Jack Smith is reportedly being investigated for possible violations of the Hatch Act; Republican's condemn the president for sacking Erika McEntarfer. Key US politics stories from Saturday 2 AugustThe US office of special counsel, an independent federal agency, confirmed to NBC News that it is investigating former Department of Justice prosecutor Jack Smith for possible violations of the Hatch Act.Smith led investigations into Donald Trump's part in the 6 January US Capitol riot and alleged mishandling of classified documents. Continue reading...
Law enforcement were looking for 45-year-old Michael Paul Brown, a US army veteran who lived in AnacondaAuthorities continued to search Saturday afternoon for the man accused of killing four people at a Montana bar.Local, state and federal law enforcement were looking for 45-year-old Michael Paul Brown, a US army veteran who lived in a small town, Anaconda, next to The Owl Bar, where on Friday morning he allegedly opened fire and killed a bartender and three patrons. Continue reading...
The winning punter will enjoy the spotlight and riches at the New Orleans Saints, while the loser will be unemployedThere is a brutal ritual involving Australian punters that takes place this time of year in Louisiana's intense summer heat, near the bayous and swamps that are home to alligators and venomous cottonmouth snakes. It features former Australian rules footballers battling for a single US$3m NFL punting contract with the New Orleans Saints.This year's showdown began with Matt Hayball, a former Geelong Cat and the Saints' incumbent punter, against James Burnip, a 198cm rookie from Mount Macedon in Victoria, who just wrapped a standout punting career at the University of Alabama. The Saints complicated the battle this week by signing a third punter, American Kai Kroeger. Continue reading...
Smith led investigations into Trump's part in the January 6 Capitol attack and the mishandling of classified documentsThe US office of special counsel, an independent federal agency, confirmed to NBC News on Saturday that it is investigating former Department of Justice prosecutor Jack Smith for possible violations of the Hatch Act.Smith led investigations into Donald Trump's part in January 6 US Capitol riot and alleged mishandling of classified documents. Continue reading...
More than 50 signatures were revealed to be fraudulent on Eric Adams' petition to run as an independent in electionMore than 50 signatures on New York mayor Eric Adams' petition to run as an independent candidate in November's election are fraudulent, according to a report published on Friday.The Gothamist said it had found 52 signatures from people who said their names were forged, including signatures of three people who turned out to be dead. The publication cited others who said they were deceived into signing the petitions. Continue reading...
President claimed that recently released figures showing jobs slowdown were rigged' to make him look badSenior Republican lawmakers are condemning the decision of their party leader, Donald Trump, to fire the leading US labor market statistician after a report that showed the national economy added just 73,000 jobs - far fewer than expected - in July.The disappointing figures - coupled with a downward revision of the two previous months amounting to 258,000 fewer jobs and data showing that economic output and consumer spending slowed in the first half of the year - point to an overall economic deterioration in the US. Continue reading...
They partied together and called each other friends in the past, but in 2020 Combs said Trump should be banished'Donald Trump says he considers Sean Diddy" Combs sort of half-innocent" despite his criminal conviction in federal court in July - but the president called pardoning the music mogul more difficult" because of past criticism.Trump spoke about Combs during an interview on Friday night on the friendly environs of Newsmax. Combs was found guilty on 2 July of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, with each leaving him facing up to 10 years in prison - but he was acquitted of more serious sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges. Continue reading...
Declassified document contains deflating conclusion for DNI director that Russian spies were behind key 2016 emailsTulsi Gabbard, the director of US national intelligence, hoped to uncover evidence that Barack Obama and his national security team conspired to undermine Donald Trump in a slow-motion coup.But if her crusade was aimed at proving that Obama embarked on a treasonous conspiracy" to falsely show that Russia intervened in the 2016 presidential election to help Trump, Gabbard made a mistake. A previously classified annexe to a report by another special counsel, John Durham - appointed towards the end of Trump's first presidency - has further undermined Gabbard's case. Continue reading...
No pause on Russian imports by Indian oil firms who base decisions on price, grade of crude, logistics and economic factors'Indian oil refineries will continue to buy oil from Russia, officials have said, before threatened US sanctions next week against Moscow's trading partners over the war in Ukraine.Media reports on Friday had suggested India, a big energy importer, would stop buying cheap Russian oil. Trump later told reporters that such a move would be a good step" if true. Continue reading...
An imam's detention, firings and police violence have sown fear among immigrants who helped revive an Ohio townFor 50 long years, life in Hamilton, a town of 63,000 people a half-hour north of Cincinnati, was in decline.Factories closed and thousands of residents moved away to Cincinnati, Columbus and beyond. The scourge of the opioid epidemic during the early 2000s sucked the life out of Butler county's seat of government. Continue reading...
Donald Trump, battling to disentangle himself from the scandal surrounding the late sex offender, has mused about the prospect of pardoning the British socialiteSince Ghislaine Maxwell met with federal prosecutors last week, the imprisoned British socialite's legal team has portrayed her as a beacon of truth willing to discuss all matters related to her child sex-trafficking co-conspirator Jeffrey Epstein's many crimes.
Chris Booth's channel - rife with neo-Nazi ideology, antisemitism and racism - garnered 2.3m views and likely thousands of dollars from YouTube in about two monthsThe Guardian has identified the self-described national socialist" behind an openly extremist YouTube channel that in just over two months has accumulated 50,000 subscribers, seen more than 2.3m views, and likely made thousands of dollars from YouTube's revenue-sharing monetization program.Johnathan Christopher Chris" Booth, 37, lives in the unincorporated community of Coral, a part of Maple Valley Township in Michigan's Montcalm county, and is married to a senior local Republican official. Continue reading...
The scandal has haunted the president in part because of a truth voters already feel: Republicans protect elitesDemocrats must not let Jeffrey Epstein die.They must highlight how this saga exposes the president for who he has always been.This is exactly why there's eroding trust in our institutions, because until we confront the rot that exists in our institutions, until we hold everyone, everyone accountable under the same set of rules and laws, we will keep living in a country where there are two systems of justice, one for the rich and powerful, and one for everybody else. We deserve better. Release the files now.Peter Rothpletz is a Guardian contributor
The infamous prison became an Indigenous resistance site after it closed. Now, tribes fight Trump's reopening plansWhen Donald Trump pledged to reopen the notorious Alcatraz prison as a detention center for immigrants and violent offenders, the idea was met with contempt and mockery. San Francisco leaders have called it Trump's stupidest idea yet" and threatened to cut off the island's sewage and garbage services if the president acts on his carceral ambitions.But for the Indigenous people of the San Francisco Bay Area, the idea was more than just laughable. It was an affront to their identity, and an attempt to erase the island's history as a site of Indigenous resistance. Continue reading...
The US government, enabled by the media, is an active participant in Israel's atrocities in GazaCan we finally stop pretending that what we have been witnessing in Gaza over the past 22 months is a war," a conflict," or even a humanitarian crisis"? Many of the world's leading human rights and humanitarian groups - including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Doctors Without Borders - agreed months ago that what is being livestreamed to our phones on a daily basis is indeed a genocide.This week, Israel's own leading human rights group announced that it had reached the unequivocal conclusion that Israel is taking coordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip". In other words, said B'Tselem, Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip".Mehdi Hasan is the founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of the media company Zeteo. Continue reading...
Manhunt for suspect who lived nextdoor to bar where shooting occurred on Friday morning at about 10.30amFour people were killed on Friday in a shooting at a Montana bar, prompting a lockdown in a neighborhood several miles away as authorities searched a wooded area for a suspect in the case.The shooting brought the number of mass murders so far this year in the US to nine, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a non-partisan resource which defines such cases as killings in which four or more victims are killed.Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...
Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. The EU should now steel itself and reject the terms imposed by Donald TrumpUrsula von der Leyen's Turnberry golf course deal has been rightly called a capitulation and a humiliation for Europe. Assuming such an accord would put an end to Donald Trump's coercion and bullying was either naive or the result of a miserable delusion. The EU should now steel itself and reject the terms imposed by Trump.Is this deal really as bad as it sounds? Unfortunately, it is, for at least three reasons.Georg Riekeles is the associate director of the European Policy Centre, and Varg Folkman is policy analyst at the European Policy Centre Continue reading...
Trump's own former statistics chief denounces move as groundless' and dangerous'. Key US politics stories from Friday 1 August at a glanceAfter Donald Trump ordered the firing of a federal government official in charge of labor statistics, experts and opposition politicians have expressed alarm that the credibility" of US economic data was at risk.The US president claimed without evidence that Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of labor statistics, had rigged" job numbers in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad", after data showed jobs growth stalled this summer, prompting accusations that the president was firing the messenger". Continue reading...
Crews worked to clean up strewn links which led to morning traffic being snagged in chain reactionA highway outside of Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania, was dizzy with glizzys on Friday after a truckload of hotdogs spilled across the I-83, as local commuters learned that even the weakest hot dog link can cause a chain reaction.State police said the tractor trailer had an unspecified mechanical problem on Interstate-83 a few miles north of the Maryland line as morning rush hour was wrapping up, causing it to push into a passenger vehicle. When the truck scraped along a concrete divider, its trailer was ripped open and the contents scattered. Continue reading...
Rodney Taylor placed in restrictive unit' for refusing to enter flooded cell because his prosthetic legs can't get wetA Liberian-born man detained by Ice in Georgia was put in solitary confinement after complaining about flooding in the common area outside his cell at the Stewart detention center that he said was potentially dangerous for his electronic prosthetic legs, the Guardian can reveal.Rodney Taylor recently spent three days in what CoreCivic calls a restrictive housing unit" at Georgia's Stewart detention center, after refusing to enter his cell because faulty air conditioning had left the floor in the area outside his cell covered with about an inch of water. That would be a potential disaster for Taylor, since his battery-powered, microprocessor-controlled prosthetic legs can't get wet. Continue reading...
Closure of public broadcasting group follows House Republicans' decision to strip $1.1bn in funding over two yearsThe Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced on Friday it will shut down operations after losing federal funding, delivering a blow to America's public media system and the more than 1,500 local stations that have relied on its support for nearly six decades.The closure follows the Republican-controlled House's decision last month to eliminate $1.1bn in CPB funding over two years, part of a $9bn reduction to public media and foreign aid programs. Continue reading...
Andrew McGann charged with murder over deaths of Clinton and Cristen Brink in apparently random' attackArkansas authorities say a 28-year-old schoolteacher has admitted he killed a couple who were hiking with their two young daughters at a state park, and he has been charged with capital murder in what investigators are portraying as a random" attack.Clinton, 43, and Cristen Brink, 41, were found dead on Saturday on a walking trail at Devil's Den state park. Their daughters, seven and nine, were not hurt and are being cared for by family members, authorities have said. Continue reading...
by Dani Anguiano in Los Angeles, California on (#6Z1Y6)
University chancellor said life-saving research' will be defunded as Trump's academic crackdown continuesThe Trump administration is suspending some research grants to the University of California, Los Angeles, claiming antisemitism and bias", the school announced in a statement on Thursday.UCLA received a notice that the federal government, through its control of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other agencies, is suspending certain research funding to UCLA," Julio Frenk, the university chancellor, said in a letter to the campus. The move means life-saving research" will be defunded, he said. Continue reading...
Acute hunger in Gaza, Russian airstrikes in Kramatorsk, wildfires in Turkey and England's Chloe Kelly celebrating at Euro 2025: the past seven days as captured by the world's leading photojournalists
Governor announces possible move as Democrat-led states seek to respond to planned Texas redistrictingCalifornia's governor, Gavin Newsom, may call a special election in November to begin the process of redrawing the state's congressional maps in response to Texas's plans to change their own maps to help Republicans keep their majority in the House of Representatives.Donald Trump is pushing Texas and other Republican-dominated states to carry out mid-decade redistricting that will favor the GOP and potentially stop Democrats from retaking control of the House in next year's midterm elections. Governors in Democratic-led states have responded by warning they will move to redo their own maps if Texas goes ahead with its plans, which could create an additional five Republican-leaning districts. Continue reading...
Goggles would have made it hard for helicopter pilots to see plane's colored lights, experts said at inquiry into the crashThe pilots of a US army helicopter that collided with a passenger jet over Washington DC in January would have had difficulty spotting the plane while wearing night-vision goggles, experts told the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Friday.The army goggles would have made it hard to see the plane's colored lights, which might have helped the Black Hawk determine the plane's direction. The goggles also limited the pilots' peripheral vision as they flew near Ronald Reagan Washington national airport that evening. Continue reading...
Changes at National Museum of American History come amid president's push to reshape US cultural agenciesThe Smithsonian Institution has scrubbed all mention of Donald Trump's impeachments from a prominent display at the National Museum of American History, temporarily eliminating any acknowledgment of the president's unique status as the only US leader the House impeached twice.The alterations to the presidential power exhibit, first reported by the Washington Post, occurred in July, with museum officials replacing contemporary signage with an older version that excludes Trump's impeachment proceedings entirely. Visitors now see only a generic reference to three presidents facing potential removal from office. Continue reading...
Actor, 81, admitted he purposely touched a woman inappropriately at a horror film convention in 2022The actor Gary Busey has pleaded guilty to criminal sexual misconduct after admitting that he purposely touched a woman inappropriately at a horror film convention in New Jersey in 2022.It was not an accidental touching," the 81-year-old Busey, who was once nominated for an Oscar, told a judge during a virtual court appearance Thursday. Continue reading...
Men's pro competition rattled as New Orleans exit, San Diego and LA merge, and Utah and Miami face uncertainty. Utah CEO tells Guardian he's confident funds can be foundMajor League Rugby has endured a tough week with a merger and a withdrawal reducing the competition to nine teams, but the US men's professional rugby union competition could yet fall to just seven entrants if two more teams fail to raise new funds, the Guardian learned.The merger of the San Diego Legion and RFC Los Angeles and the exit of the NOLA Gold were announced on Wednesday.Martin Pengelly writes on Substack at The National Maul, on rugby in the US. Continue reading...
Former vice-president talked to Colbert in first interview since election, after declining bid for California governorKamala Harris has said that she currently has no desire to re-enter the system" of American politics because it is broken".On Thursday night the defeated Democratic party's presidential nominee, who replaced Joe Biden late in the 2024 campaign after he dropped his re-election bid, gave her first interview since losing the election to Donald Trump, talking to Stephen Colbert on The Late Show. Continue reading...
With action after action, the Trump administration has made clear it does not value women's health or dignityThere are few better metaphors for the receding status of American women than one offered up by the Trump administration at a medical waste disposal facility outside Paris this week: rather than distribute nearly $10m worth of birth control, which had been purchased by USAID and was destined to be given to women in low-income countries, primarily in Africa, the Americans decided to burn it.The incinerated contraceptives included 900,000 birth control implants, 2m doses of injectable long-acting birth control, 2m packs of contraceptive pills, and 50,000 IUDs. The medicine is just the latest in the far-reaching fallout from cuts made by the so-called department of government efficiency," or Doge, a project in which Elon Musk and a group of his very young, overwhelmingly male acolytes unilaterally slashed congressionally appropriated funding to government programs they did not like. The cuts have been devastating for non-profits that work to improve women's health and safety worldwide. Sarah Shaw, an associate director at the global family planning group MSI Reproductive Choices, says that the cuts will put women at risk as they strain their health with unplanned pregnancies and seek out illegal abortions; other women who are denied access to birth control will lose out on the opportunities for education, professional development or remunerative work that can help them escape abuse, rise out of poverty, pursue their talents and ambitions and better provide for the children they already have.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
Price hikes may frustrate some, but the mood at a California meetup shows why the trend isn't slowing down yetLabubu-shaped bounce houses. Labubu-themed drinks. A chance to meet and greet a life-size Labubu.This was the scene at a recent meetup at an outdoor shopping center in southern California, where dozens of people gathered for the chance to get their hands on one of the wildly popular fluffy dolls. Continue reading...
Experts predict changes to food stamps' program affecting millions of Americans will cause poverty and hunger to risePoverty and hunger will rise as a result of the Trump administration's unprecedented cuts to the US federal food stamps" program, according to experts. Low-income workers who rely on the aid are braced for dire consequences.Katie Giede, a single mother and waitress in Conyers, Georgia, is one of the 42 million Americans who use the supplemental nutrition assistance program (Snap). Even with the maximum benefit permitted, she struggles to afford food for her and her child. Continue reading...
Actor's Astronomer ad pokes fun at canoodling CEO, while Kim Kardashian's face sling raises eyebrows and jowlsShe is an actor, a businesswoman, a guru and an influencer, but at heart - let's be honest - Gwyneth Paltrow is a sales guy, who has shown us time and again via Goop how thoroughly she understands how to monetise sneering. This week, crisis PR-style, she lent her world-class expertise to Astronomer, the company that dragged everyone's eyes up to the jumbotron at a Coldplay concert two weeks ago when two of its married executives were entwined where they shouldn't have been. Continue reading...
The US owns a good recent record against Euro 2025 teams, but the transition to a new generation under Emma Hayes could be limiting for nowSunday in Switzerland, England's Lionesses clawed their way to a second straight Euro title after defeating the reigning world champions, Spain, 3-1 in a penalty shootout. With a record 1.35m watching stateside, at least one wondered if, in some alternate universe in which they could play in the Euros, they would have won it.Asked that question on a recent episode of The Women's Game podcast, US captain and OL Lyonnes midfielder Lindsey Heaps suggested that they could. While debriefing England's wild quarter-final comeback against Sweden with retired World Cup champion Sam Mewis, Heaps began by noting the difficulty of comparing Emma Hayes' program in transition to mid-tournament teams: It's so hard because we're obviously missing a lot of players," she said. But we have a lot of new, young players, inexperienced players, that are doing so well. I think it would be so hard to say. Also, Emma would fully prepare us for a tournament, and tournament mode. So it'd be a little bit different than what we've been doing, and how we've been playing." Continue reading...
The university's draconian policies and new definition of antisemitism make much teaching impossibleDear Acting President Shipman,I am writing you an open letter since you have seen fit to communicate the recent decisions of the Board of Trustees and the administration in a similar fashion. Continue reading...
In the first of a three-part special report, a look at the drugs and violence allegedly sweeping through the Cibola county correctional center in New MexicoA private US prison contractor that is expanding its immigrant detention business amid increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) arrests is running a federal facility that is being investigated by the FBI for rampant drug trafficking and violence, a Guardian investigation has found.Even some staff who work for the contractor, CoreCivic, are implicated in drug smuggling at the Cibola county correctional center (CCCC) in New Mexico that is owned and operated by the company on a government contract. Continue reading...
Vermont Green could cap an undefeated season in this weekend's USL League Two title game, with overflow crowds expected once againA silence fell on Virtue Field. Owen O'Malley stepped up, kissed the ball, and prepared to take Vermont Green's fifth penalty in a shootout. The outcome of that spot kick could decide the winner of the USL League Two semi-final against Dothan United in the fourth tier of American soccer.The moment of quiet was in stark contrast to the buzz that has gathered around this team in 2025, but the silence was soon broken as O'Malley coolly rolled his spot-kick down the middle. The back of the net rippled, and the celebrations in the stands spilled on to the field. Continue reading...
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