American dream played out in piece of irresistible theatre to bury the memories of the Damned Games of TokyoOf course there was theatre at the very end. Two hours into this women's Artistic Gymnastics Team final, with the USA coasting grandly at the head of the field, the logistics of competition left Simone Biles with one final act to stop the show.Three years on from Tokyo and The Breakdown, the only discipline remaining in that same team event was the Biles floor routine. And so in front of Bill Gates, Gianni Infantino, Serena Williams and Spike Lee, in front of the eyes of the world as ever, Simone Biles got to dance like no one was watching. Continue reading...
by Sarah Rendell, Martin Belam, Barry Glendenning, Jo on (#6PK7B)
Britain retained men's 4x200 freestyle gold in the Paris pool, Andy Murray and Dan Evans survived again and Simone Biles lit up the GamesFollowing in the footsteps of their male counterparts, the US women's basketball team began their Olympic campaign looking like a team with a point to prove. The Americans now have a 56-game Olympic winning streak that dates to the 1992 Barcelona Games. It means 42-year-old Diana Taurasi is on track for a sixth consecutive gold medal.Watching Tom Pidcock deal with a flat tyre and win the cross-country cycling was much easier to enjoy.It was a ride of pure, thrilling instinct: a welcome reminder that in the chaos of competitive cross-country biking, sometimes the best plan is no plan at all. And Pidcock, who has won on the snow-flecked peaks of Alpe d'Huez and the dandruff-white roads of Strade Bianche and now the verdant woodland of Paris, is in many ways a cyclist of the romantic imagination, of a time before strategies and specialisation and fouryear plans, when the essence of the sport was simply to get on your bike and thrash the hell out of it.Specialisation will surely come for Pidcock too in the end. With a second gold safely in the bag, and with his peak years approaching, all the incentives seem to point towards a proper tilt at the Tour with Ineos Grenadiers, the laborious process of chiselling and sanding himself down into a pure mountain machine. But here, amid the tree stumps and the dirt, is where his bold and breathtaking range of skills finds its most vivid and spectacular expression. Continue reading...
Many criticize ex-president's appearance at Black journalists' conference as irresponsibleOn Monday night, the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) announced that Donald Trump will participate in a panel discussion at the organization's annual convention in Chicago, which starts on Wednesday.The announcement, which said that the Q&A would concentrate on the most pressing issues facing the Black community", was met with swift online backlash from some Black journalists. They decried the decision to invite a presidential candidate who has lambasted Black journalists, led a movement to squash diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and who is responsible for increased anti-journalistic sentiment, including the popularization of the term fake news" to describe factual, but potentially unflattering, reporting. Continue reading...
by Laurence H Tribe and Dennis Aftergut on (#6PKVR)
Americans are desperate for the top court to be reformed. Kamala Harris could deliver change if she winsWe already knew the monumental stakes in this election: prosecutor v felon, the rule of law v the rule of raw power; democracy v dictatorship; women's right to decide who they want to be and whether or not they wish to bear children v the Handmaid's Tale.Now add US supreme court reform v retrenchment. On Monday, Joe Biden proposed concrete steps to correct the supreme court extremism that Donald Trump has enabled through three appointments to the court. And the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris quickly endorsed it. Continue reading...
The profile made more than 700 extreme' anti-immigrant and antisemitic comments from 2019 to 2020Though they have not pinpointed a motive behind Donald Trump's failed assassination attempt, investigators are examining a social media account with antisemitic and anti-immigrant posts that they suspect might be connected to the former US president's would-be killer, according to the FBI deputy director, Paul Abbate.Abbate on Tuesday appeared alongside the acting US Secret Service director, Ronald Rowe Jr, before a US Senate panel and said: In about the 2019, 2020 timeframe, there were over 700 comments posted from this account. Some of these comments, if ultimately attributable to the shooter, appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature." Continue reading...
Harris's Fearless ad offers hope for future, while Trump's I Don't Understand attacks crime and immigration policiesKamala Harris and Donald Trump released dueling campaign ads on Tuesday, as the reshaped US presidential election began to grind into gear with 98 days to go.The US vice-president's ad, Fearless, was her first since she became the de facto Democratic nominee, after Joe Biden halted his re-election campaign and endorsed her. Continue reading...
Nicolas Maduro claimed victory. Protesters say otherwise - and it isn't just the president's usual foes who are expressing concernEven before Venezuelans went to the polls on Sunday, it was entirely predictable that Nicolas Maduro would declare victory and that the opposition would call the election a sham, as before. So it came to pass. With most of the vote counted, the government-controlled electoral authority said that the incumbent president had taken 51% of votes while his rival, the former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, had won 44%. The opposition say that they have voting tallies proving otherwise, and that Mr Gonzalez is president-elect: The Venezuelans and the entire world know what happened," he said.Two things have changed. The first is that there has been a widespread rejection of Mr Maduro's disastrous reign, even in impoverished areas that were previously strongholds of the Chavismo movement he inherited. Their residents have had enough of the economic and humanitarian catastrophe that has left an estimated 19 million people without adequate healthcare and nutrition, and no longer buy his explanation that it's all the fault of others. US sanctions have exacerbated the crisis, but his government is corrupt and incompetent as well as brutal. Mr Maduro may blame the extreme right for the protests and clashes now seen on the streets, but he knows that he's lost supporters on whom he once counted. Continue reading...
Jeff Bridges, Mark Hamill, Mark Ruffalo and contenders for Harris's VP pick among 190,000 participants in Zoom callA Zoom call meant to rally white dudes" in support of Kamala Harris's run for the White House raised more than $4m from about 190,000 participants, including several Hollywood stars, in the latest success for her nascent bid for president.The fundraiser added to a series of positives for the Harris campaign on Tuesday, including the release of a new ad, an endorsement from the Republican mayor of a large city in in Arizona, and an admission from the Republicans' vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, that Harris posed more of a threat to the Trump campaign than Joe Biden did. Continue reading...
Lawsuit alleges Meta violated state law that prohibits capturing or selling information like faces or fingerprintsMeta has agreed to a $1.4bn settlement with Texas in a privacy lawsuit over claims that the tech giant used biometric data of users without their permission, officials said Tuesday.Texas attorney general Ken Paxton said the settlement is the largest secured by a single state. In 2021, a judge approved a $650m settlement with the company, formerly known as Facebook, over similar claims of users in Illinois. Continue reading...
Mesa mayor crosses party line to back vice-president and rebuke Trump's political extremism' in op-edJohn Giles, the Republican mayor of Arizona's third largest city and a previous thorn in the side of his party for endorsing Democrats, has thrown his support behind Kamala Harris for president.Giles, who since 2014 has been mayor of Mesa near Phoenix, also rebuked Donald Trump in an opinion piece for the Arizona Republic published Monday. Continue reading...
Too many are dismissed, while others are overdiagnosed. And the catch-all diagnosis of colic' isn't helpingBabies cry. This we know. But some cry dramatically more than others. Many parents have the experience of being told their inconsolable child has colic". They assume it's a real, diagnosable medical condition, when really it is a catch-all term for excessive, unexplained crying, and even though it can dramatically affect the experience of early parenthood, they might never understand why it's happening.Several friends with colicky" babies had infants who seemed to be screaming in extreme pain, were impossible to put down, and never slept. Several would spit up milk after every feed, but not all of them. It turned out that these babies actually had reflux. While all of us new parents were in the trenches, these parents had it far worse. They were exhausted, distressed, and felt powerless to soothe their children. Reflux - when milk, food and stomach acid flow from the stomach into the oesophagus - is very common in babies, and doesn't usually require treatment. Yet for some, there are complications.Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist and author Continue reading...
Republican presidential nominee denies threatening to stay in office after end of possible second term in Fox interviewDonald Trump on Monday repeated his weekend remarks to Christian summit attendees that they would never need to vote again if he returns to the presidency in November.But, after being asked repeatedly on Fox News to clarify what he meant, the Republican former president denied threatening to permanently stay in office beyond his second - and constitutionally mandated final - four-year term. Continue reading...
The pommel horse specialist became a breakout star as the American men won bronze in the team gymnastics. He said it was a win for his fellow glasses wearersNearly 167 million American adults wear prescription glasses. Only one is a pommel horse hero.Stephen Nedoroscik, a 25-year-old from Worcester, Massachusetts, has strabismus, more commonly known as crossed eyes, which can lead to double vision. He won gold on the pommel horse at the 2021 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships but was not wearing glasses when scoring 14.866 on the pommel horse in Paris on Monday, a performance that secured a bronze, the first gymnastics men's team medal for the US since 2008. Continue reading...
Shaundelle Brooks, whose son died in a shooting, channels grief into action' after Tennessee lawmakers failed herAfter losing her son to gun violence, Shaundelle Brooks knew she had to do something big.Brooks' son, Akilah DaSilva, was killed in a mass shooting at a Nashville Waffle House in 2018 that left four dead and two wounded. His death launched Brooks into advocacy. Continue reading...
The once outlandish predictions of Ballard, DeLillo and (yes) The Simpsons are coming true. It's time to write our own futureWriting about the assassination of President John F Kennedy for Rolling Stone in 1983, 20 years after the shooting, the novelist Don DeLillo remarked: Europeans and Middle Easterners are notoriously prone to believe in conspiracies ... Americans, for their own good reasons, tend to believe in lone gunmen." How times change. Since Donald Trump was wounded in an assassination attempt on 13 July, social media have boiled over with talk of conspiracies, false flags and complex manipulations of state and psyche for unclear ends. After Joe Biden withdrew his candidacy for president, various online conservatives argued that he was actually dead. Meanwhile, otherwise sensible observers blamed the media for creating the narrative that Biden had lost mental acuity and keeping Trump in the public eye - a kind of Rothschild conspiracy for people who took undergraduate sociology.It's fun to scoff at such people, who believe that powerful forces secretly organise the world even as we confront evidence that human intelligence is no longer sufficient to run a branch of Chipotle. In fairness to the paranoid mindset, though, a lot of events from earlier decades' fiction have been coming true lately. Consider Lisa's prophetic line from the Bart to the Future episode of The Simpsons, original airdate 19 March 2000: As you know, we've inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump." It was funny at the time. I believe it was either Karl Marx or Nelson Muntz who said that history repeats itself: first as farce, then as whatever all this is now.Dan Brooks writes essays, fiction and commentary from Missoula, Montana Continue reading...
In a DC-area hotel, Democrats and Republicans met to wargame five scenarios they say are not unrealistic'It is the afternoon of 20 January 2025 and Donald Trump is in his White House dining room, glued to the same TV where he sat transfixed as the January 6 attack on the US Capitol unfolded four years ago. This morning, he completed one of the most spectacular political comebacks in US history, reciting the oath of office at the inauguration ceremony that returned him to the most powerful job on Earth.His political resurrection has caused turmoil in the transition period, and massive anti-Trump demonstrations have erupted in several big cities. In his inaugural address, the 47th president makes clear his intention to deal with his detractors: They are rioting in the streets. We are not safe. Make our cities safe again!" he commands. Continue reading...
Trump's current running mate said some of the his supporters voted for him in 2016 for racist reasons'In newly uncovered remarks from 2017, Donald Trump's 2024 vice-presidential pick, JD Vance, said some people who voted for Trump are racist and they voted for him for racist reasons".Race definitely played a role in the 2016 election," Vance said. I think that race will always play a role in our country. It's just sort of a constant fact of American life. And definitely some people who voted for Trump are racist and they voted for him for racist reasons." Continue reading...
He may soon be one of the most powerful people in the world. So what can we learn about Donald Trump's running mate from his online footprint?Like many an elder millennial, JD Vance once had a blog. Two, actually. The lawyer turned writer turned senator turned venture capitalist turned Donald Trump's running mate launched his first blog during his 2005 deployment to Iraq. It was called The Ruminations of JD Hamel, because that was the name he was ruminating under at the time. Vance has gone by a few names. He has also gone through a hell of a lot of political opinions.His second blog, called The Hillbilly Elite, was launched in 2010, when he was a 26-year-old at Yale Law School. It was meant to help him parse his feelings about being an Appalachian white boy ... training at the world's premier center for elites". When I say feelings", I don't mean silly little girly feelings. This was serious stuff. So it's like a diary," his first entry explained, only far more masculine." Continue reading...
The president also decried the Trump immunity ruling and is proposing a constitutional amendment that explicitly applies the criminal code to presidents. Plus, the man who has ranked every Disney song
Trump, JD Vance, and their Maga allies are misogynists who want to control women. Harris could not be more of a threatWhen Joe Biden stepped down in support of Kamala Harris, he didn't just pass the torch to another generation. He passed it from old white men to America's future.Consider that women now compose a remarkable 60% of college undergraduates. And that by 2050, it's estimated that America will consist mostly of people of color - 30% more Black people than today, 60% more Latinos, and twice the number of Asian Americans. Continue reading...
Kari Lake, who refused to accept her gubernatorial race loss in 2022, is now vying for US Senate - and other key racesRepublican primaries across Arizona on Tuesday will test whether the far-right cadre focused on election denial still can win among their base, despite major losses in the 2022 primaries.The state has been gripped with fights over elections for years, with candidates like Donald Trump and Kari Lake refusing to concede their respective races. These general election losses in 2020 and 2022 ended decades-long Republican dominance, delivering the governor's office and other top spots to Democrats. Continue reading...
Taylor Knibb will follow up her appearance in the time trial with the triathlon. She will join a select group of athletes when she does soIn the early days of the Olympics, competing in multiple sports was far from unusual.At the loosely organized 1904 Olympics, at which the United States won at least 230 (sources vary due to uncertain citizenship for many competitors) of the 280 medals awarded over nearly five months as a sideshow to the St Louis World's Fair, Franz Kugler became the only man to win medals in three sports in the same Games - hitting the podium in wrestling, weightlifting and tug of war. In 1908, eight US track and field athletes - including Irish-born hammer-throwing legend Matt McGrath - entered the tug of war competition, only to withdraw in protest over the shoes worn by the Liverpool Police team, who went on to lose to their fellow law-enforcement personnel from London. A lot of events were unofficial demonstration sports," such as the 1912 baseball games featuring even more US track and field athletes.US boxer-turned-bobsledder Eddie Eagan is still the only Olympian to win gold in both Olympics in different disciplines. (Figure skater Gillis Grafstrom won gold in the Summer and Winter Olympics but in the same event - until the Winter Olympics debuted in 1924, figure skating was held in the summer.)Norway's Jacob Tullin Thams had a similarly esoteric combination, winning ski jumping gold and sailing silver.Cycling and speedskating form a more common combination. Canadian Clara Hughes earned multiple medals in each sport, while East German Christa Luding-Rothenburger will remain the only person to win Winter and Summer medals in the same year, unless the IOC makes a surprising revamp of the Olympic calendar.Bobsledding is a popular second sport for track and field athletes, but US sprinter Lauryn Williams is the only person with medals in both sports. Continue reading...
Find out who is leading the way at the Olympics, and drill down to see which events each country has won medals forSupport 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...
Very little thought seems to have been given to how Steven van der Velde's presence might affect victims of sexual abuseFor weeks now, controversy has surrounded the Dutch beach volleyball player Steven van de Velde, who was sentenced to four years in prison in England in 2016 for raping a 12-year-old girl when he was 19. He has served his time and openly expressed regret for what he called the biggest mistake of my life". But is that enough for him to be allowed to represent the Netherlands at the Olympic Games, a contest in which participants are also expected to serve as role models?International media and support groups for victims of sexual violence certainly do not think so. Many condemned the decision to let Van de Velde play, and even called on the International Olympic Committee to investigate how he had been allowed to compete.Renate van der Zee is a Dutch writer and journalistInformation and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html Continue reading...
Michigan and North Carolina governors out as remaining likely running mates are white men governing swing statesTwo lawmakers seen as strong contenders in the race to become Kamala Harris's running mate have announced that they are not in the running. On Monday, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer and North Carolina governor Roy Cooper both said that while they support the vice-president, they will be staying in their posts in their respective states.This just wasn't the right time for North Carolina and for me to potentially be on a national ticket," Cooper said in a statement posted to Twitter/X on Monday. As I've said from the beginning, she has an outstanding list of people from which to choose, and we'll all work to make sure she wins." Continue reading...
Sales have fallen 1% around the world, as consumers eat at home or choose cheaper menu optionsThey're not lovin' it. McDonald's global sales fell for the first time in nearly four years in the second quarter as inflation-weary consumers skipped eating out or chose cheaper options. The company said it expects same-store sales to be down for the next few quarters and is working on fixes like meal deals and new menu items.Consumers still recognise us as the value leader versus our key competitors, it's clear that our value leadership gap has recently shrunk," McDonald's chairman, president and CEO Chris Kempczinski said on Monday during a conference call with investors. We are working to fix that with pace." Continue reading...
Many fires ignited by weather, with climate crisis increasing lightning strikes amid blistering heat and dry conditionsFire crews made progress in the battle against major wildfires that have left a trail of damage in the western United States, but thousands of firefighters continue to tackle the flames.In northern California, the Park fire grew at ferocious speeds to become one of the largest wildfires in the state this year. In southern California, a blaze swept through the historic mining town of Havilah. And in Oregon and Idaho, authorities were assessing the damage caused by several large wildfires raging there. Continue reading...
President calls immunity principle dangerous' in Austin speech, and proposes code of conduct and term limitsJoe Biden, in a Monday address calling for sweeping reforms of the US supreme court, said the recent decision granting some immunity to presidents from criminal prosecution makes them a king before the law.Speaking in Austin at the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Biden said a president was no longer restrained by the law and that this was a fundamentally flawed [and] dangerous principle". Continue reading...
by Abené Clayton (now); Joanna Walters and Léonie C on (#6PJJV)
President cites supreme court decisions that he says eroded civil rights, including presidential immunity ruling and overturning of Roe. This blog is now closed
by Niall McVeigh (now), with John Brewin, Jonathan Ho on (#6PJDM)
Mollie O'Callaghan won an Australian battle in the pool while Team GB enjoyed their best day of the Games so farThe Matildas, arguably Australia's most popular team at the Olympics, notched their first win of the Games, a madcap 6-5 victory over Zambia. Qualification to the quarter-finals now looks probable, but not yet assured. Even so, after displaying such poor form in their opening two matches progress deep into the tournament seems unlikely.For the optimists, this remarkable comeback victory will buoy the Matildas ahead of their crunch match against the United States on Wednesday in Marseille. It is just the sort of win needed to invigorate their Olympic campaign. Next stop - an Olympic medal?Then there is a less charitable way to assess the group stage clash on Sunday night. Zambia are ranked 64in the world. They have two of the best attackers in the world, yes, but as a cohesive national team, they are far from the finished product (the untenable position of their coach does not help). This is a game the Matildas, who have finished fourth at consecutive international tournaments, should have controlled and won comfortably.The medal is Fox's fourth in the kayak event stretching back to London 2012, and her second gold after she won in the canoe in Tokyo. She improved her time from the semi-final by a barely believable six seconds, avoiding any penalties. It left her competitors having to take more risks to navigate the tricky course. Continue reading...
Josiah Anthony steps down from role at Cross Timbers church in Fort Worth, as officials decline to give detailsAfter the ex-Trump adviser Robert Morris stepped down from his role as pastor at a Texas megachurch in June following a child sexual abuse scandal, another Texas megachurch pastor has stepped down over accusations of inappropriate" behavior.Cross Timbers church in the Fort Worth suburb of Argyle announced, in a sermon on Sunday, the resignation of its lead pastor, Josiah Anthony. Continue reading...
Ron Klain says he didn't agree with pressures for Biden to drop out but is optimistic about Harris's prospectsSenior Democrats' successful efforts to push Joe Biden out of the presidential race were unfortunate, nasty and public" and did the president a disservice", Biden's former White House chief of staff said - even as the new nominee, Kamala Harris, continued to fundraise strongly, campaign vigorously and show signs of catching Donald Trump in polling.I was disappointed that people in the party called for [Biden] to leave the race, and I thought they got out of control," Ron Klain said. Continue reading...
by Bryan Armen Graham at the Place de la Concorde on (#6PJYM)
The face of Japanese skateboarding edged out USA's Jagger Eaton and Nyjah Huston in an awesome display of street skillsYuto Horigome has never been afraid to leave things late. In danger of missing the podium entirely after bottling one trick after another on a sweltering Monday afternoon, the 25-year-old face of Japanese skateboarding roared from behind in the final reel to retain his Olympic men's street title ahead of the US pair of Jagger Eaton and Nyjah Huston, who took silver and bronze respectively.Amid oppressive heat beneath a cloudless sky in the temporary La Concorde stadium, Horigome once again came up clutch when it mattered most. He completed a flawless slide down the 10-stair round rail on his fifth and final trick to slide into gold position by a tenth of a point over Eaton, a bronze medalist three years ago in Tokyo. The near-perfect score of 97.08 left the door open for both Americans, but each wiped out on his final attempt to the relief of Horigome, who became the first double Olympic champion in skateboarding's brief history as a medal sport. Continue reading...
Timelapse video from 25 July captured California's Park fire creating what appears to be a fire tornado'. The fire, burning north-east of the city of Chico, forced thousands of residents in Butte County, about 100 miles north-east of Sacramento, to evacuate their homes. The fire, which stretched over four counties, was believed to be caused by arson, after authorities say a man was seen pushing a burning car into a ravine
Court reinstates ban after lengthy legal battle in a decision pro-choice advocates call violation of human rights'Kamala Harris, the likely Democratic nominee for president, urged Americans to vote after a six-week abortion ban took effect in Iowa on Monday.This ban is going to take effect before many women even know they're pregnant," Harris said in a video posted to YouTube. What this means is that one in three women of reproductive age in America lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban." Continue reading...
US news | The Guardian