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Aware of apathy for Labour, prime minister must deliver growth as he balances a tricky coalition of interests

Joe Biden accidentally said he is the 'first Black woman' to serve as vice-president 'with a Black president', during an interview with Philadelphia's WURD radio station. The US president was referring to his vice-president, Kamala Harris, and former president Barack Obama when he made the comments. The slip-up came amid a political fallout following a disappointing debate performance last week that sent Democrats scrambling

Abigail Disney, Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg are among the big names withholding funds till Biden steps aside

Sir Keir Starmer has the Commons strength to be daring. That means fulfilling hopes he did little to exciteWe ran as a changed Labour party," declared Sir Keir Starmer on Friday morning, shortly after Rishi Sunak publicly conceded defeat, and we will govern as a changed Labour party." He has yet to elucidate what this change might be. But Labour's leader presented himself as a prime minister ready and able to alter the current alarming state of affairs. Sir Keir did not sweep his party - or the nation - off its feet. But voters handed him a resounding electoral victory. By presenting itself as an improvement without upheaval, Labour was preferred to the alternative of a chaotic and ruinous Conservative administration.Sir Keir now towers over the British parliament like no politician since Tony Blair. Labour governments only come once in a generation. The party won a landslide, with a 170-plus majority. The victory was built on a collapse in Conservative support. Gone from parliament are some of the biggest Tory names, including 12 cabinet-attending ministers and the former prime minister Liz Truss. Labour deserves the nation's gratitude for ending a dalliance with cronyism and charlatanry. Continue reading...

Ford F-150 came down a street at a high rate of speed', went past a stop sign, on to the sidewalk and into a parkThree people were killed and at least nine others injured, four critically, when a pickup truck drove into a group celebrating the Fourth of July holiday in New York City, authorities said.Police have identified 44-year-old Daniel Hyden, of New Jersey, as the driver behind the deadly collision. Hyden was allegedly driving a gray Ford F-150 that came down a street at a high rate of speed" shortly before 9pm on Thursday. The truck went through an intersection and past a stop sign, drove on to the sidewalk and into Corlears Hook Park on Manhattan's Lower East Side, Jeffrey Maddrey, the New York police department chief, said during a news conference. Continue reading...

An interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos will air on Friday night as worries grow over president's competency

Encounters disrupted Fourth of July at South Padre Island, as two were taken to the hospitalA single shark is believed to be terrorizing swimmers near a Texas beach, responsible for biting two people and making contact with two others during Fourth of July celebrations, including injuring one who went to help.The encounters disrupted locals and vacationers relaxing on Thursday at South Padre Island, as two people were taken to the hospital with bites, at least one of them severe, authorities said. Continue reading...

The president met with Democratic governors to shore up support, but doubts regarding his competence remain

It was worthy of a TV special. Truss, Rees-Mogg, Shapps, Liam Fox: so many erased after 14 years of dystopian soap opera. And not a moist eye in the houseWell, if you're just joining us, the nation has delivered an all-night victim impact statement. Labour has won a landslide and the Conservatives have suffered their worst ever general election result. Keir Starmer - the prime minister - has promised national renewal ... to fight until you believe again". Liz Truss has failed to save South West Norfolk, let alone the west". That is the big picture (if not the whole picture, with turnout and Labour's vote share notably low). Meanwhile, it's incredible to think that only a short while ago we thought we'd eradicated measles and Nigel Farage. Both have now been brought back, largely by the same people.But look, after the 3am to 7am shift, no one will be able to say the right doesn't do comedy. There were moments worthy of entire Netflix specials as in sports halls and community centres various Dickensian grotesques were ushered into their Christmas future, live on stage. Alas, it was going to take more than buying the Cratchits a turkey to get out of this one. Jacob Rees-Mogg heard his fate standing next to a candidate wearing a baked bean balaclava. He'll be crying into Nanny's starched bosom today. Committed sewage apologist Therese Coffey was pumped into the sea in Suffolk Coastal. Andrea Jenkyns had the middle finger given to her by the voters of Morley and Outwood. In Welwyn Hatfield, Grant Shapps chanted supermajority" five times into the mirror, and then it came for him.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnistGuardian Newsroom: Election results special

He must do everything he can to make sure it is MPs, and not party members, who choose his successorYou can grieve over the bodies, the coffins, the funeral rites, but the worst aftermath of death is the autopsy. Who, or what, was to blame?Focus groups at the start of the campaign were clear. The electorate wanted to blame the sufferings of the country on one thing: 14 years of Tory rule. In Scotland it passed a similar judgment on nationalist rule. Polls showed that Labour's leader, Keir Starmer, was not especially popular, and his policies did not diverge widely from those of the government. That is why his lectern was decked with one message: Change". With that, at least, the electors agreed.Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnistGuardian Newsroom: Election results special

Conservative party records worst general election performance to date. Plus, Democratic backers pause donationsGood morning.Labour has won a landslide UK election victory, bringing a crushing end to 14 years of rule by the Conservatives, who recorded the worst general election result in their near 200-year history. The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, will officially become prime minister later today after Rishi Sunak conceded.A vote for Palestine. There were shock victories for several pro-Palestine independent candidates, with Jonathan Ashworth, one of Labour's election chiefs, voted out in Leicester South, while the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn won in Islington North.Will we get our money back?' According to Reuters and the Associated Press, a call with about 40 top donors over the weekend turned tense after Biden's campaign manager was asked whether the campaign would offer a refund if Biden does not run.Don't blame me, its just my brain. Hawaii's governor, Josh Green, is reported to have asked Biden about his health yesterday. It's just my brain," Biden said, in what some heard as a joke but at least one person found odd. Continue reading...

Jan Brewer has had it with election denialism - and she's speaking out to defend poll workers across the political divideThe former governor of Arizona, once a Trump surrogate in the swing state, is now speaking up to defend the state's elections as election denialism continues to grip Republican politics.Jan Brewer, the Republican governor from 2009 to 2015, signed an infamous anti-immigration law, which reverberated in state politics and affected the state's reputation for years. She was secretary of state, which oversees elections, before becoming governor. Continue reading...

Cassidy Grady's Sunday reading series Confessions' seeks fresh avenues for creative expression in wake of pandemicReading nights and avant-garde literary groups are rapidly emerging as platforms for younger generations to foster community and creatively share personal narratives - and one new series is making waves in New York.Literary events are on the rise across the US, with CNN citing that book club listings have grown 24% in 2023 from the previous year. Continue reading...

Hospitality union Unite Here hopes to do the same again in 2024 election - and this time the stakes may be even higherAmerica's hospitality workers had it tough in 2020. Covid triggered mass layoffs and many wondered when - and even if - the industry would recover. But the turmoil didn't stop the industry's largest union from pulling off one of the most successful voter drives of the election.As the 2024 election cycle gets into full swing, Unite Here is hoping to do the same again, and this time the stakes may be even higher. Continue reading...

It's a month-long feast of international football in the US, and Fox is still at the buffet, dribbling into the cheese platterThere was a time, about a week in to Fox Sports's coverage of this super-sized double scoop of an international footballing summer, when a strange and bewildering thought occurred to me. Jules Breach was conducting proceedings with chirpy efficiency. Alexi Lalas had consistently been man-marked out of half-time proceedings by the resolute German defensive screen presence of Ari Hingst. The easy and genial contempt of the European headliners like Giorgio Chiellini and Peter Schmeichel kept the yee-ha Americanness of Fox's coverage in check. And Landon Donovan's ongoing struggle to maintain his hairline had somehow managed to sympathize America's most boring man, a commentator so aggressively dull he could have made the storming of the Bastille sound like a trip to the grocery store. Had Fox turned the corner? Was the network that, just two years ago, tried to turn Chad Ochocinco, a man with seemingly no knowledge of or interest in the sport of association football, into a soccer identity", getting better at covering international football?And then it happened. Clint Dempsey popped up on screen with a series of squawks and garbles that failed to cohere into a sentence. Carli Lloyd went public with the heroic take that Christian Pulisic could one day claim Lionel Messi's mantle as the greatest player of all time. Rob Stone called the World Cup the big dance", helpfully bringing it into scale with the NCAA Division I basketball tournament. Intuit Quickbooks, Allstate, and T-Mobile - the main on-air sponsors - started to take on the allure of old friends. The feed of Hungary v Switzerland cut out 40 minutes into the first half so Fox could show a smallmouth bass fishing tournament instead. Lalas eased into his 200th reference to the Copa America as a bar fight". I breathed a sigh of relief. The old stalwarts had come to the party. Magic was still in the air. Those of us who imagined a summer free of the hockey commentators, aggressive sponsor promotions, and college basketball analogies on which Fox has staked its reputation as America's Home of Soccer have been rescued from the tyranny of hope. We're back, baby: it's a month-long feast of international football, and Fox is still at the buffet, dribbling into the cheese platter. Continue reading...

Out with the scoundrels. There will be time to think about the massive tasks ahead for Labour, but - for now - marvel at what they have doneHallelujah and hosanna! (If not now, when?) At the stroke of 10, the country knew it had liberated itself from the most contemptible government in living memory. The wreckers, destroyers, bullies, incompetents, cronies and crass self-servers are gone. The Tory reign of error is over; they have no God-given right to rule after all. Torn down by the people's revenge, they were felled by their own hubris. Since the days of tumbrils and defenestrations are over, the loss of seats and ministerial car are small punishment for the suffering they deliberately inflicted on millions. The rise in infant mortality is only the most measurable indicator of the large numbers who have died needlessly during their great austerity.They will skip away to City and company boardrooms unpunished; some prime architects of the worst cruelties had already escaped today's final humiliation. George Osborne, chief villain, lives high on investment banking and podcasting - the axeman of the arts is now chair of trustees at the British Museum. Before the 2010 election he called accusations that he would cut public spending a pack of lies", then made an abattoir of health and education, bankrupted cities, denuded councils, stripped the courts, skinned defence and ripped benefits until food banks became the nation's social security safety net. For the next 14 years the only growth was in public service decrepitude. That can be repaired in time, but Brexit caused irreparable harm, David Cameron putting the country at risk with a referendum to appease his party's Europhobes.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnistThe Only Way is Up, by Polly Toynbee and David Walker audits Labour's inheritance and the benchmarks for building a fairer, greener, healthier, more productive and contented Britain. Published this week, order from Guardian bookshop https://guardianbookshop.com/The-Only-Way-Is-Up-9781805462668 Continue reading...

Our writers weigh in on Labour's first 100 days, the surging smaller parties and a bruising night for the ToriesAnd just like that, Britain kicked the Conservative party into touch.Frances Ryan is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Time is running out, and only putting aside petty party squabbles will stop the disaster of the National Rally taking powerThe far right's historically high score in the first round of the French legislative elections was reflected in the alarmed headlines of major international media outlets. An earthquake", a staggering collapse" authored by Emmanuel Macron's arrogance and disdain for his fellow citizens" were among the reactions. But despite the imminence of the potential catastrophe now facing France - the far right has never been as close to power since the collaborationist Vichy regime - many in the political centre still struggle with the idea of uniting to keep National Rally (RN) out.Macron irresponsibly conflated the far right and the left during the campaign, claiming that the two extremes" (right and left) would lead to civil war". His rhetoric falsely equated the hateful far right with a coalition of parties on the left (the New Popular Front, NFP) that aspires to equality and social justice. He even adopted the talking points of the far right to attack the left's immigrationist" programme.Rokhaya Diallo is a Guardian Europe 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...

Emi Martinez was the hero in another penalty shoot-out as Argentina survived a big scare in Texas3 min Fernandez stabs a promising pass towards Lautaro Martinez, forcing Preciado to come across and sweep up on the edge of the area. Argentina have had all of the ball in the first few minutes.3 min There hasn't been a goal at either end in the first half of Argentina's games, so don't be surprised if this takes a little while to get going. Continue reading...

Punishment seems to come from all sides, with a landslide for Keir Starmer and sizeable gains for the Lib Dems and ReformGradually, then suddenly. That is how Ernest Hemingway famously described a character's bankruptcy. That was how the 14-year Tory hegemony of Britain came to a brutal end.If the exit poll released on the stroke of 10pm is even half right, this is less a changing of the executive, more a punishment beating - and one that is well deserved. A 170-seat majority for Keir Starmer and his refashioned Labour party, which is projected to land 410 seats. A drubbing for the Tories, pegged back to 131.Hugh Muir is the Guardian's executive editor, OpinionGuardian Newsroom: Election results special. On Friday 5 July, 7.30pm-9pm BST, join Gaby Hinsliff, Hugh Muir, John Crace, Jonathan Freedland and Zoe Williams for unrivalled analysis of the general election results. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live Continue reading...

President gives interviews with stations in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania as report says he plans to cut back on events after 8pmJoe Biden has told a radio show he screwed up" and made a mistake" in last week's debate against Donald Trump, but vowed to stay in the election race, even as a series of polls show him now trailing the ex-president by about six points.In two interviews conducted Wednesday and aired Thursday with local radio stations in the battleground states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where he will also hold events this weekend, the president urged voters to judge him on his time in the White House. Continue reading...

Tomorrow we'll see politicians engaged in joy and recriminations, but they should worry about the cynicism and disappointment around usIt started with dark comedy. The sight of Rishi Sunak, behind the podium at No 10, drenched by the rain - a drowned rat in a sharp suit, drowned out by a hostile loudspeaker, bellowing out the fact of his sudden-death election - belonged to vaudeville.The race itself belonged to Hobbes: poor, nasty, brutish and short".Hugh Muir is the Guardian's executive editor, OpinionGuardian Newsroom: Election results special

After empty streets and ruined economies, cities try to write a new chapter with new apartments, breweries and thriving arts scenesLife in Evansville, Indiana, during the 20th century mirrored much of the rest of the US's industrial midwest: booming growth powered by manufacturing in the early decades - then a steep decline that left its streets empty and economy in practical ruins.Since its heyday as an industrial powerhouse in the 1960s, Evansville's population has fallen by 18%. Continue reading...

Severe' and potentially record-breaking' heatwave sends temperatures soaring across USMore than 134 million people were under heat alerts on Thursday morning, as a brutal and potentially historic heatwave sent temperatures soaring across the US on Independence Day with little chance of relief over the next week, even after dark.Forecasters warned that high overnight temperatures and the long-lasting duration of the extreme event will increase the danger, posing additional risks to human health and the rapid spread of wildfires. Continue reading...

Clip obtained by Daily Beast shows ex-president sitting in golf cart, holding cash, as he discusses presidential debateA broken-down pile of crap" on the verge of quitting the race" was Donald Trump's summation of Joe Biden in a surreptitiously filmed video leaked on Wednesday.The clip, obtained by the Daily Beast, shows the 78-year-old former president sitting in a golf cart, holding a pile of cash, and with son Barron alongside, as he offers an analysis of the 2024 presidential campaign. Continue reading...

For most of my adult life, politics has meant disappointment. On 5 July, I want my son to see me happy and hopefulIt's the hope that kills you - that's how I have felt about every election for the past 14 years. That small swell of optimism almost instantly gives way to the embittered feeling that you have been a dreamer, a prize fool. So habitual has that emotion become that I'm not sure I, or many of my contemporaries, really know how to feel positive about politics any more. Tory governments comprising bigots, landlords and shysters have dominated most of my 20s and all of my 30s. Like cats that have been mistreated by their owners, we shrink from any kind entreaties with fear and suspicion. We have forgotten what it is like to be cared for.I don't want to be that way. So I have been thinking a lot about 1997: that bright May morning when I was nine years old. How happy my parents were. That's all any child wants, really: smiling parents. (Last week, I saw a clip of a toddler who had been asked to video her parents dancing with each other. She had accidentally filmed it in selfie mode, so instead of seeing them dance, we see her big, beatific grin, her happiness at their happiness.) The feeling of jubilation in our house: I have never forgotten it, nor the sunny walk to school, the sense that something better was on its way. Continue reading...

The note, valued at $40,000, is for sale in honor of Fourth of July, also the 198th anniversary of the president's deathHe came from one of America's wealthiest landowning families, and was ranked the fourth richest US president in a recent study. But Thomas Jefferson, the nation's third president, harbored a secret during his time in the White House: he was almost constantly in penury, and struggled to pay his food bills, servants and other household expenses.The revelation comes in a previously unpublished letter that Jefferson, who was president from 1801 to 1809, wrote to a friend who acted as his financial agent in October 1802. Continue reading...

White House denies reports president is assessing candidacy. Plus, UK expected to elect Labour in landslide

Let's remember that we've come a long way - and the journey isn't yet completeIf you've been paying even the slightest bit of attention, you know that the American Experiment took some gut punches over the last week.Joe Biden - long considered the best hope for preventing another disastrous Donald Trump term - had a shockingly bad debate performance, looking and sounding every minute of his 81 years. Continue reading...

Seattle are sitting atop the American League West but the team's ambitions have been dashed plenty of times beforeBilly Mac remembers being in the broadcast booth in 2019 when Felix Hernandez pitched his final game for the Seattle Mariners. Hernandez, a Cy Young Award-winner and six-time All-Star who also threw a perfect game, came up in the big leagues with the team in 2005. But over the course of his 15-year career in the Pacific northwest, he was often the lone bright spot for a franchise that at one time had a 21-year playoff drought (a streak that finally fell in 2022). From his first All-Star season in 2009 until his final one in 2015, Hernandez boasted a stunning 2.83 ERA, winning 104 games and losing only 65. Yet, he never once made a postseason pitch. But for Mac, a fact like that is all too familiar for the team he's rooted now for decades - a team that was established in 1977 and remains the only active MLB franchise to never make a World Series.Few careers were less taken advantage of than that of Felix Hernandez," Mac tells the Guardian, refraining from using the word wasted. In the booth that night, Mac says he snapped a photo of the team's broadcast crew as Hernandez left the mound. They all stood up," he says. You don't see a standing ovation in a radio booth - that was a really special moment." Continue reading...

The president's hubris in thinking he was capable of a second term could be catastrophic - now the inquest is under wayIn the wake of Joe Biden's disastrous performance in the US presidential debate last week, the national tone shifted from shock and horror to fury. Biden himself, pityingly regarded, was spared the worst of the criticism. Instead, the two people who seem to have incurred the most anger have been his wife, Jill - suddenly thrust into the unhappy mould of the new Nancy Reagan - and, esoterically, the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Biden's refusal to stand aside has thrown everyone back to RBG's late-in-life vanity that ended in the overturning of Roe v Wade.Terrible as things are, there was, it has to be said, some relief in finally being able to say the quiet part out loud. With the energy of a cork leaving a bottle, a lot of people came forward this week with more evidence of the president's lapses". In the New York Times, anonymous European officials who met Biden at the recent G7 summit in Italy belatedly registered their alarm; those who attended a recent event at the White House did the same. While big money donors joined the chorus of those freaking out, Biden's aides pushed back with examples of how probing and insightful" the president continues to be. Continue reading...

Argentina are cruising, Colombia, Venezuela and Uruguay are rising, while the US and Mexico are in crisisThere's a recipe for making the best tournaments. You need the right balance of favorites marching towards the final and underdogs carving their way out of the group stage. A nation furthering a massive unbeaten streak doesn't hurt, either. The same goes for a host nation crashing out in dramatic fashion.The first 24 games of the Copa America have added just about every ingredient in that great tournament recipe. With the group stage complete and the knockout rounds awaiting us, which teams look the strongest? Continue reading...

A Putin-friendly president would pose a grave danger to Europe. Like it or not, this calls for greater defenceSoon after Labour forms a government, it will find itself in a new world. It now seems likely that Donald Trump will win the presidency of the United States. If he does, this should bring an end to our abiding fantasies about a special relationship.It was always an illusion. After the astonishing, heroic intervention of the US in the second world war preserved us from invasion and fascism, we built a romantic fairytale of enduring love. But both countries act in their own interests. While the UK and Europe have leant on the US for security, the dominant power has long used us as an instrument of policy. Continue reading...

At my local market in Barcelona, I see how few young people have the time or inclination to join the queues for a friendly chatBarcelona's famous market, La Boqueria, was voted the best in the world by Food & Wine magazine last month (ahead of Marche des Enfants Rouges in Paris and Campo de' Fiori in Rome), much to the derision of residents who long ago abandoned the city's famous 13th-century market to the millions of tourists who visit it each year.Once the place to go for things you couldn't get in your local neighbourhood market - wild boar, pheasant, goose barnacles, tamarillo or edible insects - stallholders now offer plastic cups of fruit salad, paper wraps of jamon serrano and pre-mixed sangria. And who can blame them if it brings in twice what they make selling tomatoes? Continue reading...

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President meets with Democratic governors for candid' talks as he seeks to reassure his party and the publicA group of leading Democratic governors offered words of support for Joe Biden on Wednesday as pressure mounted on the president to leave the race.The governors, including Tim Walz of Minnesota, Wes Moore of Maryland, Gavin Newsom of California and Kathy Hochul of New York, held a closed-door meeting with Biden in Washington as he sought to reassure his party - and the public - that he is up to the job after a shaky debate performance. Continue reading...

Reed Hastings one of first major party donors to urge Biden to bow out, telling him to make room for a vigorous' leaderReed Hastings, the co-founder of Netflix and a Democratic party megadonor, has called for Joe Biden to take himself out of the presidential race following his disastrous performance at last week's debate against Donald Trump.Hastings told the New York Times on Wednesday that the president needs to step aside to allow a vigorous Democratic leader to beat Trump and keep us safe and prosperous". Continue reading...

Samuel Woodward faces life without parole after conviction in killing of Blaze Bernstein, 19, in Orange county in 2018A southern California jury has convicted Samuel Woodward of the 2018 murder of former high school classmate Blaze Bernstein, following a three month-long trial that re-excavated a brutal killing that made international headlines for the perpetrator's membership in the neo-Nazi Atomwaffen Division organization.Bernstein, a 19-year-old pre-med student at the University of Pennsylvania, disappeared on 2 January 2018 after meeting up with Woodward, then 20, that evening. The pair, who had attended the Orange County High School for the Arts together, had reconnected over the dating app Tinder. Bernstein's body was found six days later, buried in a park in Orange county. Woodward was the last person Bernstein was in contact with, and immediately fell under suspicion. Continue reading...

After president's poor debate performance, pundits point to polls saying Harris would do better in a race against TrumpAs Joe Biden faces increasing pressure to withdraw his candidacy following last week's poor debate performance, Kamala Harris has emerged as the frontrunner to replace him.The president forcefully rejected calls to end his campaign on Wednesday, telling his staffers: No one is pushing me out ... I'm not leaving. I'm in this race to the end and we're going to win." His defiant remarks came after the New York Times reported that Biden had privately told allies he understood he might not be able to salvage his candidacy if he could not convince voters of his viability. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Michigan governor and potential Biden replacement writes in memoir True Gretch of desire for face-to-face' talksGretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan widely spoken of as a possible Democratic candidate for president should Joe Biden cede to growing pressure and leave the race, wants to meet members of a far-right militia who plotted to kidnap and kill her.I asked whether I could meet with one of the handful of plotters who'd pleaded guilty and taken responsibility for their actions, just to talk," Whitmer writes in a new book, of the plot motivated by resistance to Covid public health measures and revealed with 13 arrests in late 2020. Continue reading...

White House denies reports president is weighing whether his candidacy is viable or not with spate of interviews lined upThe White House insisted on Wednesday that Joe Biden is staying in the election as the presumptive Democratic nominee, while the US president reportedly told his campaign team I'm in this race to the end" amid mounting pressure for him to step down over concerns he is not up to the job, at 81.Karine Jean-Pierre, the press secretary, told reporters the president is not dropping out", even while he owns" his dire performance in the first debate of the campaign against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump last week. Continue reading...

Casper Ruud and Naomi Osaka were knocked out, while there were wins for Coco Gauff, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, who beat Mario Berrettini in a belterThe current scene.Do you want the good news or the bad? Let's start with the bad. The forecast is now worse than first expected, and there could be on-off light rain for the next few hours. Not ideal when the tournament is already playing catch-up. But the weather is looking much better for tomorrow, and there should be an uninterrupted day's play. Continue reading...

Plus: A dispatch from Wisconsin, more lies and no more lawyering for Rudy GiulianiHello there.Well, that was interesting, wasn't it? The election was trundling along pretty normally, then we get a momentous week that changed the shape of the race and the stakes involved. Continue reading...

The supreme court's sweeping ruling is a blow to democracy in the USThe supreme court's ruling on presidential immunity combines a tectonic constitutional shift and immediate political repercussions to devastating effect. It allows one man to stand above the law. It slows and appears to gut the 2020 election-subversion case against Donald Trump, though it does not necessarily end it. No one believes a trial can be held before November's election, although court hearings could still offer a detailed airing of the evidence thisautumn.There could hardly have been a better week for Mr Trump, who saw his rival stumble so badly in last Thursday's debate that Joe Biden faces growing calls to quit four months from election day. Anyone who doubts how consequential a second Trump administration term would be for the United States and the world need only look to the supreme court, now ruled by a conservative supermajority thanks to three Trump-appointed justices. Continue reading...