US news | The Guardian

Humans have always been willing to slaughter each other in the name of our beliefs. But history has also shown that a peaceful world order can prevailHaving written 10 histories of war, I'd become inured to the idea that war is probably inevitable and violence intrinsic to human nature. I no longer believe that. Spending six years writing 260,000 words on the history of the human mind has compelled me to contemplate the possibility of a new path for humankind free of the terror that drives violent nationalism, religious intolerance and ideological madness.And it has changed me from being a minstrel of doom into a steely eyed optimist. Continue reading...

The banning of X in Brazil and the arrest of Telegram boss Pavel Durov won't stop their liesIt was a breaking news alert to lift the spirits and make the heartsing. A tech billionaire arrestedas he stepped off his privatejet and detained by the French authorities. Happy days!Because while the UK police have been charging individuals who incited violence online during this summer's riots, the man who helped to fuel its flames - Elon Musk - has simply tweeted his way through it. Continue reading...

These successors to Stalin, Hitler and Mao are the ones making history in an unhappy, warring worldThe 19th-century idea that great men - exceptionally talented, courageous, charismatic individuals - direct and change the course of history by the sheer force of their genius and personality is hard to shake. It has persisted despite the rise of egalitarian and Marxist social theory and the advent in the 1960s of EP Thompson's levelling up school of history from below".The Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle viewed figures such as Aristotle, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Martin Luther and the prophet Muhammad as standout heroes of their time who fundamentally, permanently changed the world around them. The mass of mankind, he believed, could merely watch, marvel, admire and tamely follow these top-down makers and shakers of universal history".Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

In real life, the address that is the spies' fictional home reflects the author's original grimy, multilayered vision of the cityThere is no blue plaque on the wall of 126Aldersgate, a narrow four-storey terrace above a fast-food grill, near London's Barbican, but it can't be too long before the building acquires some of the tourist cachet of 221BBaker Street.The upper-floor offices are the fictional home to the rejected spies of Mick Herron's Slow Horses books, led by the sulphurous Jackson Lamb. They are also the star turn - alongside Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas - in the unmissable AppleTV+ dramatisation, which returns for a fourth series this week. One of the many joys of the drama is that it offers a vision of London that rarely makes it on to screen - that everyday layering of centuries of history and grime and struggle that seeps through the pores of the present. Herron describes the familiar medley" of those resolutely ungentrified streets perfectly, the weathered and the new; the social housing estate, and the eye hospital... [and] the complicated facade of an office block straight from an SF comic". The filming is a love letter to all that seedy poetry: The gauzy reflections in puddles that... after-hours made fast-food outlets and minicab offices brief flashes of wonder." Continue reading...

Jason Billingsley pleaded guilty on Friday to the apparent random attack last year that shocked the cityA man pleaded guilty to first-degree murder on Friday in the killing of Baltimore tech entrepreneur Pava LaPere last September in an apparently random attack that shocked the city.Jason Billingsley, 33, entered the guilty plea instead of going to trial on Friday morning. He also pleaded guilty on Monday to two counts of attempted murder in a separate arson and home invasion case that took place just days before LaPere was found dead on the rooftop of her downtown Baltimore apartment building. Continue reading...

After the fall of the Taliban, more than 21,000 Afghan evacuees submitted asylum applications; 3,100 were able to extend their temporary protected status through May 2025Almost three years after Esmatullah Sultani rushed to Kabul's international airport, at the time besieged by Taliban forces who were seizing control of Afghanistan, the 24-year-old man walked into a busy neighborhood market near Sacramento, California.Sultani greeted many of the stallholders, fellow Afghans, and ordered kebabs for lunch in Dari, a language spoken by more than 35 million people in Afghanistan. Continue reading...

Trump's running mate rants against feminism, immigrants and Ilhan Omar in a newly unearthed podcast from 2021Donald Trump's running mate, JD Vance, said that professional women choose a path to misery" when they prioritize careers over having children in a September 2021 podcast interview in which he also claimed men in America were suppressed" in their masculinity.The Ohio senator and vice-presidential candidate said of women like his classmates at Yale Law School that pursuing racial or gender equity is like the value system that gives their life meaning ... [but] they all find that that value system leads to misery". Continue reading...

Extreme giddiness, sudden bliss, unexplained friskiness: was this a new strain of Covid?An adult crush is such an elusive creature, like a snow leopard or a rare bird that you know exists but never see. I'm not talking about a celebrity or a musician crush, or in the case of my friend's 24-year-old daughter, I get crushes all the time, Shanti, on TikTok."On TikTok?!" Good grief. Continue reading...

While some readers found humour in last weekend's mix-up on the puzzles page, we understand the genuine disappointment many of you feltFor so many, crosswords and other teasers are what the weekend is for. Regular readers will know that the Guardian's puzzle pages come with an added challenge on bank holiday weekends: a cryptic crossword in more fiendish form either by size or complexity or both.Last Saturday's jumbo", by setter Maskarade, was no exception, featuring 15 unnumbered clues that were composite anagrams of two associated creative themes". With a host of other puzzles on offer, from Codeword to Maslanka, this might be considered brainwork enough.Elisabeth Ribbans is the Guardian and Observer's global readers' editor guardian.readers@theguardian.comDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

I want a truly intimate relationship, but in the world of dating apps, all I found were sordid, vacuous encountersPost-breakup, following a decade-long relationship, I awoke to find myself thrust violently back into the dating pool. It was a new, unfamiliar landscape where nothing was left to the imagination. Sex was assumed to be on the cards, and a new performative intimacy inevitable. Having relied in the past on chance encounters, an air of wondering, a feeling that fate (as opposed to an algorithm) had maybe put you and whomever else in one another's paths, this new world where no one chats you up" or flirts with you felt alienating.I was forced towards dating apps: a vast pool of geographically convenient false advertisers who mostly don't want relationships, let alone any connection. It's been roughly three years since my breakup and I am already fatigued. I am 43, a single mother of two, with a very demanding career and limited time without the kids. In fact, my sacred free time is so limited that the thought of dating strangers who may ruin it fills me with resentment and rage. Imagine devoting your one night off to someone dull, vacuous and - worse - flippant about that luxury?Paloma Faith is a singer, songwriter and actress, and the author of MILF: Motherhood, Identity, Love and F*ckeryDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Republican candidate tells conservative group his daughter should have been UN ambassador and the most brilliant leaders' come from Scotland like his motherDonald Trump has claimed that when he was president he wanted to appoint his daughter, Ivanka, as America's ambassador to the UN but she opted to instead to work on job creation and hired millions of people".The Republican nominee for president in 2024 made the bizarre comments during a fireside chat" on Friday night in Washington at the annual gathering of Moms for Liberty, a national nonprofit that has led efforts to get mentions of LGBTQ identity and structural racism out of classrooms. Continue reading...

Sergio Ferrer, 36, charged over death of 57-year-old Paul Peavey, whose 10 doberman puppies have not been foundAuthorities investigating the murder of a Colorado dog breeder believed searching for his 10 doberman puppies might lead them to the perpetrator. But on Friday, officials said, they had charged a suspect and are now hoping this development will also help them locate the missing dogs, which are still unaccounted for.Paul Peavey, a 57-year-old resident of Idaho Springs, Colorado, was found shot to death on 24 August - days after he had been reported missing by friends and family - by a search party combing through his sprawling 110-acre property. Continue reading...

Australia has four men in the US Open third round for the first time since 1997 as the one-time tennis powerhouse rises againOver the past couple of years, as he has ploughed an often lonely furrow for Australia at grand slam events, Alex de Minaur has been at pains to state that things would come good, sooner rather than later. Numbers, it's all about numbers, he suggested, referring to the increasing presence of Australians in the men's top 100.It has been a long time coming, but if this year's US Open is anything to go by, then the pyramid effect - the more players you have, the more likely some of them will push higher - looks like it is working. Continue reading...

Neighbor, 62, held after disappearance of Stephanie and Daniel Menard, 73 and 79, from resort in RedlandsA couple living in a southern California nudist community who were reported missing earlier this week are presumed dead, police said on Friday, and a next-door neighbor had been arrested.On Friday, police used a tank-like vehicle with a battering ram to smash into a home where they believed the bodies of Stephanie Menard, 73, and her husband, Daniel, 79, would be be found, said Carl Baker, spokesperson for the Redlands police department. Continue reading...

Ex-president hits back at Pennsylvania rally after US army rebuked him for turning Arlington ceremony into photo opDonald Trump has denied exploiting a controversial visit to soldiers' graves at Arlington national cemetery for political ends by saying he does not need the publicity.The US army publicly rebuked Trump campaign officials for turning a ceremony on Monday to mark the deaths of American soldiers in Afghanistan into a photo opportunity for the Republican presidential candidate. The army accused two campaign workers of pushing aside an official at the cemetery who told them that it was not permitted to take photographs at the graves of recently deceased soldiers. Continue reading...

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The defending champion, Coco Gauff, and Zheng Qinwen advanced to the fourth round while Frances Tiafoe beat Ben Shelton in an all-American tieRuse 3-2 Badosa* (*denotes server) We get to 40-15 and Badosa is clearly struggling. At this point, she has served 18 points and only won five of them. My limited Spanish comes in handy here. Her coach tells her to concentrate on making her first serve before a Vamos'. She finally finds the first serve to bail herself out of trouble and makes it 40-40 before saving three break points.*Ruse 3-1 Badosa (*denotes server) Ruse's second-serve is too short with very little spin or slice on it and Badosa pounces on it immediately. It is an obvious weakness in the Romanian's game. But she manages to get to 40-15 after the Spaniard hits several forehand shots well out and she sees out the game. Continue reading...

Amherst College and Tufts University report lower number of Black students this year as white enrollment increasesEnrollment for Black students fell at two elite US colleges in the first class since the supreme court's decision last year to strike down affirmative action in college admissions and upend the nation's academic landscape.Amherst College and Tufts University, both in Massachusetts, reported a drop in the share of Black first-year students, an early sign that the high court's ruling could negatively affect racial diversity in the US's more selective colleges and universities, according to the New York Times. Continue reading...

Politicians and veterans say episode was on par with ex-president's history of disrespecting service in armed forcesDemocrats are trying to turn Donald Trump's clash with staff at Arlington National Cemetery, the hallowed final resting place of America's war dead, into a broader election issue by highlighting it as an example of his history of disrespecting military veterans.Congressional Democrats with military records and liberal-leaning veterans groups say the episode is consistent with past instances of the Republican presidential nominee flagrantly denigrating service in the armed forces. Continue reading...

How the action unfolded on day two as ParalympicsGB won four gold medals, three silver and two bronzeToday sees four wheelchair rugby matches. First up today was a drum-tight group-stage affair between Great Britain and Denmark. Following Britain's 58-55 victory over Australia on day one, it was nip and tuck all the way at Champ-de-Mars Arena.Britain held a one-point advantage at the end of the first three of four periods - 14-13, 28-27 and 41-40 respectively. Jamie Stead gave his side breathing space with 25 seconds remaining, stretching the lead to three points before Kaare Momme Nielsen scored at the last to make it a final score of 55-53. Continue reading...

Ex-president rails against wind power and laments decreased bacon consumption at Wisconsin rally speechDonald Trump revived questions about his mental acuity after appearing to say that wind energy was to blame for the increased price and decreased consumption of bacon.The former president's bizarre remarks came at a town hall-style campaign gathering in Wisconsin on Thursday, when an audience member asked the Republican nominee for November's White House election what he would do to help bring inflation down. Continue reading...

The United States swept the men's and women's flag football world titles ahead of the sport's addition to the Olympic program for the 2028 Games in Los AngelesDarrell Housh" Doucette had an army of internet trolls ready to ram his own words down his throat after he publicly declared that he and the rest of the men's USA national flag football team were betting on themselves to retain their roster spots even if challenged by NFL stars who want to join the squad for their sport's debut as an Olympic event in 2028.Those trolls are going to have to keep waiting after Doucette fired six touchdown passes to four different receivers to lead the US to a 53-21 victory over Austria to claim an unprecedented fifth consecutive flag football world championship. Continue reading...

Recently formed Tennessee Drivers Union to take action at city airport as wave of Labor Day tourists is expectedHundreds of ride-share drivers for Uber and Lyft in Nashville, Tennessee, have voted to begin a strike on Friday 30 August at Nashville international airport, warning of ruined vacations" as the city prepares for a wave of tourists celebrating the Labor Day holiday weekend.The recently formed Tennessee Drivers Union is taking action to raise awareness of their demands for improvements to their pay and working conditions. Continue reading...

LeBron James and Chris Christie were among those to pay tribute to Columbus Blue Jackets forward Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew Gaudreau, who died Thursday

Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss want ex-lawyer to turn over properties and Benz over owed defamation case paymentTwo Georgia election workers asked a federal judge on Friday to give them control over Rudy Giuliani's assets as they sought to enforce a $148m defamation judgment the former New York City mayor owes them.According to a court filing on Friday, lawyers for Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss want a court to give them control over Giuliani's New York City apartment, estimated to be worth more than $5m, as well as his condominium in Palm Beach. They also want him to turn over personal property, including a 1980 Mercedes-Benz SL500, jewelry, luxury watches and sports memorabilia, including Yankees World Series rings and jerseys signed by Joe DiMaggio and Reggie Jackson. Continue reading...

The far-right AfD may win a state election for the first time this weekend. That should set alarm bells ringing in Berlin and beyondIn 2021, as Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic party (SPD) unexpectedly triumphed in a knife-edge federal election, one of its most stellar results was achieved in the east German state of Brandenburg. Ina regional contest anticipated to be a battle between the centre-right and the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD), a promise to raise the minimum wage helped the SPD win a direct mandate in everyconstituency.That seems much longer than three years ago. On Sunday, two high-stakes regional polls will take place in Germany's east, one in Saxony and the other in Thuringia. Then, on 22 September, it will be Brandenburg's turn. In each contest, the AfD has a good chance of winning, a feat it has never managed before in a state election. On issues such as migration, the politics of both the Thuringia and the Saxony branches of the AfD have been singled out as particularly extreme and anti-constitutional by German intelligence services.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

The Harris-Walz ticket has transformed the presidential race. But on the ground it's clear: Trump could still winOn 5 November, people around the globe will tune in to watch the world election. It's not a world" election in the sense of the World Cup - a football championship in which many nations actively participate - but it's much more than a World Series, the curiously named baseball championship that involves only teams from North America. This year has been called the biggest election year in history. By the end of it, something approaching half the world's adult population will have had the possibility to put a cross against a name on a ballot paper. But the US presidential election is the year's big match.Why? Because this is a genuine democratic election that will result in a single person holding exceptionally concentrated executive power in what is still the world's most powerful country. It's a highly watchable soap opera, with a classic plot familiar to all. And one of this year's two contenders, Donald Trump, is a danger to his own country and the world. If the election" of the president of China, the world's other superpower, were a genuine democratic choice, that event would perhaps be as consequential. But it isn't, so it isn't. Russia had a presidential election" earlier this year, but at issue was only the size of Vladimir Putin's declared majority.Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political writer and Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Ex-president sits with ex-Democrat Tulsi Gabbard at town hall in Wisconsin to discuss reproductive rightsAt a town hall event in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on Thursday night, Donald Trump and the former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, now a Trump campaign surrogate, attempted to pitch themselves to the crowd as supporters of reproductive rights.Gabbard, who moderated the event after endorsing the former president earlier this week, opened the town hall with emotional remarks about her experience with in vitro fertilization. The comments came shortly after Trump said in an NBC interview that he would make the government or insurance companies pay for IVF if he is elected, although it is unclear how he would accomplish that or if he is serious about the proposal given the pivotal role he played in overturning Roe v Wade. Continue reading...

Wisconsin city - already home to world's tallest wooden building - announces proposal for tower with 55 floorsThe city of Milwaukee in Wisconsin is currently home to the tallest timber building in the world, but this summer the city announced a new proposal to build an even taller one.Designed by the Vancouver-based architecture firm, Michael Green Architecture, the tower, once completed, would become the tallest mass timber structure in the world with 55 floors -about 30 floors taller than the current tallest timber building in the world, also in Wisconsin, known as the Ascent. Continue reading...

Harris was competent, personable and forceful - but didn't have much to say about abortion or GazaHow much of an incentive does Kamala Harris really have to lay out a thorough policy agenda? With fewer than 70 days until the general election, the newly official Democratic presidential nominee has exited her party's Chicago convention riding a a wave of tight but improving poll numbers and tremendous party goodwill.Her move to the top of the ticket has prompted waves of enthusiasm and barely concealed relief, as young voters and weary Democrats greeted the happy prospect of an election campaign that was, at last, not between Biden and Trump. The shift of candidates initiated a new shift in the campaign's voice, with a more playful, irreverent and optimistic turn coming to characterize the Democrats' public messaging. When the vibes are this good, few people ask about specifics.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Live coverage of business, economics and financial markets as Jacqui Smith says four-day compressed hours could help people workThe eurozone inflation fall means September's rate cut is a go" for the European Central Bank (ECB), according to Melanie Debono, senior Europe economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, a consultancy.For the ECB these data are broadly in line with the June expectations for the third quarter on the headline, but core inflation is looking somewhat stronger than the central bank expected. Still we think a rate cut by the ECB in two weeks' time is a decent bet.Eurozone inflation is now just a touch above target, making it difficult for the bank to justify its current extremely restrictive monetary stance. Interest rates were raised to their current level when inflation was over 5% last year and wage growth figures are rolling over.Services is expected to have the highest annual rate in August (4.2%, compared with 4.0% in July), followed by food, alcohol & tobacco (2.4%, compared with 2.3% in July), non-energy industrial goods (0.4%, compared with 0.7% in July) and energy (-3.0%, compared with 1.2% in July).Eurozone inflation slowed to 2.2% in August from 2.6% in July, driven by energy price declines. This marked the slowest rate of price growth for more than three years and makes a rate cut at the European Central Bank's upcoming September policy meeting more likely.However, the higher rate of core inflation and continually tight labour market will present risk factors to implementing looser monetary policy. Continue reading...

Delano has long recorded some of the highest gun violence rates in the state. Mercedies Escalante is trying to change that

Reduction of about a fifth of workforce in two subdivisions part of plan to slash up to $3bn in costs by end of 2025Shell is to cut hundreds of jobs from its oil and gas exploration operation in the latest move by the chief executive, Wael Sawan, to slash up to $3bn (2.3bn) in costs by the end of next year.The energy company is to cut about a fifth of its workforce in two subdivisions of its oil and gas business responsible for exploration strategy and developing its oil and gas finds. Continue reading...

Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, Alabama and Ohio want to scare off voters of color and naturalized citizens, activists sayEarlier this week, Texas governor Greg Abbott sent out a press release with an eye-popping headline: his state had removed more than 1 million people from its voter rolls since 2021. Among them were 6,500 non-citizens. A little under a third of those non-citizens had some sort of voting history in Texas, where there were nearly 18 million registered voters as of March, and were referred to the attorney general for further investigation.Two days later, the governor's office quietly revised the statement posted online. Instead of saying 6,500 non-citizens had been removed, the updated version said 6,500 potential non-citizens had been removed. Renae Eze, an Abbott spokesperson, said that the statement sent out to an email list of reporters on Monday contained the phrasing potential non-citizens". She did not respond to a query on why the version that was publicly posted initially omitted the word potential". Continue reading...

During a town hall campaign event in Wisconsin, Donald Trump told the ex-Democrat and campaign surrogate Tulsi Gabbard that the government or insurance companies would pay for in vitro fertilisation treatment for Americans if he was elected. 'We want to produce babies,' he told Gabbard, who shared her personal story about fertility treatments. The former president did not elaborate on how he would fund the measure, and it was unclear how he would accomplish it or if he was serious about the proposal, given the pivotal role he played in overturning Roe v Wade. In response to a question on job insecurity, Trump also made the false claim that illegal immigrants were taking 'about 107%' of jobs

Bestselling author, a trained psychologist, describes debilitating effects of being related to the former presidentIn a new memoir, Mary L Trump, niece of Donald Trump, writes of being pushed to despair, and ketamine therapy, by her uncle's victory in the 2016 presidential election, his chaotic, far-right administration, and his refusal to leave national politics despite his defeat by Joe Biden in 2020.I'm here because five years ago, I lost control of my life," Mary Trump writes, describing ketamine treatment undertaken in December 2021. I'm here because the world has fallen away and I don't know how to find my way back. Continue reading...

The president's refusal to appoint a new PM from the left displays breathtaking arrogance - and undermines our democracyAfter the electoral turbulence of June and July, few in France imagined that we would be heading into September without a new prime minister appointed to reflect the results of last month's parliamentary elections.When Emmanuel Macron unexpectedly called snap elections in June, the prevailing wisdom was that the far right would win. Many of us even suspected that Macron favoured such an outcome so that Marine Le Pen would be tainted by her party's exercise of power and therefore less likely to win the presidency in 2027. Whether that was his plan or not, calling the vote was a dangerous gamble that took an unexpected turn, putting an ad hoc leftwing coalition in first place with the largest number of votes, but without the numbers to build a working majority in parliament.Rokhaya Diallo is a Guardian Europe columnist Continue reading...

He may be the richest man in the world - but that doesn't mean we're powerless to stop himElon Musk is rapidly transforming his enormous wealth - he's the richest person in the world - into a huge source of unaccountable political power that's now backing Trump and other authoritarians around the world.Musk owns X, formerly known as Twitter. He publicly endorsed Donald Trump last month. Before that, Musk helped form a pro-Trump super political action committee. Meanwhile, the former US president has revived his presence on the X platform. Continue reading...

Trump's staffers filmed political footage at war graves - and allegedly shoved an army employee who tried to stop themThe tranquil majesty of Arlington national cemetery tends to bring forth civic virtues in Americans and eloquence in their leaders. Speaking there in 1985 above the graves of the fallen, Ronald Reagan observed that while we may imagine the deceased as old men, most were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives - the one they were living and the one they would have lived ... they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers ... They gave up everything for our country, for us. And all we can do is remember."Nowhere in that vast cemetery is Reagan's point driven home as poignantly as in section 60, which embraces those men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice at painfully young ages since 9/11. Here the dates on the simple headstones are within memory, the grief of loved ones is raw and visitors may witness acts of tenderness in response.Kevin Carroll served as a senior counselor to US secretary of homeland security John Kelly, and as a CIA and US Army officer Continue reading...

Carlos Alcaraz says he lost focus during his shock defeat by Botic van de Zandschulp, the world No 74, in the second round of the US Open on Thursday. Alcaraz admits he expectedvan de Zandschulp to give him more free points. The No 3 seed had his 15-match grand slam streak broken by the Dutchman. 'He played great ... I couldn't increase my level,' Alcaraz said.

Eagles coach Scott Lawrence has picked college talent - and crossovers from football and wrestling - in his squad to face Canada and Japan in new eventThe Pacific Nations Cup, in which the US men kick-off against Canada in Los Angeles on Saturday, is designed to improve playing standards among tier-two rugby nations. Next year's PNC will decide qualification for the 2027 World Cup in Australia but this year the US coach, Scott Lawrence, is also planning still further ahead, for 2031 and the first Rugby World Cup on US soil.The way to build the 2031 World Cup team is to begin exposure now," Lawrence says, from the Olympic training centre in Chula Vista, California, where the women who won sevens bronze in Paris, Ilona Maher and all, made their own preparations. Continue reading...

Center who lit up Olympics cites threats to abortion rights and contraception in backing Democrat over Donald TrumpThe Democratic nominee for US president, Kamala Harris, picked up an endorsement from a key social media influencer: the Olympic rugby star Ilona Maher.I think it's going to be cool because there is an opportunity to have female representation and to change this country in a way that I think will benefit us," Maher told Sports Illustrated, in an interview accompanying a swimwear shoot which saw the 28-year-old center praised as a feminist trailblazer". Continue reading...

The rich world often waits too long to intervene. There's no doubt we have ways to keep everyone safe, if we have the will

In today's newsletter: Questions about policy shifts, Trump's attacks, and whether Joe Biden is up to the job Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning. It has been 40 days since Joe Biden pulled out of the presidential race and, until last night, Kamala Harris was yet to sit down for a major interview. Alongside her vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz, she finally did so on CNN - and directly addressed some of the more difficult issues facing her campaign for the first time.Their interview with Dana Bash was not exactly riveting TV - but it did shed some light on the state of the race, and the turf where Harris would like the rest of the campaign to be fought. Today's newsletter runs you through what we learned - and why she probably won't mind if voters thought it was a bit boring. Here are the headlines.Health | Keir Starmer is on a collision course with the hospitality industry and political opponents after signalling plans for major curbs on outdoor smoking. The proposals, not denied by the prime minister, would potentially prohibit tobacco use outside pubs and restaurants, including on pavements.Israel-Gaza war | The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have said they carried out an airstrike on a humanitarian aid convoy in Gaza aimed at armed assailants" trying to hijack it. But the charity that organised the aid said people killed in the strike were employees of the transport company it was working with.Environment | The UK government is considering making further commitments on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, likely to be announced at the UN climate summit this year. It is hoped the plan will help kickstart global ambitions on cutting emissions.Immigration and asylum | A Vietnamese man suffered a life-limiting stroke" after being rescued from a tiny hidden compartment in a lorry with six other people being smuggled into the UK. The group was packed so tightly inside a space the width of a human chest" that none could move their arms, a Home Office investigator has said.Health | People who catch up" on missed sleep at the weekend may have up to a 20% lower risk of heart disease compared with those who do not, according to a study. Continue reading...

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz sat for their first interview together as the Democratic ticket, taking questions from CNN anchor Dana Bash. Harris spoke about her position on fracking, wanting a Republican candidate in her cabinet and how Joe Biden passed the baton to the now Democratic presidential candidate. Walz clarified previous statements he made about his military service before he was asked about the moment during the Democratic national convention when his son, Gus, was seen tearing up and saying: 'That's my dad'