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Mourn him if you wish, but let's be honest about what he promoted. The longer this thinking lives on, the more peril we will all faceThe sudden death over the weekend of the South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham is predictably inspiring a slew of tributes to the four-term Republican senator. Donald Trump has already ordered flags be flown at half-staff until Saturday, and Republican politicians across the country are fondly recalling Graham. But so too are the Democrats. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois honored Graham, calling him a fierce Republican partisan one day and a key bipartisan ally the next". Senator Adam Schiff of California lauded Graham's sense of humor and how he deployed it to move his policy positions forward".Through this thick, bipartisan forest of remembrances, however, lies Graham's concrete legacy. Death has a way of extinguishing uncomfortable truths, but it's important that we don't forget who Graham was, what he exactly stood for, and what damage he has done over his political career. Continue reading...

Konstantin Sokolov, who gave undisclosed sum and has not held government job before, to chair Tripp+ trade projectKonstantin Sokolov, a Russian-born private equity investor in Chicago, will serve as chairman of a new state department enterprise fund overseeing more than $200m designated for a central Asia trade corridor, including investments in transportation, energy infrastructure and critical minerals, the Guardian has learned. The state department confirmed his appointment on Friday.Sokolov was one of 36 donors, including 21 corporations and 15 individuals and family foundations, who Trump said contributed over $350m to Donald Trump's ballroom project. Continue reading...

US preventive services taskforce's members have not issued binding recommendations since March 2025The health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr's overhaul of an influential federal advisory group has stalled an update that would have highlighted encouraging" new evidence on helping children quit tobacco, according to a recently departed member of the group.The Trump administration has postponed or canceled all meetings of the US preventive services taskforce since March 2025, effectively preventing taskforce members from issuing binding recommendations for more than a year. As a result, 14 topics under consideration have been stalled - including on cervical cancer screening, perinatal depression and autism screening. Continue reading...

Stock markets fall as analysts price in two quarter-point UK rate rises by the end of the year

Change of US position on free navigation comes as two tankers hit by Iranian cruise missiles. Plus, the international outpouring of love for the late actor Sam NeillGood morning. The US has launched its third consecutive night of strikes on Iran, hours after Donald Trump said Washington would reinstate a maritime blockade on the country and charge ships for safe passage. The UAE said two national tankers were targeted by two Iranian cruise missiles in the southern lane of the strait of Hormuz in Omani territorial waters, killing one Indian crew member and wounding eight others, including four seriously.Iran and the US are in theory nearly halfway through the 60-day period of an interim deal that was supposed to set up talks for a permanent end to the war, which began in February with the assassination of Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. In reality, that deal has devolved into a series of attacks over the strait of Hormuz, resulting in the near-total collapse of an interim ceasefire and worrying world leaders that the conflict could fully resume.How has Trump changed his position on tolls? On Monday, Trump said the US would demand a 20% tariff on all cargoes shipped through the strait of Hormuz. Until now, the US had said the strait should remain open to all without tolls - as it was before Washington and Israel attacked Iran on 28 February. Any attempt by the US or Iran - which has also proposed tolls - to charge fees would violate global norms on freedom of navigation and would be likely to cause further economic disruption far beyond the region.What did Nordone say about her appointment? In brief remarks, Nordone, 64, said: Lindsey has always been there for me, and now I will be there for him. I promise to work hard over the next several months to support the president and carry forward the efforts of my brother on behalf of the citizens of South Carolina and the United States. I think this is what Lindsey would have wanted, and I plan to honor him in this way. I miss you more than I can even put into words, but I'm going to do this. I got it." Continue reading...

Federal agents showed up at reporters' homes, targeting journalists for doing exactly what the first amendment protectsTo non-journalists, receiving a government subpoena is a serious thing but probably not a violation of basic rights.To journalists, it's quite a different matter - an attack on a foundational right to gather information in the public interest and to provide confidentiality to sources. Continue reading...

Memoir details upbringing of late senator - who denied existence of systemic racism - in segregated southA little-known autobiography from Lindsey Graham published in 2015 sheds light on his complicated record of acknowledging and addressing racism in South Carolina.Graham, born in 1955, came of age in a small textile town in the segregated south, located in Pickens county, the site of the last documented lynching in South Carolina in 1947. My Story, which came across as political spin to anyone who knew the background of Graham's unlikely rise to political prominence, is a window into the conservative white man's view of the south's enduring racial tensions. Continue reading...

As the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game take over Philadelphia, we take a spin around the majors with an awards watch, an Ohtani update and lots in betweenWith more than half of the MLB season in the books, the baseball world has convened in Philadelphia for the annual All-Star festivities. What better time for owners and players to engage in Brotherly Love and figure out how to avoid the widely predicted 2027 labor strife that could cancel next season? Considering the storm clouds gathering, a near-term resolution seems unlikely, so we'd better soak in the season we're having. How's that going? Glad you asked. Continue reading...

Trump's former personal attorney has a vast slate of conflicts of interest. Will lawmakers do their job in his confirmation hearings?Todd Blanche is the most conflicted nominee for attorney general the US Congress has yet to encounter. As the former private attorney for Donald Trump, Blanche has been an unflappable ally for the president since 2023, when he left his private firm, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, to represent Trump in the hush-money prosecution brought against him by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg. He went on to represent Trump in two other criminal prosecutions - the Mar-a-Lago classified documents prosecution, and the January 6 prosecution, both brought against Trump by the special counsel Jack Smith.As both deputy attorney general and as acting head of the justice department since April, when attorney general Pam Bondi was fired by Donald Trump, Blanche has unabashedly continued his advocacy work for his former client through other means. He has signed off on a settlement between the IRS and Donald Trump regarding the latter's taxes, that would ban the IRS from pursuing litigation against Trump, his family or his businesses forever. That settlement has now been ruled by a federal judge to be self-dealing; she referred the case to the Florida Bar Association. The New York Bar has issued a letter saying that Blanche is unfit for office.Claire Finkelstein is the Algernon Biddle professor of law and professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and the faculty director of its Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law Continue reading...

Government has been forced to pay back duties to companies that imported goods into the US that were hit by Trump's tariffs

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Trump's secretary of state claims the global tribunal is interfering with US military and law enforcement operationsMarco Rubio, the US secretary of state, launched a campaign to dismantle the international criminal court (ICC) on Monday, claiming the global tribunal was interfering with US military and law enforcement operations at the risk of American sovereignty.Rubio invoked images of US border patrol agents and elected leaders being dragged before an international court" and tried by judges from around the world in a lengthy op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal Monday. Continue reading...

Authorities said inquiry into cyclosporiasis outbreak was continuing but early results pointed to salad greens and lettuce

Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah will lose close to a million and a half acres each' and open land to developers and oil industryDonald Trump has approved a sharp reduction in the size of two national monuments in Utah held sacred by many Native Americans, in the latest move to open US public land to corporate developers and the oil and gas industry.The two monuments, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, will see a reduction of close to a million and a half acres each", Trump said during an executive order signing event on Monday, undoing protections established by former presidents. Continue reading...

Good, an unarmed US citizen and mother, was killed by immigration officer and Pretti was shot by CBP officialsPreviously withheld evidence regarding the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti is now in the hands of Minnesota prosecutors, helping the state gain clarity on the deaths that occurred earlier this year during protests against a federal immigration crackdown.Through the cooperation of our federal partners, we have obtained hard drives of previously withheld evidence in the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis," the Hennepin county attorney, Mary Moriarty, said in a video statement posted on social media. Continue reading...

Idaho to have ballot measure for reproductive freedom law that would reverse ban on abortions at all pregnancy stagesOne of the strictest abortion bans in the country will be on the ballot this November after Idaho's secretary of state certified a ballot measure on Monday that would reverse the state's abortion ban that prohibits the procedure at all stages of pregnancy.The ballot initiative was headed by a volunteer-run group called Idahoans United for Women & Families, which ran a petition drive to get the measure in front of voters this fall. They gathered more than 100,000 signatures, surpassing the required 70,725 to get on the ballot. Continue reading...

Killing of man - identified by rights groups as 26-year-old Colombian - comes days after man killed by ICE in Texas

American president says ships will be charged for safe passage through strait in apparent policy reversal

South Carolina governor asks Darline Graham Nordone to replace senator who died on Saturday, after Trump recommendation

Thanks to pollution, overpopulation and the climate crisis, Earth is facing a terrifying new crisis: an irreversible 'water bankruptcy'. Now, fights over water have ramped up across the world, including in the US west. Host Carter Sherman speaks with Guardian extreme weather correspondent Gabrielle Canon about the battle over the future of the Colorado River Basin, whose water sustains some 40 million people across seven states - but is now drying up. Gabrielle recently rafted down the basin's last 'wild' river, the Yampa. Damming or diverting the Yampa could bring the west some much-needed hydration. It may also devastate the vast natural ecosystem that relies on the river's free-flowing waters. Also: Carter and Kai Wright react to the death of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham

Carl McDaniel was respectful distance' from animal when it charged and has severe injuries, including broken bonesA tourist who was tossed 8ft in the air by a bison at Wyoming's Yellowstone national park - an encounter viewed by more than a million social media users thanks to a viral video online - has been identified as a community-minded" grandfather from Washington state.Carl McDaniel had severe injuries including broken bones after Friday's campsite encounter with the bison, which was posted to YouTube by the Wyoming news outlet Cowboy State Daily. A photographer named Mike MacLeod rushed to help the victim on the ground after making the recording. Continue reading...

Lawmakers face obstacles, including demands from Trump, Mitch McConnell's absence and senator's sudden deathRepublican lawmakers return to the Capitol this week facing a lengthy to-do list and Donald Trump's demands for new voting restrictions, as Democrats jockey for an advantage ahead of the November midterm elections.Lawmakers from both parties are eager to highlight before voters legislative victories ahead of the midterms, when control of Congress is at stake. But for Senate Republicans, who are already navigating an array of demands from Trump, their agenda grew further complicated over the weekend with the death of Lindsey Graham, the budget committee chair who was a key player in negotiating a party-line bill to fund additional defense spending and other priorities outlined by the president. Continue reading...

Kathleen Williams sanctions president's lawyers and says $10bn suit against IRS was brought for improper purpose'A federal judge on Monday nullified an agreement the government reached with Donald Trump and his sons over the leak of his tax returns. The judge lambasted the government and president's lawyers for using the judicial process to try to concoct a beneficial arrangement for the president.The ruling from US district judge Kathleen Williams in the southern district of Florida blocks a widely criticized arrangement the government and the president's attorneys reached earlier this year to resolve a $10bn lawsuit by Trump and his sons over the leak of the president's tax returns. The government never responded to the lawsuit and then announced it was settling the suit by creating a $1.8bn slush fund to compensate victims of government weaponization" and giving the president, his family, and related entities immunity from tax audits. Continue reading...

US defense secretary says taskforce will combat dangers' of leaks in latest escalation of White House press crackdownThe US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, announced on Monday that the Pentagon and the US Department of Justice have created a joint taskforce to identify and prosecute" what he called the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive" information to the press, marking the latest escalation in the Trump administration's effort to crackdown on leaks.In a video posted on X, Hegseth said that to combat the dangers that leaks pose, effectively immediately, I have delegated tasking authority to the war department's office of general counsel, empowering OGC to request and receive all information, records and support across the department concerning media leak investigations". Continue reading...

Shawn Fain calls allegations bogus' and says attorney holds a grudge' against him over union's anti-war stance' on GazaThe US Department of Justice is investigating allegations against the United Auto Workers (UAW) president, Shawn Fain, that he put pressure on another high-ranking union official to provide benefits to his fiancee and sister and then retaliated against the official who refused to approve it.On Sunday, Fain, who is running for his second term as union president, said the accusations are false and a part of election interference against him. Continue reading...

Brent crude rises 5% after US president says 20% toll will be imposed on key trade route to cover safety and security'

Elizabeth Warren asked Jamie Dimon if he took advice from child sex offender while lobbying against UK tax on bankers' bonusesA leading Democratic senator has written to the JP Morgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon to request clarification on the bank's contact with the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the senate banking committee, wrote to the Wall Street grandee last week to ask if he took advice from Epstein while lobbying against a UK tax on banker bonuses, in a letter published by the US senate's banking, housing and urban affairs committee. Continue reading...

Suspects, aged 15 and 16, taken into custody but not formally charged in targeted mass shooting' in East St LouisTwo teenagers were arrested on Sunday in connection with a targeted mass shooting" that killed five members of the same family and wounded two others in East St Louis, Illinois, according to state police.The 15- and 16-year-old suspects were taken into custody at Holten state park, a recreation area east of the city, the Illinois state police director, Brendan Kelly, said at a Sunday news conference - but they had not immediately been formally charged with a crime. Continue reading...

Shortages triggered by pipeline rupture drive up costs and deepen frustrations, as pressure grows on water utilityJonathan Collazo owns two restaurants in a bustling section of San Juan, which has been plagued by water outages, severely disrupting the daily lives of residents and businesses alike.The water scarcity is part of an escalating frustration felt by thousands of customers of Puerto Rico's water utility over the past several months, prompting the governor to activate the national guard to distribute drinking water across the US territory. The shortages extend beyond San Juan, with sectors in municipalities including Loiza, Guaynabo, Bayamon and others experiencing interrupted service. Continue reading...

Body of pilot involved in tackling Gold Mountain fire recovered by divers from Silver Jack reservoirA pilot who was helping to fight a wildfire in Colorado has died after the aviator's aircraft crashed into a reservoir, local authorities said.The Gunnison county sheriff's office said in a statement that it was notified of the deadly crash at about 5.17pm local time on Sunday. Gunnison's regional communications center received a call reporting that the aircraft involved in the crash went down in the Silver Jack reservoir located in the county's south-western portion. Continue reading...

As US water wars rage, a tributary of the Colorado River faces unprecedented pressure. Visitors worry how long this aquatic relict' will lastOn an early morning in mid-May, a group of near strangers shoved camping gear and clothes into waterproof bags, slathered on sunscreen, and ambled into the bright-yellow rafts that would carry them down one of the last free-flowing rivers in the American west.Unhindered by large dams or diversions, the Yampa curves across 250 miles (400km) of alpine tundras, cottonwood forests and ancient red-rock canyons, rising from Colorado's Rocky mountains to where it joins with the Green River in Utah, much in the way it has for millions of years. Continue reading...

Proposed legal settlement over 2022 oil spill would resolve allegations that South Bow violated clean water lawsA proposed legal settlement with the US government would require the Keystone pipeline system's operator to pay a $26.9m civil penalty over a large oil spill in Kansas in December 2022 and spend about $40m more to prevent future accidents.The agreement would resolve allegations from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Kansas that South Bow, based in Canada, violated US and state clean water laws. The rupture dumped nearly 13,000 barrels of heavy crude oil into a creek running through a rural pasture in Washington county, Kansas, about 150 miles (241km) north-west of Kansas City. Continue reading...

Public health advocates warn of conflicts of interests and say panel likely to provide justification for key rollbacksThe Trump administration has stacked a top chemical safety board with industry-aligned scientists who have a range of financial conflicts of interest and stand to profit from deregulation, public health advocates say.The Environmental Protection Agency's science advisory committee on chemicals (SACC) is slated to review research for dozens of toxic chemicals during the new members' terms. At least 13 proposed Trump appointees are probably conflicted on the chemicals that will be reviewed, comments filed with the EPA by a coalition of public health advocacy groups alleges. Continue reading...

US political leaders must be more clear-eyed about our global alliances, without embracing his scorched-earth approachDonald Trump memorably took out a full-page advertisement in multiple newspapers in 1987 charging that America was carrying too much weight for its allies. In his first term he repeated this charge, threatening to withdraw from Nato and berating US allies around the world in the process. Last week's gathering of Nato's heads of government in Turkey suggests his approach is running out of steam as the world adjusts and the president bumps up against the limits of American unilateral power in Iran.Trump's domestic political opponents should breathe a sigh of relief but not rush headlong into an uncritical embrace of US alliances. For all his counterproductive bluster, Trump recognized something real. If his opponents in the Democratic and Republican parties are not more clear-eyed about what alliances cost Americans - as Biden failed to be with Israel - they will fuel the fires that brought Trump to power in the first place.Christopher S Chivvis is a senior fellow and director of the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Continue reading...

Tehran says latest US attacks have rendered futile' the diplomatic efforts of the last few months. Plus, hit song in Australia prompts speculation about AI use

As people yearn for connection, these events are popping up around the world - and spreading collective effervescence'We met in a former synagogue, a vast room with hardwood floors where the sound could echo freely. All were strangers, many former choir nerds, united by a love for group singing. Our goal was to learn and perform, in a single day, a classic of our time: a song from the Hannah Montana movie.The event, near downtown Los Angeles, was a one-day choir hosted by the Gaia Music Collective - a three-hour gathering where more than 100 people rehearsed a choral arrangement of the song and sang it three times, with ourselves as the only audience. Continue reading...

Senator played major role in critical negotiations with Democrats and members of his own party on key issuesWhen Democrats and Republicans were earlier this year locked in a standoff that had plunged the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) into the longest partial government shutdown in US history, news of a path forward emerged in the form of a statement from Republican senator Lindsey Graham.By announcing that the budget committee he chairs would set to work on a measure to fund the agencies leading Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign for the remainder of his presidency, Graham played a major role in rallying the GOP behind a plan that reopened DHS. Continue reading...

Many imagined his buff, gruff and tattooed traits would help him connect with working-class men. But this logic was flawedThe left would do well to revisit New York's Democratic primaries two weeks ago - it was a sunnier news cycle, yes, but those races were also an object lesson in progressive realpolitik.Zohran Mamdani, busy as he already was, devoted a remarkable amount of time, resources, and political capital to selecting and backing the eventual victors in three different races - in one case reversing a promise to support an incumbent, Adriano Espaillat, in favor of activist Darializa Avila Chevalier, and in another case supporting Claire Valdez, a relatively unknown assemblywoman, even as the Working Families party, major unions and other progressives backed the Brooklyn borough president, Antonio Reynoso. Continue reading...

The twisting road to the candidate's exit left a lot to be desired. But ultimately, reporters ferreted out the truthAfter the New York Times published an article in early June about the Senate candidate Graham Platner's treatment of the women he dated, the story's main source reacted with disappointment and anger.It was a gift to the Platner campaign", charged Lyndsey Fifield, who had dated the Democratic combat veteran years ago and who spoke candidly to the Times about that experience. Continue reading...

Joan Rivet drank water she managed to splash up to her face by turning faucet on with her footAn 82-year-old North Carolina woman says she survived falling in her bathtub and being trapped there for nine days by turning the faucet on with her foot and drinking water that she managed to splash up to her face - all while drifting in and out of consciousness.Joan Rivet recently shared her remarkable survival story with North Carolina's The Mountaineer newspaper, providing an extreme example of the kinds of emergencies that can face the millions of older Americans who fall by accident annually, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates. Continue reading...

Republican senator, who died Saturday, had a global reach few could rival and was vital in shaping Trump's worldviewIt was revealing that one of the first tributes to Lindsey Graham, a US senator who died on Saturday aged 71, came from Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's national security minister, a far-right provocateur who recently caused widespread anger by sharing footage of himself taunting bound activists who had been trying to sail to Gaza with aid.Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, was not far behind, calling Graham a great friend of Israel and a cherished friend of mine", and he was quickly followed by Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who described him as a true defender of freedom and the values that make our world safer". Continue reading...

Senator says in statement he has undergone battery of tests after weeks of mounting speculation about his healthThe US senator Mitch McConnell on Sunday revealed for the first time that a fall led to his hospitalization, breaking the silence about the Kentucky Republican's condition after weeks of mounting speculation about his health.McConnell, 84, said in a statement that he has undergone a battery of tests as doctors try to determine what led to his fall. He explained the long silence about his condition by saying that folks of my generation often hesitate to share the vulnerability that comes with growing older". Continue reading...

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

Fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Texas builder, renews outcry against Trump's immigration crackdownThe builder got up every morning long before dawn, left home to pick up his construction crew and then headed out to work on yet another house somewhere across the sprawl of Houston.Fourteen hours later, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo would return to the wife he'd met as a teenager in Mexico and the modest house he'd built for his family on the city's east side. Continue reading...

Israeli ambassador to US accuses Ro Khanna of political stunt to distract from support for Graham PlatnerRo Khanna accused the Israeli government and military of lying" on Sunday about the US congressman's detention by armed settlers and Israeli soldiers during a recent visit to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.Khanna - a California Democrat - had posted video evidence on social media of Israeli settlers and soldiers blocking the path of his convoy on Wednesday in the South Hebron hills, near the village of Zanuta, where Israelis have driven Palestinians from their homes in what Amnesty International calls a government-backed ethnic cleansing campaign". Continue reading...

South Carolina senator illustrated the changing face of the Republican party, from being an anti-Trump voice to a supporter of his war with Iran