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The first lady is a key player in the administration - and critics fear she has been shielding her husband beyond a reasonable pointThrough a week in which Joe Biden's re-election hopes seemed to crumble, Jill Biden has been at his side. At times, she's appeared more than a resolute first lady, standing in as his compere, guide and primary political aide.The president's wife of 45 years - they met on a blind date, set up by Biden's brother, in 1975 - may now hold the key to whether Biden accepts mounting pressure from Democrat party donors and abandons a faltering re-election bid or risks another debate with Donald Trump in September with even higher stakes. Continue reading...

Swimmer off Fernandina beach was rescued by Nassau county marine unit after distress call from boat on FridayA shark attack off Florida's Atlantic coast left a man with a severe bite to his right arm" on Friday, authorities say, leaving him in critical condition from blood loss.The Nassau county sheriff's office marine unit, which was patrolling off the coast of Fernandina beach near the Florida-Georgia border, said it had received a distress call from a boat on Friday and had applied a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. Continue reading...

Michelle Peters, 47, of Lebanon has been charged with first-degree domestic assault and armed criminal actionA Missouri woman has been accused of secretly putting weed killer and insecticide in her husband's Mountain Dew drinks.In a statement released earlier this week, the Laclede county sheriff's office announced that 47-year-old Michelle Peters of Lebanon, Missouri, has been charged with first-degree domestic assault and armed criminal action. Continue reading...

Rishi Sunak goes soggy and Keir Starmer is short of change, but at least Steve Baker and Ed Davey are having fun

The presidential debate was further proof of the fragility of the country's constitution. Radical reform is crucial, whoever wins in NovemberIt wasn't so much what Joe Biden said, it was how he said it. His voice was weak and shaky, he lost his way, forgot what he was saying. He sounded feeble. He sounded old. Very old. And the storm of white-hot criticism that rained down on his head from friends and foes alike after the 2024 election's embarrassing and disastrous first presidential TV debate with Donald Trump was blistering. It was sad and painful to watch.Republicans were jubilant. They think it's all over bar the voting. They claimed Biden had only one objective: to prove, at 81, that he was fit to lead as president for a second term - and he failed. Many Americans will agree. Except they already thought he was too old. It's unclear as yet how much this flop will sway undecided voters. Proud, stubborn Biden will fiercely resist pressure to stand down. And no leading Democrat is publicly willing as yet to wield the knife. That may change. Continue reading...

Storm Lake police question how to enforce a troubling' state law after 30 years of gaining trust with residentsSince becoming the police chief of Storm Lake, Iowa, four years ago, Chris Cole has done everything he can think of to convince people who come from around the world to work in his town that he is not their enemy.Cole and his officers have hosted barbecues in parks and get-togethers at taquerias. They've dubbed a Hummer H2 seized from a drug dealer the YumVee", and driven it to events around town, its trunk full of ice cream, soccer balls and other sports gear for kids. And in a town where Spanish is widely spoken, Cole has found time every day to study the language and uses it in conversation when he can. Continue reading...

Driver taken to hospital and charged with driving while intoxicated after rescuers free people trapped in buildingA minivan slammed into a Long Island, New York, nail salon on Friday, killing four people and injuring nine others inside the business at the time, a Suffolk county fire official said.The vehicle came to a stop at the back of the Hawaii Nail & Spa salon in Deer Park at about 4.40pm. Continue reading...

City is one of few in the US where tenants can be forced to pay fees, despite a landlord having hired the brokerA row is brewing in New York City between renters and real estate brokers, over who pays the thousands of dollars in fees when an apartment is rented.On 12 June, lawmakers in New York met to discuss the Fairness in Apartment Rental Expenses act (Fare act), which would require the person who hires the broker to pay the broker fee. Continue reading...

The vice-president would be a logical choice if Biden does opt out, but some are already looking to other contendersJoe Biden's stumbling debate performance left Democrats so panicked some are searching for an alternative to replace the 81-year-old president as the party's standard-bearer.Biden has given no indication that he intends to exit the race, and his campaign has flatly dismissed the suggestion. But that has done little to silence critics who are openly questioning whether Biden is the right person to take on Donald Trump, a figure the president - and his party - view as a grave threat to American democracy. Continue reading...

If the president is not politically viable, the stakes of this election not only remain but are even higher than everI saw western civilization pass before my eyes as Joe Biden drowned.Putin is waiting for Trump," John Bolton, Donald Trump's former national security adviser has said. When the presidential debate turned to foreign policy, the former president made an apparently startlingly revelation. He implied that he had a previously unknown conversation with Vladimir Putin before his invasion of Ukraine, perhaps in late 2021 or early 2022. According to Trump, Russia's president discussed the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. When Putin saw that, he said, you know what, I think we're going to go in and maybe take my - this was his dream. I talked to him about it, his dream." That dream, of course, is the conquest of Ukraine as the restoration of the major piece of the collapsed Soviet Union after the cold war. Continue reading...

Editorial board says exiting is greatest public service' Biden can perform after disastrous debate performanceThe New York Times's editorial board has called on Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race after a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump.Biden's poor performance sent leading Democrats into a panic on Thursday night, after the US president appeared shaky and at points struggled to finish sentences. It amplified fears about his age and fitness for office that it had been hoped the debate would allay. Continue reading...

As the national team chases Copa America glory on US soil, the AFA has established a permanent home in south FloridaInter Miami's Lionel Messi may well miss Argentina's final Copa America group game on Saturday night, but for the defending champions an outing in Miami will feel like a home game.The Miami Dolphins' 65,300-seat Hard Rock Stadium has long been sold out for the tie with Peru, awaiting the arrival of the world champions. Continue reading...

Some say it's ageist, and they have a point. But whether in academia or elsewhere, it's only fair for younger colleagues

Each government has been a challenge, each leader sillier and more ruinous than the last. But even cartoonists crave a bit of boring earnestness sometimesFor the past five weeks people have repeatedly said to me, You must be really busy!" I've had to explain that elections aren't like that; in fact, from the point of view of cartoonists, they're boring. The only real fun comes when the wheels fall off the party machines and their careful choreography collapses into farce. But in this election even the Tories' serial weapons-grade balls-ups are becoming a bore, serving merely to remind me of the universal truth that reality will always, always be weirder than anything satire could think up in a million years.That said, in the empty hours of this interminable death watch while we've waited for the Tory tumbril finally to trundle to the guillotine, I've been reflecting on the past 14 years, and how the worst government of my lifetime has been succeeded five times by one that was even worse. Continue reading...

We thought our country had become tolerant and inclusive, but the state still regards a woman's safety as secondary to a man's jobIreland loves its strong women, as long as they're dead or they never lived at all. It's the walking, talking, breathing ones who are bothersome. There is hardly an Irish person who hasn't heard of the sexually insatiable Queen Medb, famed for stealing her neighbour's prized bull, or of Grace O'Malley, a real-life sea pirate, or of the darling of them all, Caitlin Ni hUallachain, the mythical personification of Ireland.Until a week ago, most people had never heard of Natasha O'Brien. The country had been going about its business contentedly thinking itself modern and progressive, unaware that a 22-year-old soldier had previously pleaded guilty in the circuit court to violently assaulting her. The 24-year-old had been walking home from her job in a Limerick pub when she happened upon Cathal Crotty yelling faggot" at passersby on the city's main street. When she asked him to stop, he punched her to the ground and punched her twice more until she blacked out. Then he ran away and gloated on Snapchat: Two to put her down, two to put her out."Justine McCarthy is an Irish journalist and the author of An Eye on Ireland: Writings from a Changing NationDo 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...

Former president claims no amount of rest or rigging could help' Biden during victory lap at Virginia rallyDonald Trump wasted no time bringing up Thursday's debate at a rally in Virginia on Friday.Hello, Virginia," he opened to a crowd in Chesapeake. Did anybody last night watch a thing called the debate?" Continue reading...

Attendees note night and day' difference between campaign stop in North Carolina and lackluster' debate showingIn what several supporters described as a night and day" difference from his performance in last night's debate, President Joe Biden on Friday vowed to keep fighting against what he framed as an existential threat to America.In his first campaign stop following the debate, Biden showed off a louder and more dynamic voice at the North Carolina state fairgrounds in Raleigh. Continue reading...

Ride-share companies sign off on $175m settlement that will give workers paid sick leave and other protectionsUber and Lyft drivers will be guaranteed among the highest wages in the US for ride-share workers under a historic deal agreed with Massachusetts prosecutors.Andrea Campbell, the state's attorney general, and the two companies agreed to a $175m settlement Thursday evening that requires a minimum pay floor of $32.50 per hour, and introduces a slew of other benefits and protections that drivers didn't already have. Continue reading...

Joe Biden acknowledged his age and his difficulties with walking and speaking smoothly at an election rally the day after his meandering performance in Thursday's presidential debate, but said he could still beat Donald Trump in the November election

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Trump ally, convicted of contempt of Congress, fails in bid for emergency delay and must report to prison by MondayThe supreme court has rejected Steve Bannon's attempt to avoid prison time following his contempt of Congress convictions.In a brief ruling issued on Friday, the supreme court ordered Donald Trump's former adviser, who has been challenging convictions over his defiance of subpoenas surrounding the House's January 6 insurrection investigation, to report to prison by Monday. Continue reading...

Officials say the number of people living outside has slightly decreased for the first time in yearsLos Angeles's unhoused population remained steady from 2023 to 2024, marking the first time in years the county did not record an increase in homelessness, officials said.The Los Angeles homeless services authority (Lahsa) announced on Friday that it counted 75,312 unhoused people across the county this year, a 0.27% decrease from the unhoused population recorded in 2023. Continue reading...

Gateway founder Robert Morris allegedly told survivor Cindy Clemishire in 2005 to put a price on it'Texas megachurch founder and pastor Robert Morris, who recently resigned after confessing to sexually assaulted a child in the 1980s, attempted to pay his abuse survivor for her silence, according to a leaked phone transcript.The transcript from 22 September 2005, provided to NBC by a former employee of Gateway church, shows Morris telling his victim, who recently revealed herself to be Cindy Clemishire, to put a price on it", when she asked to be compensated for the trauma inflicted on her. Continue reading...

Jill Biden has firmly resisted calls in the past to do so, but others in the president's inner circle also have his earIn March 1968, president Lyndon Johnson abandoned his reelection bid, citing the awesome duties of this office", partisan divisions in the country, and America's sons in the fields far away" in Vietnam. I shall not seek, and will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president," Johnson said.It was a remarkable moment, recalls veteran Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf: No one gives up being the most powerful person in the world," he says. It just doesn't happen."Biden v Trump: 90 miserable minutesWho won the meme wars?Biden's performance sends Democrats into panicSix who could replace BidenTrump and Biden's claims - factchecked Continue reading...

Historic treasure' found in Florida will now be displayed at Roosevelt's Old Orchard museum in Cove Neck, New YorkTheodore Roosevelt's pocket watch has been recovered after being stolen nearly four decades ago from a museum exhibit about the former president.The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that it had managed to get back the historic watch in a news release published on Thursday. Continue reading...

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Some call for rethink by Democrats and say continent must step up preparations for another Trump term

Far from delivering a slam dunk, the president couldn't provide a single coherent answer about the procedure

Cory Ulmer, 41, died in custody at Cook county jail, which authorities tried to portray as a medical emergency'Civil rights advocates in Illinois are demanding answers over the death of a handcuffed Black man following a violent confrontation with county jail deputies who attempted to portray the case as a medical emergency.Cory Ulmer, 41, died following his 20 June arrest for violating bond conditions as he awaited trial on assault and robbery charges. According to the investigative organization Injustice Watch, a spokesperson for sheriff Tom Dart at first insisted Ulmer had suffered a medical emergency", while personnel from the Cook county sheriff's office told Ulmer's stepfather he died in the hospital. Continue reading...

We'd like to hear your views on the performance of Biden and Trump following the first debateFollowing Thursday's debate on CNN, commentators focussed on Democratic party's panic over Joe Biden's halting performance in which he struggled to land his lines.Donald Trump made claims with no evidence on issues such as immigration by stating that millions of people" are coming across the border and receiving social security benefits. He also falsely claimed that ending Roe v Wade protections was something everyone wanted", despite consistent polling that shows the public desires at least some access to abortion under the law. Continue reading...

Old comments have been recycled to fire up the American team before the two nations vie for supremacy in the Paris poolCowbells. Australia's Olympic swimmers could be hearing them in their sleep, and definitely will be hearing them in their waking hours at the Paris Olympic pool, after the US-Australian rivalry ignited this week.Comments that Australia's former sprint queen Cate Campbell made last year about the sweetness of beating the US team and their infernal cowbell" were the talk of the US swimming trials that finished in Indianapolis earlier this week. Continue reading...

But he didn't foresee that lies, conspiracy theories and misinformation would ride the internet as easily as truth and transparencyThe two most consequential Australians in history are surely Rupert Murdoch and Julian Assange. Germaine Greer would come a distant third.Unsurprisingly, Assange and Murdoch have gained their notoriety through journalism and the media. More surprising - but significant - is the fact both of them could be described as libertarians. Continue reading...

Even Trump's usual lies could not distract from the president's decrepitude. But these debates don't move the needleWho could have foreseen that the scariest thing about the presidential debate on Thursday night wouldn't be the lies, the bombast or the threats to democracy, but the spectacle of Trump's slightly wolfish restraint. Heading into the encounter, Democrats felt the kind of anxiety more usually endured before watching a child perform, with that same crushing sense of raw emotions. That Trump barely mocked Biden, or went after his age or his son, seemed less rehearsed than a shrewd response to what all of us were seeing: a president so compromised that all Trump had to do was grin, lean back and let the optics work for him.And still, despite the evidence, it feels wanton to say this. Biden, whose voice was hoarse from a cold, rushed his delivery, fought to find words and stumbled in a style not entirely new to him. The difference on Thursday night was one of degree. Oh my God" was the general consensus, texted around the country, when the debate opened in Atlanta. While Trump's remarks were predictably ludicrous, full of lies and inflated claims, nothing he said could distract from the image of Biden saying sensible things in a manner so crepuscular that the entire event jumped from politics to tragedy. It made me think of a line from Rilke: It had almost hurt to see." Continue reading...

Ruling reverses lower court decision that blocked 2023 law, exclusively backed by Republicans, from going into effectIowa's state supreme court on Friday told a lower court to let a strict abortion law take effect.The court's 4-3 ruling held that the law - which bans most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy - does not violate citizens' fundamental rights under the state constitution, rejecting a lawsuit by Planned Parenthood. Continue reading...

As Biden plans for second debate, more Democrats reiterate backing the president's re-election effortsA defiant Joe Biden resisted calls to abandon his re-election effort and step aside for a younger candidate after his calamitous showing in Thursday's presidential debate with Donald Trump.As Democrats panicked and openly talked about replacing the president with another nominee, the Biden campaign unequivocally ruled out that possibility.Biden v Trump: 90 miserable minutesWho won the meme wars?Biden's performance sends Democrats into panicSix who could replace BidenTrump and Biden's claims - factchecked Continue reading...

We start with evidence of humanity's unfathomable stupidity, before moving to exhibit B: GlastonburyA Highlands red deer known as Callum the Stag has had to be put down. His teeth had rotted, leaving him unable to forage for his natural diet, and his overall health had deteriorated largely, it is posited - though the National Trust for Scotland did not make the connection directly - because tourists kept feeding him their snacks whenever he approached them as they took his picture. Continue reading...

Joe Biden's disastrous performance in the first presidential debate has Democrats scrambling. Plus: the 82-year-old Sword Granny' of India

One day soon this case will come back, and the supreme court will allow states to ban emergency abortionsThe supreme court is a messy institution. It's six conservative justices are mired in infighting over both the pace of their shared ideological project of remaking American law and life according to rightwing preferences, and over their preferred methodological course for doing so. Their squabbling is not helped by the fact that two of them, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, keep embarrassing the court with gauche public scandals, which draw attention to the court's legitimacy crises like a vulgar flag waving above One First Street. For their part, the liberals are exhausted, impotent, and at times apparently publicly despairing. Their dissents have sometimes taken on tones of exasperation and peeved sarcasm, as if they're turning to the country and asking: Can you believe this?" Their most senior member, Sonia Sotomayor, recently told an interviewer that over the past several terms, since the court's conservative supermajority was sealed under the Trump administration, she has sometimes gone into her chambers after the announcement of major decisions and wept. She says she anticipates having to do so again: in one recent dissent, she warned ominously about the future of gay marriage rights.The court's partisans like to point out that it controls neither the military nor the federal budget; the court's legitimacy, they say, comes merely from the fact that people believe it to be legitimate. But increasingly, many of them don't. The court's approval rating remains at record lows, and the justices' conduct over the past several years has punctured the mystique of scholarly seriousness that the institution once pretended to. They don't seem like wise legal scholars, carefully and dispassionately deliberating the merits of competing interests and claims. Instead, they seem more like a bunch of bumbling partisan hacks - perhaps just more cynical and less clever than the average Republican operatives stuffed into suits throughout DC. Continue reading...

The court's current justices are some of the most hostile to labor rights in modern US historyUnder Chief Justice John Roberts, the supreme court has been supremely pro-corporate - one study even called the Roberts court the most pro-business court in history". Not only have many justices been groomed and vetted by the business-backed Federalist Society, but Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have taken lavish favors from billionaire corporate titans. Thomas has even spoken at two Koch network fundraising donor summits", gatherings of rightwing, ultra-wealthy business barons.While the court is decidedly pro-corporate, most Americans probably don't know just how anti-worker and anti-union it really is. The justices have often shown a stunning callousness toward workers, and that means a callousness toward average Americans. One of the most egregious examples was a 2014 ruling - with an opinion written by Thomas - that held that Amazon, which holds workers up to 25 minutes after the ends of their shifts waiting to be screened to ensure they didn't steal anything, doesn't have to pay them for that time. Continue reading...

Both Biden and Trump know how important it is to go viral - and while both delivered soundbites, it was Biden's weak performance that captured attentionWinning a presidential debate is one thing, but coming out victorious in the meme wars is something else.Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump understand how important it is to go viral. According to NBC News, Biden's campaign headquarters enlisted 18 influencers with a combined following of 8 million to post about the event, amounting to a post-debate social media clip sharing battle".Biden v Trump: 90 miserable minutesWho won the meme wars?Biden's performance sends Democrats into panicSix who could replace BidenTrump and Biden's claims - factchecked Continue reading...

I'm overjoyed two Swedes were released as part of a swap deal - but to leave another behind on death row is unconscionable

We didn't need this show. Each candidate has had time to show us who they are, and one is a felon trying to destroy democracyThe American people lost the debate last night, and it was more painful than usual to watch the parade of platitudes and evasions that worked in the debate format run by CNN. The network's glossy pundit-moderators started by ignoring the elephants in the room - that one of the two men standing at the podiums was a convicted felon, the leader of a coup attempt, an alleged thief of national security documents who was earlier this year found liable in a civil court for rape, and has promised to usher in a vengeful authoritarian regime if he returns to office.Instead they launched the debate with the dead horse they love to beat in election years, the deficit and taxes. Throughout the excruciating evening, Joe Biden in a hoarse voice said diligent things that were reasonably true and definitely sincere; Donald Trump in a booming voice said lurid things that were flamboyantly untrue. The grim spectacle was a reminder that this is a style over substance game.Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. She is the author of Orwell's Roses and co-editor with Thelma Young Lutunatabua of the climate anthology Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility Continue reading...

The Canadian towers over his opponents, even in a sport for the very tall. But his attributes may not suit the modern gameFor those of you out there who might describe yourselves as tall," meet Olivier Rioux, the high schooler who just signed on to play for the University of Florida in the fall. Rioux is absurdly tall - 7ft 9in (for now) to be precise. Whether playing alongside his high school-age teammates or surrounded by them in the huddle, the 300lbs beanpole looks for all the world like one of those adults who passes themselves off as a teenage player just for the thrill of beating up on kids. The only thing about Rioux that's not tall are his tales.Rioux has been on a rapid growth curve for some time now: 5ft 2in in kindergarten, 6ft 1in by the time he was eight. By the time he was 12, and 7ft, he would have made the 6ft 9in LeBron James look undersized. Around that time, highlights of him dominating his tragically ill-equipped competition began making the social media rounds, an optical illusion to rival the dress meme. (Are the other kids six feet or six years old?) Four years ago, Guinness World Records pronounced the then 14-year-old Rioux as the world's tallest teen at 7ft 5in. That would have put Rioux a notch above the 7ft 4in NBA rookie of the year, Victor Wembanyama. He even looms head and shoulders above legendary NBA leviathans such as Gheorghe Murean (7ft 7in), Yao Ming (7ft 6in) and Sim Bhullar (7ft 5in). People see his size," Canada national team assistant coach Michael Meeks said of Rioux, and their expectations are pretty high." Continue reading...

The reality of the 2024 presidential contest is setting in now that thefirst debate of the election cycleshowcased the two main options voters have in November. Joe Biden, apparently sick with a cold, mumbled through the televised debate with Donald Trumpthat was marked bypersonalattacks - including a spat over golf. Trump, a prolific purveyor of falsehoods, repeatedly told lies and avoided answering tough questions

Party scrambles to affirm president's ability to lead nation as some raise questions about about what else can be done

Biden tried to counter Trump's debate falsehoods with facts. But he often delivered them tepidly or hesitantlyFrom the moment the candidates walked out on to the stage in Atlanta, it was obvious that this debate was a big mistake for Joe Biden. By the end, it was a train wreck for his campaign.The incumbent president, who desperately needed to show vitality, looked from the start like an old man. His gait was stiff and his voice tentative. His energy was markedly different from his triumphant State of the Union address just a few months ago.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

Between Trump's lies and Biden's struggles, voters probably walked away from the debate with a better understanding of why they hate their options