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Free Jacks and Seawolves head for San Diego, seeking to add to momentum stoked by Eagles' women's Olympic gloryOn Thursday, the New England Free Jacks were escorted out of Quincy, Massachusetts, by the city police. Rugby teams usually receive such treatment after too much post-match socialising but this was pre-game, the Major League Rugby champions heading for a flight to California to defend their title against Seattle Seawolves.From a team practiced in the art of promoting itself and its sport, it was a nice bit of stagecraft ahead of Sunday's championship game. Nic Benson, chief executive of MLR, was headed west too. Continue reading...

Civilians Hamas captured on 7 October are obviously hostages. What about thousands of Palestinians sitting in Israeli jails?If you want to understand the complicated situation in the Middle East, you need to start with two basic sets of facts, which are the foundation for everything else.The first is that Israelis are civilized people, just like westerners. You should believe whatever the Israeli government says, because they are obviously not going to lie. If an Israeli soldier or settler commits a terrible act, they're not considered a reflection on the state as a whole; they're a bad apple who will be held accountable. Even if the data shows they are rarely held accountable. The bottom line: Israelis are good people who want peace; any violence they commit is justified because they have an absolute right to self-defense.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

These areas stop protesters screaming and waving plastic foetuses at close range. All women deserve that protection

Vice-president honored' to be nominee after securing delegate votes - but nomination not official until MondayKamala Harris said on Friday she was honored" to have secured enough votes from delegates to become the Democratic presidential nominee, making her the first Black woman and person of south Asian heritage to lead a major party ticket.Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee, announced that the vice-president had earned the majority of delegates' votes to become the party's nominee to challenge Donald Trump in November, though her nomination would not be official until Monday, the end of the virtual roll-call vote. Continue reading...

US secretary of defense pulls rank and withdraws agreements for trio accused of involvement in 2001 terror attacksThe US secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, has revoked a plea deal for the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and two other defendants, reinstating them as death-penalty cases, according to a memo sent to Susan Escallier, who is overseeing the war court proceedings.The short-lived deal came 16 years after prosecution of the three men began. Continue reading...

This blog has now closed. Read more on the Harris delegate story here Josh Shapiro, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, is widely speculated to be among Kamala Harris's vice-presidential finalists.Martin Pengelly explores Shapiro's background for the Guardian:July was the best grassroots fundraising month in presidential history.Team Harris raised more across grassroots channels in the four days following President Biden's endorsement of Vice-President Harris than Trump's big donor-reliant operation raised in the entire month.More than 3 million donors made over 4.2m contributions - with more than 2 million donors making their first donation this cycle.This month, 94% of all our donations were under $200, and teachers and nurses continue to be among the most common donor occupations.Compared with June, we saw more than 10 times the number of gen Z donors, and more than eight times the number of millennial donors.Sixty per cent of all donors in July were women.Coalition groups that organized calls since launch - like Black Women for Harris, Latinas for Harris, and White Dudes for Harris - raised more than $20m for Team Harris. Continue reading...

A day that began with a rush of Team GB golds ended with French success and records tumbling on the athletics trackTwo-time gold medallist Andy Murray is on the shortlist for Great Britain's greatest Olympian of all-time. In Australia, that battle could be being played out in real time during the Paris Games.Australia has a long and glittering Olympic history. But there is one record no Australian has previously surpassed. Since the first Australians competed at the 1896 Games, none have won more than three gold medals in individual events.At Paris 2024, three Australians across two sports are on the cusp of history and an achievement that would guarantee elevation to the pantheon of greatest Olympians. Jess Fox, Ariarne Titmus and Kaylee McKeown have already won gold at the 2024 Games, and now have the possibility to go where no Australian has gone before. Continue reading...

Hullabaloo over clip posted by Cherelle L Parker dispersed when it emerged it was in support of Josh Shapiro and not an announcementA political and media firestorm" broke out briefly in Philadelphia on Friday over whether the city's mayor had published a tweet and video mistakenly revealing that Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, was Kamala Harris's eagerly awaited vice-presidential pick.Heralding a scoop", Ernest Owens, a reporter for outlets including Philadelphia Magazine, said: Philly political sources have told me that a staffer connected with Mayor Cherelle Parker's team accidentally posted the video today. Continue reading...

A Washington Post report details that an Egypt-linked group withdrew funds days before Trump's inaugurationA spokesperson for Donald Trump blamed Deep State Trump-haters and bad faith actors" for a bombshell report on Friday about a secret criminal investigation into whether Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, the authoritarian ruler of Egypt, sought to give the former president $10m during his victorious 2016 White House run.The investigation referenced found no wrongdoing and was closed," Steven Cheung told the Washington Post, which published the report on Friday. Continue reading...

Case, paused after supreme court ruling, returns to judge Tanya Chutkan, who will decide how she intends to proceedDonald Trump's criminal prosecution over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election was set to resume on Friday with narrowed charges, after the US supreme court ruling that gave former presidents broad immunity took effect and the case returned to the control of the presiding trial judge.The formal transfer of jurisdiction back to the US district judge Tanya Chutkan means she can issue a scheduling order for how she intends to proceed - including whether she will hold public hearings to determine how to apply the immunity decision. Continue reading...

The US has reached a plea deal with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others accused of the 9/11 attacks, but the camp will persistThere is no neat exit point from grief. Each anniversary, each life event, each addition to or loss from the family, can bring renewed pain to the bereaved. For relatives of the almost 3,000 killed in the terror attacks on September 11, 2001, that suffering has been compounded by the lack of accountability for their deaths.This week, the US announced that it had reached a plea deal with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, described as the attack's architect, and two accomplices, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi. They will avoid the death penalty, instead receiving life sentences in exchange for pleading guilty to all the offences with which they were charged. Negotiations continue with two more men. All have been in US custody since 2002, and are held at Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba. For many relatives, there is anger that there will be no trial, and in some cases that the men will not be executed. But for others there is some relief that after 23 years there is a kind of conclusion to the case, however partial andunsatisfactory. Continue reading...

Paris 2024 has pointed the way towards a brighter future for urban waterways in post-industrial citiesIt was an American modernist poet who captured best the ancient, elemental status of rivers. In one of his best-loved poems, Wallace Stevens celebrated their third commonness with light and air / A curriculum, a vigor, a local abstraction". Life-supporting and place-defining, the great rivers of the world have nurtured and sustained our cities, but more latterly been blighted by the toxic legacy of industrialisation.The successful staging of Olympic events in a cleaned-up River Seine therefore deserves to be seen as a social and environmental milestone, as well as a sporting one. The remarkable spectacle of triathlon competitors diving from the Pont Alexandre III, as the Eiffel Tower loomed large on a blue-skied summer morning, will take some beating as a signature image of Paris 2024. Continue reading...

The world champion sprinter often comes across as a stereotypical arrogant American athlete. But he is also willing to show his vulnerable sideBefore lining up for his opening 100m heat in June's US Olympic trials, Noah Lyles made sure to milk his closeup on TV. But rather than pound his chest or point skyward or make some other peacock display of masculinity, the American sprinter did about the dorkiest thing possible: he pulled out a Blue-Eyes White Dragon Yu-Gi-Oh! card.For the uninitiated: Yu-Gi-Oh! is a manga series that launched at the turn of the century, and, like Pokemon, it spawned a trading card game. A symbol of near invincibility, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon is an ace in the hole that goes for big money on the collectors' market. By playing his top trump, and so early in trials, Lyles didn't just move the Yu-Gi-Oh! card market; he shouted to classic gamers the world over: I'm one of you. Continue reading...

Suni Lee recovered from multiple kidney diseases that left her at rock bottom to stand on the podium beside her US teammate on FridayAt her lowest point Suni Lee wasn't thinking about going back to the Olympics. Just getting out of bed in the morning was hard enough. After a year and a half of uncertainty and depression while battling a pair of career-threatening kidney ailments that led to a weight gain of 45lbs on her 5ft frame and kept her out of the gym for months at a time, the Tokyo Olympic all-around champion was ready to call it quits.For all of the attention devoted to Simone Biles' extraordinary comeback over the past week, Lee's return to the sport's biggest stage has been even more improbable. On Thursday night, the 21-year-old from Minnesota won the bronze behind Biles' gold and Rebeca Andrade's silver in the one of the finest gymnastics meets ever staged, becoming the first Olympic all-around champion to win a medal at the next Summer Games since Nadia Comaneci in 1980. Continue reading...

Weather expected to increase fire activity in California, while in Colorado fires crept close to homes near DenverFirefighters battling California's largest wildfire of the year are preparing for treacherous conditions entering the weekend when thunderstorms could unleash fire-starting lightning and erratic winds that could erode progress made over the past week.And in Colorado, a wildfire burning in the heavily populated Front Range region has burned dozens of homes and outbuildings, while a second fire crept within a quarter-mile of evacuated homes near Denver. Continue reading...

Department of Justice report found pattern of sexual abuse and mistreatment in the state's juvenile justice facilitiesYouth lockups in Texas remain beset by sexual abuse, excessive use of pepper spray and other mistreatment including the prolonged isolation of children in their cells, the justice department has said in a scathing new report that accused the state of violating the constitutional rights of hundreds of minors in custody.The report comes three years after a federal investigation began into alleged widespread abuse and harsh practices within the Texas juvenile justice department, which incarcerates hundreds of young people every year. Continue reading...

Joe Biden says his priority is to avoid a regional conflict involving Israel and Iran. Withholding arms is his best leverI recently returned from three weeks in Lebanon, where I found people braced for an incident that might escalate into a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah. The past week's retaliations in the region look worryingly like exactly these kinds of clashes. Each strike and counterattack between Israel and its enemies increases the risk that its catastrophic war on Gaza could spiral into a regional conflict with Iran and its allied militias in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. Joe Biden has said that his main priority is preventing such a war. The next few days, then, could prove critical.On Tuesday evening, an Israeli airstrike on southern Beirut killed a senior Hezbollah commander, Fuad Shukr, whom Israel blamed for orchestrating a rocket attack days earlier which had killed 12 children. Shukr's killing was overshadowed hours later by the assassination of Hamas's political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran early on Wednesday. That attack shocked and embarrassed Iran's leaders, who were hosting Haniyeh and dozens of other allies for the inauguration of the new Iranian president. Continue reading...

Since being elected Pennsylvania governor in 2022, Shapiro maintains high approval ratings, including notable support from RepublicansJosh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, is a leading contender to be named Kamala Harris's running mate in the US presidential election, with a decision expected in the next few days.A congressional aide turned state representative and state attorney general, the 51-year-old father of four was elected governor in 2022. Close to two years later, he maintains historically high approval ratings, including notable support from Republicans, his numbers outstripping such ratings both for Harris and for the GOP ticket of Donald Trump and JD Vance. Continue reading...

Find out who is leading the way at the Olympics, and drill down to see which events each country has won medals forFollow all the latest action live | Support the GuardianAs is traditional, the table prioritises the number of gold medals won. On this basis at the 2020 Olympics, held in Tokyo in 2021, the United States led the field with 39 golds, with China second on 38 and Japan third with 27. If countries have the same number of gold medals, the order is then dictated by which has the most silvers, and finally bronze if the numbers are still identical. Continue reading...

For many voters whose support Harris needs, a prosecutor is always a cop, and a cop is not the good guyKamala Harris has struggled to establish a clear political identity, and much of the trouble comes from her record as a prosecutor in California. In 2004, as San Francisco district attorney, she declined to seek the death penalty for a man convicted of killing a police officer (he received a life sentence). Ten years later, when the state supreme court ruled capital punishment unconstitutional, Harris, then the state attorney general, appealed the decision.As California attorney general - a position she held from 2011 to 2017 - Harris launched reforms such as the program to prevent recidivism among young first-time nonviolent drug offenders. The program, Back on Track, offered individual support and job training and replaced jail time with community service - a revolutionary" idea at the time, noted Mother Jones editorial director and veteran Harris-watcher Jamilah King. Yet Harris's office opposed the release of non-violent offenders from California prisons, in defiance of a court order to reduce overcrowding.Judith Levine is a Brooklyn journalist and essayist, a contributing writer to the Intercept and the author of five books Continue reading...

A travelling tent with self-styled prophets hits swing states and brings a message: help deliver the election to TrumpBy 9am on Monday, hundreds of worshipers who had gathered under a tent in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, were already on their feet. Praiseful music bumped from enormous speakers. The temperature was pushing 90F.The congregants had gathered in north-western Wisconsin for the Courage Tour, a travelling tent revival featuring a lineup of charismatic preachers and self-styled prophets promising healing, and delivering a political message: register to vote. Watch, or work, the polls. And help deliver the 2024 election to Donald Trump. Continue reading...

The plane carrying prisoners freed from Russia in return for the release of Russian detainees, in the largest exchange in decades, arrived at Andrews airbase. Sixteen people were freed from Russian custody, including the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. Several other foreign citizens held in Russia and numerous Russian political prisoners were also freed

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris met Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and two other freed American prisoners just hours after Washington and Moscow completed their largest prisoner exchange since the cold war. Gershkovich and the other freed prisoners, ex-marine Paul Whelan and journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, disembarked a Bombardier Jet from Turkey at Andrews air force Base near Washington DC, and were met by their families and the US president and vice-president

Joshua Jones reportedly admits that collectively we did it. We killed him' after Tony Mitchell died of hypothermiaA former corrections officer at an Alabama jail has pleaded guilty in the case of a mentally ill man who died of hypothermia after being held naked in a concrete cell for two weeks.The officer, Joshua Conner Jones, entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors over the treatment of two prisoners at the Walker county jail. Continue reading...

Trump running mate made remarks to Catholic group in 2021, the same year he criticized childless cat ladies'In remarks to a Catholic group, JD Vance attacked Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for having a sociopathic attitude" about families and children.One of the politicians that I criticised is AOC," said Vance in 2021, while campaigning for the US Senate seat in Ohio he would win the following year. Continue reading...

Donna Massey told a dispatcher: Please don't send no combative policemen that are prejudiced'Two emergency response calls were made from the home of Sonya Massey, the Black woman who was shot in the face by an Illinois sheriff's deputy after she called 911 for help, in the days leading up to her death, according to records released Wednesday.In a third call, Massey's mother, Donna Massey, reports that her daughter is suffering a mental breakdown" and tells the dispatcher: I don't want you guys to hurt her." She adds that she fears the police and asks that no officer who is prejudiced" be sent. Continue reading...

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Governor says national guard will support first responders as state becomes latest in west to battle several major firesOne person has died and at least five homes were destroyed as Colorado becomes the latest western state to battle several major wildfires.The Boulder county sheriff, Curtis Johnson, reported the death was discovered in one of the five homes burned by the Stone Canyon fire near the town of Lyon, but did not provide further details. The fire has burned more than 1,500 acres (607 hectares) and was reported 20% contained on Wednesday evening. Continue reading...

Biles wins gold in individual all-around final, Andy Murray's career ends after doubles loss with Dan EvansWhen you're an official flagbearer for your country at an Olympic Games, the pressure ratchets up a few notches. Australian kayak queen Jess Fox accepted the double-edged sword, chosen as flag bearer, leading the team down the Seine, as the face of her team.Expectations on Fox were already high - both her parents are former Olympians and her sister is also competing at these Games - but somehow she found a way... Continue reading...

The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, showed emotion as he described the collective effort behind the release of American citizens detained in Russia. The US journalist Evan Gershkovich and the ex-marine Paul Whelan were released by Russia as part of the biggest prisoner exchange between the two countries since the the cold war. Several other foreign citizens held in Russia and numerous Russian political prisoners were also freed

The American sprinter was at rock bottom when a positive marijuana test ended her hopes before the Tokyo Olympics. She has reinvented herself sinceI'm a Bentley," Sha'Carri Richardson says proudly at one point in Sprint, the fly-on-the-wall Netflix series that follows some of the world's leading track stars. Fast, expensive ... fancy." It shows how little she knows about cars.Bentleys are all about subtlety. The amenities don't intrude. The speed is hushed. They're grand but never ostentatious. Richardson? She's a Lamborghini: not just fast but abruptly so while, at the same time, loud and susceptible to spiraling out of control at any moment. But this latest edition of the Richardson is vastly more fine-tuned for her Olympic debut on Friday, a do-over of sorts. Continue reading...

An occasion of fellowship devolved into a spectacle at the National Association of Black Journalists' conventionYesterday, the National Association of Black Journalists launched its annual convention and career fair in Chicago, Illinois. The multi-day event - viewed by Black journalists as an invaluable safe space - brings together thousands of members from across the nation to train, network and socialize.The conference's opening day, however, was overshadowed by an unexpected guest: Donald J Trump. The former president was invited by the NABJ board to participate in a panel interview and his attendance was announced just two days before the event. The interview was fraught, hostile and brief. And it confirmed many NABJ members' fears that Trump's interaction with three Black women moderators - Rachel Scott from ABC News, Harris Faulkner of Fox News, and Semafor's Kadia Goba - would be a farce. The discussion ran afoul of any attempt to use journalism to speak truth to power. Continue reading...

Russian state TV shows the moment journalist Evan Gershkovich, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Paul Whelan and other members of the prisoner exchange board a plane to leave Russia. The swap took place at Ankara airport and involved the freeing of several foreign citizens held in Russia and numerous Russian political prisoners. In exchange, eight Russians held in the west were returned to Moscow

The US president held a press conference after the journalist Evan Gershkovich and others were freed in a prisoner exchange between western countries and Russia. Gershkovich, Paul Whelan, Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza were among those freed after being held in Russia. The exchange took place at Ankara airport in Turkey, with eight Russians held in the west returning to Russia. Among them was the assassin Vadim Krasikov, who has been held in a German prison since 2019 for the murder of a Chechen exile in Berlin

Five-judge panel rules that Juan Merchan was correct to extend parts of gag order until Trump is sentencedA New York appeals court on Thursday denied Donald Trump's bid to end a gag order in his hush-money criminal case, rejecting the Republican president's argument that his May conviction constitutes a change in circumstances" that warrants lifting the restrictions.A five-judge panel in the state's mid-level appellate court ruled that the trial judge, Juan Merchan, was correct in extending parts of the gag order until Trump is sentenced, writing that the fair administration of justice necessarily includes sentencing". Continue reading...

American remains the west's most influential nation - which is why I fear for a world where Republican leaders could be in powerThe forthcoming election is one of the most important to me since I first cast a ballot more than four decades ago. And yet this time - while I've never felt more invested in an election's outcome - I won't have a vote.I'm not talking about the next federal poll in Australia - the one that's most likely to be held early next year. No, I'm referring to the United States presidential election in November, the result of which will reverberate with profound global consequences and - therefore - with significant personal others as well. Continue reading...

Background as senator, US navy pilot and astronaut helps his case to become Kamala Harris's running mateMark Kelly's resume stands out in the sea of lawyers that dominate Washington.The Arizona senator was a US navy pilot who served multiple deployments. He was on Celebrity Jeopardy. He is a steadfast partner to his wife, former US representative Gabrielle Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt at a public event in Tucson in 2011 and has worked alongside Kelly to limit guns since. Continue reading...

To survive a deadly cancer, author Ida Harris had to give up her sweet tooth. It's been an identity-shaking adjustmentA diabetic at a dessert show: I know it sounds like a terrible joke, the most exquisite torture or, at the very least, a bad idea. But there I was at Sweet Fest in Atlanta, rumored to be the sweetest day the city had ever seen.I strolled slowly by dessert display after display: decadent banana puddings; strawberry-stuffed muffins; brownies in shades of blonde, velvet and the darkest chocolate. I lusted after every sugar cookie, ice cream scoop and candied apple. But nothing quite piqued my interest like the bread puddings made by small, home-based bakeries. Continue reading...

Grassroots groups say mobilizing voters is easier after Biden left the race and Harris's candidacy now gains steamBlack grassroots organizers who played a critical role in mobilizing voters in the last presidential election say they are seeing an uptick in interest in their groups and a jolt of energy after Kamala Harris took Joe Biden's place at the top of the Democratic ticket.I hear nothing but enthusiasm," said Helen Butler, a longtime voting rights organizer who runs the nonpartisan Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda. More people are calling to volunteer. The young people are saying, What can we do?' All of our activities are nonpartisan. So we're training them to just talk about civic engagement and why public policy matters." Continue reading...