and a Middle Eastern nepo-royal football boss can't be doing with it. Such is the status of Fifa president Gianni Infantino's scheme to sell off stakes in the World Cup to private investors. More historically, perhaps, the 55 nations that make up Uefa have reacted to this horror show by voting unanimously to boycott Fifa tournaments, including World Cups, if Infantino presses ahead. That would mean Spain and Portugal boycotting their own men's World Cup next time around, which you'd think - not to call it too soon - would come off as slightly bad vibes.A testing moment, then, for the haunted cue-ball. Again. Can it really already be time to turn to Infantino once more, even after he appeared in this spot only on Tuesday, after his 15-page Instagram crash-out about his haters? Yes. Yes, I'm afraid it can. Demanding the federations of the world sell off the World Cup to some fund led by Donald Trump's son-in-law's brother will regrettably draw attention to you in ways that will prove difficult to control. As indicated, the Fifa president's plan has contrived to appear vulgar to the North American confederation, Concacaf, as well as the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Senators Warren and Van Hollen attack Republican rubber stamps' in Congress for surrendering authority to Trump. Plus, could AI take your job? Some workers in China already know the answerGood morning.Senior Democrats accused Republicans in the US Congress of becoming gelatinous blobs" who will not stand up to Donald Trump and rubber stamps" for his war on Iran.What else is happening in Washington? Trump has said a deal has been reached for Hamas to disarm and for Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza. However, briefings from both sides exposed disputes over its implementation that could prove difficult to overcome.What has Blanche said? Blanche has already said publicly that the payout fund to compensate victims of so-called government weaponization is not moving forward amid bipartisan backlash. But Cornyn and Tillis had sought assurances in writing, something Blanche has refused to do. Cornyn also sought to clarify the terms of the tax immunity portion of the agreement. Continue reading...
Contender, largest tagged male great white, heading north as overheating oceans alter range of several shark speciesThe largest tagged male great white shark in the Atlantic Ocean has been identified traveling up the US and Canada coastline amid a surge in sightings of sharks that are increasingly shifting their movement patterns due to the overheating of the oceans.The great white shark, named Contender, is nearly 14ft long and weighs more than 1,650lbs. The hulking fish has been pinged in several locations off North Carolina and Maine as he headed north for the summer, with Contender's last known location located off Nova Scotia in Canada on 11 July. Continue reading...
Temporary protected status allowed me to rebuild my life. Now thousands like me help keep this country runningRight now, across the country, there are more than 330,000 Haitians collectively holding their breath over the future of lifesaving immigration protections provided through temporary protected status (TPS). Three hundred and fifty thousand is a big, meaningful number - but for many, it's still just a number.In the case of Donald Trump and his supporters in Congress, the number of lives at stake has mattered little. Trump has been incessant in his efforts to eliminate TPS for Haitians. In doing so, he's broken with a bipartisan tradition dating back to 1990 of prioritizing the safety of people from other countries who cannot return home because of dangerous conditions. And it's how he's done it, too: without consideration for the ongoing violence, civil unrest, lack of infrastructure, and political instability in Haiti. But what Trump has also failed to acknowledge are the lives built here by that same huge number of people. Continue reading...
by Hosted by Jonathan Freedland, produced by May Robs on (#77C5M)
Leftwing Democrats are having their political moment in the sun, with Zohran Mamdani in New York, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and the endless calls for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to run for president in 2028. Has Democratic socialism shifted from the political fringe to the mainstream? And can this group lure back the all-important swing voters? Jonathan Freedland speaks to Bhaskar Sunkara, the president of the Nation magazine, founding editor of Jacobin and author of The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality Continue reading...
Here are things that will - and will not - help us fight the threat of wildfiresI have spent much of my career studying boreal forests and I know fire is part of how they renew themselves. That knowledge did nothing for the lump in my throat last week as wildfires closed in on my community in northwestern Ontario.Over 150 fires were burning in the region almost at once, displacing at least 1,800 people from more than a dozen communities, most of them Indigenous. Namaygoosisagagun First Nation burned to the ground, its residents narrowly escaping by boat.Julee Boan is Partnerships Director, Global Northern Forests, International, at the National Resources Defense Council Continue reading...
Trump's campaign of repression echoes the red scare. But now the government has bigger ambitions and more powerful toolsThere are many parallels between the first McCarthy era, roughly 1946 to 1956, and Trump's campaign of political repression, his own updated McCarthyism.Both regimes crafted a monster of quasi-facts and innuendo and fed it with fear: an enemy within, well-organized and financed, secretive and violent, allied with evil foreigners and bent on overthrowing capitalism, democracy and Christian morality. Both used flagrantly unconstitutional means to cleanse the nation of the spectral menace. Continue reading...
Akbar Majeed's new feature tells the story of the sport through a Black lens and asks hard questions about the barriers facing the game's breakthroughAkbar Majeed takes a deep breath as he considers the legacy of the 2026 World Cup and, in particular, the effect of the US team's collapse against Belgium for a last-16 exit.Unfortunately, that performance in the last game did not help at all," he says. Continue reading...
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Senators Warren and Van Hollen attack Republican rubber stamps' in Congress for surrendering authority to TrumpSenior Democrats accused Republicans in the US Congress of becoming gelatinous blobs" who won't stand up to Donald Trump and rubber stamps" for his war on Iran.Elizabeth Warren, a US senator for Massachusetts, and Chris Van Hollen, a US senator for Maryland, argued that the Republican-controlled Congress had surrendered its constitutional authority to the president. Continue reading...
by Robert Mackey (now); Anna Betts, Shannon Ho, Lucy on (#77B94)
Republicans senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul voted in favor of the motion to prevent Trump from continuing hostilities against Iran. This blog is now closed.
Officers in murder trial testify of arriving at Massachusetts home after anguished 911 call from Patrick ClancyThe two police officers focused first on Lindsay Clancy drifting in and out of consciousness in the snow after jumping from her Massachusetts home's second-floor window in January 2023. Within minutes, they were racing into the basement after her then husband screamed that all three of their children were dead.I can't wake them up - I can't get them up!" Patrick Clancy frantically told the officers who, along with firefighters and paramedics, gave jurors first-hand accounts on Thursday of the aftermath. Continue reading...
Mayor announces resignation of Shon Barnes after city officials faced criticism over response to Sunday shootingSeattle's police chief has resigned amid criticism of the city's response to a fatal shootout at a food festival last weekend, Katie Wilson, the mayor, said on Thursday.The announcement followed hours of speculation about whether Shon Barnes would step down, as some of his supporters said he had rebuffed Wilson's request that he resign. Continue reading...
State department takes full responsibility' for erroneous, widely shared chart displayed at Aids conference in BrazilA US government map of Africa mislabeled every country during a state department presentation at a global conference in Brazil this week, causing a stir among attenders who took screenshots and posted them online.Reuters viewed a video of the presentation given at the Aids 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro, which shows the errant map displayed halfway during a presentation about the state department's new health agreements. Continue reading...
Former lieutenant governor says path to Democratic nomination no longer viable as democratic socialist rival surges aheadMandela Barnes, the former lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, dropped out of the Democratic primary for governor on Thursday, upending the high-stakes contest less than two weeks before the 11 August election.Barnes announced the decision in a video posted on social media, saying he no longer saw a viable path to the nomination, as democratic socialist Francesca Hong surged ahead with a commanding lead. Continue reading...
Donations to top US provider have dropped to four-year summer low with less than a day's supply of type O positiveThe American Red Cross has declared the second-ever national blood supply crisis after blood donations fell to a four-year summer low.On Monday, the 145-year-old non-profit said that as the United States' largest single provider of blood products, it now has less than one-day national supply of type O positive blood - the most commonly transfused blood. Continue reading...
We'd like to hear from Black Americans who are using artificial intelligence for health or spiritual guidanceArtificial intelligence is growing in influence in the healthcare space, and more people are seeking guidance from AI tools, including AI-generated social media influencers. Black people in the US, who have been long subject to racism in the healthcare system, are among some of those who are leaning on AI for health-related matters and information.We would like to hear from Black respondents about their experiences with Black AI-generated health and spiritual influencers. Continue reading...
Eric Washington was known for knocking on doors, connecting residents with services and believing Compton could changeAnyone who knew Eric Washington knew that he had two great loves in his life: his mother and the Los Angeles Rams football team.Washington was shot and killed on 4 July alongside Meah Bordenave-Jenkins, a 19-year-old aspiring nurse, while at a block party in Compton, California. With his death, the Los Angeles region lost a homegrown community organizer who worked in the city and county's most underserved neighborhoods. Continue reading...
First US pope says mission is to be pastor of a universal church but expresses great love' for his home country and its core principlesPope Leo, the first US pontiff, has expressed great love" for his home country and its core principles of freedom, opportunity and welcoming immigrants, but qualified that he just happens to be American".In an interview with the US broadcaster NBC on the sidelines of a prayer event in Castel Gandolfo, the papal retreat near Rome, Leo, who has condemned the immigration policies of Donald Trump's administration, spoke about his own family history in describing his relationship with the US. Continue reading...
Trump's overall approval rating slumps to 34%, according to new CNN poll, as midterms testing Republican power loomThree-quarters of Americans believe Donald Trump is not paying enough attention to the country's most important problems, and two-thirds think he places himself above the needs of the US, according to a new poll.The CNN survey, conducted by the market research company SSRS, comes less than 100 days before November's midterm elections in which the president's Republican party is widely expected to lose control of one or both chambers of Congress. Continue reading...
A century ago, compounding pharmacies helped people get bespoke drugs. Now under RFK Jr, these less-regulated businesses are fueling the peptide boomRobert F Kennedy Jr is sitting stiffly in Joe Rogan's podcast studio, inside the influencer's enormous Texas mansion. Atypically for Rogan's guests, Kennedy still cloaks himself in the trappings of authority; in a blue suit and pink novelty tie featuring kayakers paddling upstream, he is a stark contrast from Rogan, who sports a biceps-hugging T-shirt depicting a cowboy and an outline of Texas, from the regenerative wellness" brand Ways2Well.This was in February, when Kennedy, amid his nationwide Take Back Your Health tour, was pushing his new red-meat-heavy food pyramid on to Americans. For an hour and a half, the two chatted casually about everything from soda pop to medical scams that supposedly fund Boko Haram. Continue reading...
The conservative columnist Ross Douthat is the network's latest perplexing hire - but the move is in line with the new leadershipIn media circles, this week's hire of a prominent New York Times columnist as a correspondent for CBS's 60 Minutes was greeted with disbelief.The collective response went something like this: What?!" Continue reading...
Live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets as three members of monetary policy committee vote to raise ratesThat German GDP reading has indeed contributed to the wider eurozone hitting expectations - and then some.The eurozone economy grew by 0.4% in the second quarter of 2026, according to the preliminary reading from Eurostat - defying the gloom caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran. Continue reading...
Democrat Kaohly Her, Minnesota's city's first female mayor, allegedly sent inappropriate messages to employeesThe first female mayor of St Paul, Kaohly Her, is reportedly under investigation for sexual harassment following a complaint filed by the Minnesota city's police chief.City leaders have contracted an outside law firm to conduct an independent inquiry into the allegations that Her, a Democrat who was elected in November, sent inappropriate messages to employees, including several members of the police department, the New York Times and NBC News said. Continue reading...
Consumer spending remained resilient even as policymakers kept interest rates on holdThe US economy expanded at a sluggish 1.5% pace from April through June as rising imports weighed on growth. But consumer spending rose. And the Federal Reserve's favored measure of inflation grew more slowly last month, but remained above the central bank's 2% target.The commerce department reported on Thursday that growth in US gross domestic product (GDP) - the nation's output of goods and services - decelerated from 2.1% in the first three months of 2026 and came in below economists' expectations. Continue reading...
Gianni Infantino's plan for a Fifa subsidiary is odious - but it's hard to feel surprisedJust when you thought global soccer couldn't get more odiously capitalistic, Gianni Infantino said: Hold my beer" (as long as that beer you're holding is a Michelob Ultra, one of the official sponsors of the 2026 World Cup).The World Cup, one of the largest and most prestigious sporting competitions on the planet, is for sale. Infantino, the president of the soccer governing body Fifa, is the architect of a plan to sell up to 20% of a new subsidiary that would administer tournaments such as the World Cup and Club World Cup. The subsidiary, which would oversee Fifa's commercial activities, would be called Fifa Forward Enterprises". If I see the word forward" in a corporate initiative, I assume it's either a diversity program that'll get dropped after a couple years, a training video on how to exit a building during an emergency evacuation, or a blatant cash grab. Take a guess which one I think this is. Continue reading...
Spoilt food smelling like dead body' plagues residents after weeklong fire, yet company asks permission to rebuildOne month after a huge fire ravaged a Los Angeles warehouse and doomed neighbors to a persistent, thick stench of rotting food, the facility's owners have filed applications to rebuild.That request to restore the warehouse - which residents called a ticking bomb" after a similar fire at the building in 2024 - was publicly criticized by the Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass, in a post on social media earlier this week. Continue reading...
Federal Reserve votes to hold its key interest rate steady, sending stocks tumbling. Plus: the origins of Coca-Cola may have been foundGood morning. US government borrowing costs have hit their highest level since 2007 after the Federal Reserve voted to hold its key interest rate steady, feeding fears it may not move fast enough to tame a rise in inflation. Kevin Warsh, the central bank's chair, said the Fed would not waver" in its commitment to tackling rising prices.The decision to leave rates on hold has spooked investors, who are worried about the US economy's ability to absorb a rise inflation, triggered by Donald Trump's war in Iran. US inflation cooled to an annual rate of 3.5% in June after Washington and Tehran agreed a brief ceasefire - but this has since ended. US stocks fell sharply on Wednesday, with the blue chip S&P 500 index closing down 1.5%. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 2.2% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq was down 1.7%. Continue reading...
Tensions in the national party are trickling down to US college campuses, where a newer student group is rapidly outflanking longstanding moderate rivalsWhen the Utah county clerk's office announced last month that it was hiring Kai Schwemmer - an undergraduate at Brigham Young University and a rightwing influencer - to help reach younger voters, an uproar ensued.An energetic and fast-talking 23-year-old, Schwemmer is a rising star of campus organizing at the College Republicans of America (CRA). He is also a prolific livestreamer with a record of provocation - which returned to haunt him when more than 80 prominent women in Utah signed a letter protesting against his hiring. Continue reading...
Black voters in south motivated to turn out by Republican push to redraw maps after supreme court rulingA new analysis of Black voters in the south indicates that Republican attempts to dilute their political power is driving them to the polls in larger numbers and shifting their counties further left.After the supreme court effectively gutted section 2 of the Voting Rights Act protections in late April, Republican legislatures across the south rapidly pushed to disenfranchise Black voters by redrawing congressional maps. Louisiana, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama all immediately worked to pass new maps, while the Mississippi governor has said that he wants legislators to redraw maps before the upcoming midterm elections. Continue reading...
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