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The Charles Manson follower could be free in about two weeks, after spending more than 50 years in prison for two murdersCharles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten could be freed in about two weeks after California governor Gavin Newsom announced he will not ask the state supreme court to reverse her parole. The move paves the way for Van Houten's release after spending more than 50 years in a southern California prison for two murders in 1969.The governor's office said an appeal against a parole ruling by a California appeals court was unlikely - the court only accepts reviews in about 3% of cases petitioned - to succeed and that Newsom was disappointed. The governor had previously rejected parole for Van Houten but on 30 May an appellate court overturned that decision. Continue reading...

Plane departed from Las Vegas before crashing in Murrieta in Riverside county on Saturday morningSix people died after a plane crashed over a southern California field on Saturday morning before bursting into flames.The plane was engulfed in fire along with about one acre of vegetation when deputies arrived. The plane crashed near an airport in the city of Murrieta, California, in south-west Riverside county, about 85 miles (136.79 km) south of Los Angeles. Continue reading...

European allies are split over when to offer Nato membership to Kyiv. The bigger question is: are they are doing enough now to help Ukraine?

With authors claiming OpenAI breached their copyright by ingesting' their books, an experiment seemed in order. It didn't go wellAuthors Mona Awad and Paul Tremblay are taking OpenAI to court for allegedly ingesting" their books to refine its generative capabilities. It seems writers' work is being used as anonymous mulch to feed the artificial intelligence sausage machine so it can poop out existentially threatening, nutritionless, virtual, fake chipolatas to replace us.I went on to one of these sites, typed in a story idea and clicked generate". The resulting yarn included the lines: We took a school trip to the moon, our first trip there. The other students were at home, or on other planets." And: The vampire stood in front of me and looked into my eyes. I felt a chill. A chill that went to my toes." Continue reading...

Elon Musk is wrecking his platform, but it has invented a medium for catchy soundbites that is too invaluable to loseWatching Elon Musk destroying Twitter has the same creepy fascination that one experienced during the 44 days in 2022 when Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng were busily employed tanking the British economy. There was, however, one important difference between the two spectacles: Musk actually owns Twitter, whereas Truss and Kwarteng were merely the temporary custodians of the national economy.With Twitter, the wrecking process started even before Musk owned the company. Having offered to buy it for $44bn (arguably at least twice what it was worth), he then tried to get out of the deal, but was compelled to go through with it. Once installed as the owner, he fired half the staff, including many of the people who understood how its technical infrastructure worked and others who had a good understanding of the complexities of running a social media company in today's polarised world. He embarked on arbitrary and contradictory decision-making on the hoof, one moment announcing new rules, the next minute abandoning them. Continue reading...

Michael Burham broke out of jail where he was being held on arson and burglary charges and was suspect in murder investigationAuthorities were searching on Saturday for an inmate described by police as very dangerous" who escaped from a jail in north-western Pennsylvania using bed sheets, officials said.Michael Burham was last seen wearing a blue denim coat from the jail, white and orange pants, and orange shoes, Warren police said late on Friday. Continue reading...

Washington DC committee recommends revoking former New York City mayor's law license over attempt to overturn electionRudy Giuliani's law license should be revoked over his work on a failed lawsuit challenging the 2020 election results on behalf of then president Donald Trump, a Washington DC attorney ethics committee has recommended.He now faces being disbarred in the capital after the review panel late on Friday condemned the lawyer and ex-politician for aggressively pursuing the false assertions Trump made about his defeat by Democratic rival and now US president Joe Biden. Continue reading...

The British prime minister said the UK was a signatory to a convention prohibiting the production or use of cluster bombs, after Joe Biden agreed to send the munitions to Ukraine. The US government announced it would send cluster bombs as part of an $800m (625m) security assistance package, in a move that Kyiv said would have an 'extraordinary psycho-emotional impact' on the occupying Russian forces.When cluster bombs detonate, they spread dozens of tiny bomblets over a wide area, with a large number burying themselves in the ground rather than exploding. In effect, the weapons therefore leave a field of anti-personnel mines in their wake, posing a lethal danger to civilians, often children

Her biggest political accomplishment was losing Arizona's gubernatorial race in 2022 - and now Trump and his team think she might be too thirsty for attentionLet's say you want to be vice-president of the United States but you don't have any meaningful political experience and you've never held public office. What do you do? Continue reading...

Critics say party that touted its law-and-order credentials now intent on wrecking institutions that get in Donald Trump's wayWhen Merrick Garland was nominated to the US supreme court by Barack Obama, Republicans refused to grant him a hearing. Now that Garland is the top law enforcement official in America, the party seems ready to give him one after all - an impeachment hearing.Republicans on Capitol Hill are moving up a gear in a wide-ranging assault on the justice department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that would have been unthinkable before the rise of Donald Trump. The party that for half a century claimed the mantle of law and order has, critics say, become a cult of personality intent on discrediting and dismantling institutions that get in Trump's way. Continue reading...

Nasratullah Ahmadyar, 31, who left Afghanistan on last flight from Kabul in 2021, died in hospital after being shot in his carA Virginia man who previously served as an interpreter for the US military in Afghanistan was fatally shot this week working as a rideshare driver in Washington.Nasratullah Ahmadyar, 31, was shot and killed on Monday while driving for Lyft, WUSA 9 reported. He had worked as an interpreter with the army special forces, but left Afghanistan on the last flight out of the country during the US withdrawal in 2021. Continue reading...

Rights groups condemn supply of widely banned weapons and fellow Democrat calls it a terrible mistake'

Oklahoma superintendent Ryan Walters decried for comments on 1921 massacre in which hundreds were killed by white mobsThe state official in charge of Oklahoma's schools is facing calls for impeachment, after he said teachers should tell students that the Tulsa race massacre was not racially motivated.In a public forum on Thursday, Ryan Walters, Oklahoma's state superintendent of public instruction, said teachers could cover the 1921 massacre, in which white Tulsans murdered an estimated 300 Black people, but teachers should not say that the skin color determined it". Continue reading...

President's pick for bipartisan public diplomacy commission, 75, convicted of unlawfully withholding information from CongressJoe Biden intends to nominate Elliott Abrams, a former Trump appointee on Venezuela and Iran who was famously convicted for lying to Congress over the Iran-Contra affair, to the bipartisan US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy.The announcement came wrapped in a list of eight Republican picks for bipartisan boards and commissions released in a White House statement on Monday. Continue reading...

Swede's reappointment for 2025 would offer proof of compromise as LIV joins forces with the DP World and PGA ToursThe only current certainty in elite golf is uncertainty. A month has passed since confirmation that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has joined forces with the PGA and DP World Tours to promote peace on the fairways but nobody apparently has a clue about details for the future. The situation is so stark that golfers who prefer root canal treatment to media duties are suddenly stopping journalists to elicit information about how this all unfolds. This is a wonderful mess.LIV and its much-maligned rebels have understandably seized upon the vacuum. Full steam ahead is the unrelenting message from this tour. It would be an exaggeration to suggest LIV golfers are crowing about the legitimacy afforded to their circuit by the mainstream tour alliance but smiles are barely masked. When Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter went on the front foot against the leadership of the PGA and DP World Tours on Wednesday, it was from a position of strength rather than nervousness. Nobody can really take the proclamations of golf administrators seriously any more, such has been the U-turn on all things PIF. Continue reading...

Workers at Blue Grass army depot in Kentucky destroy rockets filled with sarin - last of US's declared chemical weaponsThe world's chemical weapons watchdog said on Friday that all declared stocks had been irreversibly destroyed" after the United States revealed it had finally got rid of its last toxic arms.President Joe Biden announced that the Blue Grass Army Depot, a US Army facility in Kentucky, had eliminated its decades-old stocks, completing a global effort started in 1997 to rid the world of chemical weapons. Continue reading...

The workers were employed by a private contractor and were swept into a manhole after heavy rain in downtown OmahaFirefighters rescued two men who fell into a manhole during heavy rain in downtown Omaha on Friday, including one who was washed about a mile (1.6km) through sewer pipes before getting trapped behind a metal grate.The men, who were workers for a private contractor, Ace Pipe Cleaning, were swept into a manhole near the Old Market just after 9am, the Omaha World-Herald quoted Lt Neal Bonacci of the Omaha police department as saying. Continue reading...

President tells CNN he took the recommendation for controversial weapons because Ukraine is running out of ammunition'

Florida first lady outlines Ron DeSantis's hardline rightwing agenda in video accusing progressives of coming after our kids'Vowing not to let progressives impose an agenda" on American children and their mothers, Casey DeSantis outlined the hardline rightwing agenda her husband has imposed on Florida and now wants to impose on America.The Florida first lady did so in a new video for Mamas for DeSantis, a group supporting Governor Ron DeSantis's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Continue reading...

Washington denies authorising former officials' meeting with Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov

Police say the shooter drove more than 700 miles from his home to target Hispanic people with an AK-style assault rifle at the storeA white gunman who killed 23 people in a racist attack on Hispanic shoppers at a Walmart in a Texas border city was sentenced on Friday to 90 consecutive life sentences but could still face more punishment, including the death penalty.Patrick Crusius, 24, pleaded guilty earlier this year to nearly 50 federal hate crime charges in the 2019 mass shooting in El Paso, making it one of the US government's largest hate crime cases. Continue reading...

The legends of a genre made by and for the young are getting old. Some embrace it - and it elevates their artIt's a paper ticket, from before the age of the QR code, and it announces the Rolling Stones at Wembley Stadium on Saturday 26 June 1982. I was 15, but I still remember the buildup to that show - the papers full of jokes about the band needing Zimmer frames to reach the stage and, perhaps, more frequent bathroom breaks. They called them the Strolling Bones". On that day, Mick Jagger was 38 years old.The joke turned on the notion that rock'n'roll was the music of the young. It had arrived in the mid-1950s in an eruption of hormones and rebellion, its themes teenage lust, longing and a future that stretched ahead, vast and mysterious. For men knocking 40 still to be singing of such things seemed ridiculous. And yet, the Stones were back last summer, Jagger approaching his 80th birthday, playing all the same songs.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Shooting on 2 July resulted in two deaths and 28 people injured at a neighborhood block party in the Maryland cityBaltimore police said on Friday they had arrested a 17-year-old in connection with a 2 July mass shooting that killed two people and injured 28 at a neighborhood block party in the Maryland city.The suspect, whom the Baltimore police pepartment did not name, is being charged with possession of a firearm by a minor, assault weapon possession, reckless endangerment and handgun in vehicle", the department said in a statement. Continue reading...

Billed as a therapeutic novel', the publisher's first foray into fiction follows 29-year-old Anna's mental health journey - with a view to helping the reader. But how useful can such clunky writing be?At 29 years old, Anna is full of self-loathing. She hates her job, her boyfriend is having an affair and her parents' response to her troubles is indifferent at best. This is the starting point for A Voice of One's Own, the first novel to be published by The School of Life. In its pages, fiction and self-help make for uneasy bedfellows.Co-founded by philosopher Alain de Botton in 2008, The School of Life broadly aims to teach its students" how to lead calmer, more fulfilling lives. Its publishing arm, launched in 2016, disseminates self-help literature with pithy titles such as Reasons to be Hopeful and A Simpler Life, which purport to blend philosophical wisdom with practical advice. Like De Botton himself, the books are Marmite; while many critique the school for peddling watered-down pop philosophy, its teachings have clearly found a market. The organisation has branches in seven major cities, and its most popular title, Big Ideas for Curious Minds, has sold over 120,000 copies globally, while its workshops on playfulness, confidence and self-awareness regularly sell out. The new book represents a departure, however. Through A Voice of One's Own, The School of Life is showing, rather than telling, its readers how to live better. Continue reading...

Allyship' can often be used to hold us hostage, writes Sisonke Msimang, and ironically when real racism rears its head, it can be hard to find allies

You thought this story couldn't get weirder: but now Central Bedfordshire council has ordered the building to be torn downTo the Captain Tom spa complex, where we might imagine pan-pipe versions of Vera Lynn classics wafting through the air, enveloping select visitors like a really luxurious waffle-weave robe. Perhaps there is some kind of water feature bubbling soothingly with a clear liquid - Captain Sir Tom's London Dry Gin? - while beyond a notional He Walked So You Could Chill Jacuzzi lies an indoor pool (100 laps mandatory) and a legacy-guarding wellness experience without compare in the central Bedfordshire area.If you're thinking, What did I just read?", it probably won't be the first time with the long-tailed story of the former army captain who, at the age of 99, walked up and down his garden to raise money for the NHS during the early stages of the pandemic, and with this small act of kindness went stratospheric. Donations totalling 39m followed, as did a No 1 single, a knighthood, a range of branded products, from lunchboxes to wine calendars - and now, an active investigation by the Charity Commission into concerns the family personally profited from his name, and a planning dispute involving his daughter, Hannah Ingram-Moore, and her local council (more on that in due course). The Captain Tom Foundation this week stopped taking money from donors.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnistDo 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 average global air temperature hit new heights this week. Plus, new Twitter rules restrict US weather serviceGood morning.With the average global air temperature reaching the highest on record this week, the UN secretary general has declared that climate change is out of control".The average global air temperature was 17.18C (62.9F) on Tuesday, surpassing the record of 17.01C reached on Monday, according to data collated by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP).The University of Maine found that the daily average temperature for the seven-day period ending Wednesday was .04C (.08F) higher than any week in 44 years of record-keeping.Cluster bombs pose great risk to civilians long after their use: while the bomblets are designed to detonate on hitting the ground, seriously injuring or killing anyone in the area, up to 40% of bomblets have failed to explode in some recent conflicts, essentially becoming undetonated landmines.The indiscriminate destruction of cluster bombs has human rights groups saying that the use of them in populated areas is a violation of international humanitarian law.More than 120 countries have signed the convention on cluster munitions, prohibiting the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of the weapons - but Russia, Ukraine and the US have all declined to sign the treaty. Continue reading...

Was there ever a cheaper looking film than Blippi's Big Dino Adventure? Children may be thrilled by the prospect, but they are foolish and need protecting. As do the parentsThe summer holidays are not much fun for parents of young children, and they are currently flop-sweating with anxiety over how they're going to manage to hold down all their professional obligations while simultaneously entertaining the neediest human beings in their lives. But if the last few years have taught us anything at all, it's that things can always get worse. And so it brings me absolutely no joy whatsoever to inform you that a Blippi movie is coming out this summer.You may know Blippi. If you have children aged 10 or under, there is a solid chance that you have endured long, joyless tracts of time watching Blippi on YouTube. For the uninitiated, Blippi is a sort of high-frequency idiot who dresses like a clown and spends his days feigning amusement as he visits the zoos, regional museums and strip-mall soft play centres of the US. His videos receive millions of views, there are Blippi NFTs on the market, and his creator is notorious for once making a pre-fame video in which he undressed and blasted explosive diarrhoea across the bare bottom of his friend. And now there is a Blippi film. Continue reading...

Applications to mine the seabed in our ocean commons can be made from 9 July, allowing a few corporations to profit from ecological disasterSunday 9 July threatens to be a momentous day for the global economy, one that marks the beginning of the biggest gold rush in history, and one that could lead to unprecedented ecological damage. Yet few people seem to be taking much notice. The British government has been silent.To understand the impending drama, a little history is required. In 1982, after 25 years of torturous negotiations, the United Nations passed Unclos (the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea). It involved the biggest enclosure in history, turning more than 138m sq km (53m square miles) of seabed into national exclusive economic zones (EEZs) available for exploitation by coastal countries. Continue reading...

Anti-trans activists want us to believe that transgender female athletes pose the gravest danger to cis girls' and women's bodies, success and scholarships. They couldn't be more wrongKathryn Bromwich argued that the main threat to us cisgender women comes from cisgender men, and not trans women. It is the same in sport: historically and currently, the common perpetrators of sexual assault, abuse and harassment in sport are cisgender men. They also tend to be heterosexual and white. They hold nearly all the levers of power in sport by leading international and national sport organizations and governing bodies, the NCAA, pro leagues, coaching staffs, mainstream sports media and more.They give themselves near-unfettered access to use and abuse athletes of all genders. They face almost no accountability as they seem to purposefully leave SafeSport in the US, for example, understaffed and powerless in countless ways. Continue reading...

Fionnuala Ni Aolain tells the Guardian that the US must redress the harms it inflicted on its Muslim torture victimsThe first UN investigator to be allowed to visit Guantanamo has called on the US government to provide urgent rehabilitation treatment for the men it tortured in the wake of 9/11 to repair their severe physical and psychological injuries and meet its commitments under international law.In an interview with the Guardian, the UN monitor on human rights while countering terrorism, Fionnuala Ni Aolain, said that the US had a responsibility to redress the harms it inflicted on its Muslim torture victims. Existing medical treatment, both at the prison camp in Cuba and for detainees released to other countries, was inadequate to deal with multiple problems such as traumatic brain injuries, permanent disabilities, sleep disorders, flashbacks and untreated post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Continue reading...

A new party chair promises to restore the party's lost pride and take on Ron DeSantis to turn Florida blue once moreIt isn't much fun, or indeed very productive, being a Democrat in Florida these days. Outnumbered by a Republican supermajority in the state legislature, the party was forced to sit back and watch extremist governor Ron DeSantis sign law after law riding roughshod over the rights of Black voters, immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community.The humiliation in Tallahassee was the culmination of a years-long decline in Democratic fortunes, predating even the ousting of long-serving US senator Bill Nelson in 2018. Continue reading...

Land was owned by brother of sex offender who was sentenced to life in prison in 2011 for sexually abusing underage girlsA tract of land in Minnesota with links to a polygamous religious sect once led by Warren Jeffs has been put up for sale by the convicted sex offender's brother.Residents near the town of Grand Marais had feared the remote 40-acre plot of forest land, bought by Seth Jeffs in 2018, would be used to establish a new compound for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). Continue reading...

Season six of the US pro league ends on Saturday. Executives from the two finalists are bullish about what comes nextIn rugby union, a team goes coast to coast" when it runs from its own line to score a try at the far end of the field. In American rugby, the phrase - and the evocation of risky ambition - applies before kick-off to Saturday's championship game, in which the New England Free Jacks will face the San Diego Legion.At SeatGeek Stadium, outside Chicago, Major League Rugby final will set the beasts of the east against the best of the west, the winners first-time champions. MLR says it expects 10,000 fans. Continue reading...

Dick Durbin, chair of Senate judiciary committee, condemns John Roberts for failure to reform court as donor controversy swirlsThe chair of the Senate judiciary committee has launched a new attack on the chief justice of the US supreme court, promising a vote on ethics reform legislation after a term beset by scandal over relationships between rightwing justices and wealthy donors and featuring a string of controversial rulings.The highest court in the land should not have the lowest ethical standards," Democrat Dick Durbin said. Continue reading...

If there is not bold, immediate action to address the climate crisis, the quality of life that we are leaving our kids is very much in questionThe last eight years have been the eight hottest on record. This year is on track to be the hottest year in recorded history, and this Fourth of July might have been the hottest day in the past 125,000 years.Climate change is ravaging the planet. We are now seeing floods, droughts, extreme weather disturbances and wild fires causing unprecedented damage. If there is not bold, immediate and united action by governments throughout the world, the quality of life that we are leaving our kids and future generations is very much in question.Bernie Sanders is a US senator, and chairman of the health education labor and pensions committee. He represents the state of Vermont, and is the longest-serving independent in the history of Congress Continue reading...

For all the talk about being extremely online', new technology still wields power over us

Former employee Isaiah Meadows of Yeezy Christian Academy says he was fired in retaliation for reporting unsafe conditionsKanye West is facing legal action after a former employee of his private school in California alleged that he was fired after reporting unsafe conditions in the school.Ye, as the rapper now goes by, was named as a defendant in a lawsuit by former employee Isaiah Meadows of the Yeezy Christian Academy, a private Christian school started by Ye, according to the lawsuit shared with the Guardian. Continue reading...

Cleanup effort after Fourth of July was one of the worst' in years, says founder of group behind trash collectingA team of volunteers that included scuba divers, kayakers and snorkelers has collected more than three tons of trash from Lake Tahoe left behind by Fourth of July revelers.Colin West, founder and CEO of Clean up the Lake, the group behind the cleanup effort, said the mess was one of the worst" he'd seen in his years of trash collecting. Continue reading...

Former US president's body man' appears in Miami court on charges relating to classified documents found at resortWalt Nauta is facing six federal charges, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, corruptly concealing a document or record, and making false statements.That's fewer than the 37 federal charges Donald Trump is facing, but both men are named in the indictment brought last month by special counsel Jack Smith. You can read it below: Continue reading...

Hayden Klemenok, 24, went missing while backpacking with group at Upper Chilnualna Falls, National Park Service saysA hiker has been missing in Yosemite national park since the holiday weekend after being swept away by a cold and fast-flowing creek as California's epic winter snowpack melts.Hayden T Klemenok vanished while backpacking with a group at Upper Chilnualna Falls on Sunday, the National Park Service said in a statement. Continue reading...

Pop singer files police report after incident involving a security guard for Victor Wembanyama in Las Vegas on WednesdayBritney Spears has confirmed she filed a police report after an embarrassing" incident in which she was allegedly backhanded and knocked to the ground by a member of the NBA star Victor Wembanyama's security team on Wednesday night in Las Vegas.The alleged incident, which both Spears and Wembanyama have separately spoken about, occurred at the Catch restaurant at the Aria hotel at around 8.30pm. Spears, her husband, Sam Asghari, and two other guests were entering the restaurant when she spotted Wembanyama, the NBA's tallest active player at 2.26 metres (7ft 4in). Continue reading...

Investigation underway after police were called to find unresponsive teenager last week at Florence Hardwoods sawmillA 16-year-old boy has died following an industrial accident at a sawmill in Wisconsin.Police received an early-morning call last Thursday regarding an unresponsive teenager at Florence Hardwoods, a sawmill in northern Wisconsin, according to the Florence county sheriff's office. Deputies and paramedics transported the teenager to a local hospital before transferring him to Milwaukee children's hospital. Continue reading...

Walt Nauta faces six charges, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, corruptly concealing a record and making false statementsWaltine Walt" Nauta, widely known for his role as Donald Trump's personal valet, was arraigned on Thursday over his role in the federal classified documents case.Nauta, 40, arrived in the former president's orbit by way of a military assignment. Continue reading...

Burglar takes more than 600 bottles of high-end wine and liquor from Venice shop after lowering himself into store with ropePolice are investigating a burglary at a southern California wine shop, where a thief stole over $500,000 worth of high-end wine and liquor.The burglary happened during the early hours of 30 June at Lincoln Fine Wines in Venice, according to a police report. A man - wearing a mask, hoodie and baseball cap - arrived to the store in a white pickup truck with no license plate, the Los Angeles Times reported. Continue reading...

Prosecutors suspected Trump kept classified documents because only a small number were returned from many boxesFederal prosecutors used surveillance footage to determine within weeks of collecting subpoenaed classified documents from Donald Trump last year that there might be more national security materials at Mar-a-Lago, according to newly unsealed descriptions in the FBI search warrant application.Much of the justification for executing a search warrant on Trump's residence in Florida was detailed in the sprawling indictment charging him with retention of national defense information and obstruction of justice. Continue reading...

Kansas City Star says Fourth of July quote posted on Twitter was made up after pointing out offensive Juneteenth commentJosh Hawley has become the poster boy for blurring fact and fiction in the era of Donald Trump: the Republican senator from Missouri will forever be remembered as having raised a manly fist in solidarity with January 6 protesters at the US Capitol then, hours later, having been caught on security camera fleeing the rioting mob he helped to incite.But even for a public figure known for his use of trolling imagery to foment culture wars, Hawley's current record is impressive. His local Missouri newspaper, the Kansas City Star, has had to call him out twice in almost as many weeks for his egregious distortion of the facts. Continue reading...