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Legislation latest in raft of state anti-abortion laws since Roe v Wade was overturned. Plus, Trump not entitled to immunityIowa's state legislature voted last night to ban most abortions after around six weeks of pregnancy, a time before most people know they are pregnant. Republican lawmakers, which hold a majority in the Iowa house and Senate, passed the anti-abortion bill after the governor, Kim Reynolds, called a special session to seek a vote on the ban.The legislation will take immediate effect after Reynolds signs it on Friday and will prohibit abortions after the first sign of cardiac activity - usually around six weeks, with some exceptions for cases of rape or incest. It will allow for abortions up until 20 weeks of pregnancy only under certain conditions of medical emergency. Abortions in the state were previously allowed up to 20 weeks.The plot thickens. Lawyers reportedly said the new evidence suggested that Mr Trump was motivated by a personal grievance' stemming from events that occurred many years prior to Mr Trump's presidency". Continue reading...

The rapper denies his private Christian academy was a dystopian institution'. But the bizarre allegations keep comingWhen you reach a certain level of wealth, a little switch seemingly gets turned off in your brain. The part of your mind that tells you: Nah, I'm not really qualified for this," is disabled and you become convinced that being filthy rich makes you an expert in everything. There are plenty of examples of money brain" out there, but one of the more glaring is Kanye West. Ye, as West likes to be known, seems to think that his success in music and fashion makes him qualified to do everything from run for president to set up a school.We all know how his presidential aspirations went, but we are only just discovering quite how bizarre the disgraced musician's foray into education was. A few years ago, Ye opened a private school in Los Angeles called Yeezy Christian Academy, which became Donda Academy. The school, which cost $15,000 (11,600) a year, was named after his late mother, Prof Donda West, and was highly secretive about its unorthodox approach. Continue reading...

The stress of trying to get Taylor Swift tickets this week led to feelings of anger and loathing. It's all part of a music culture that feels increasingly greedy and combativeThis week, hundreds of thousands of Taylor Swift fans around the UK, Ireland and Europe have been desperately trying to get tickets to the Eras tour, which kicks off in Paris in May 2024. When tickets for North America dates went on sale last year, it was a disaster: demand was so high that systems crashed, the sale had to be stopped and ticket prices spiralled out of control due to Ticketmaster's dynamic pricing" whereby costs increase with demand. Clearly Swift's team and Ticketmaster have worked hard to try to prevent the same thing happening here but it has involved dizzying bureaucracy: presale codes, waitlists and special ballots for general sale.In our dedicated Swiftageddon group chat, we had been discussing strategy and making spreadsheets for weeks, ensuring we had credit cards and log-ins for every possible date we could make, though there was no indication in advance of how much tickets would be. Presale opened, and we dutifully took our places in the lobby, the waiting room and then the hundred-thousand-deep queue in which places were randomly assigned (military-grade planning only gets you so far). Continue reading...

A storm that dumped up to two months' worth of rain in two days brought more flooding in Vermont and other parts of the north-east US.In Montpelier, flood water reached waist height and rescue crews were positioned as there was a temporary risk of Vermont reservoir overwhelming a dam protecting the state's capital

A bushfire broke out in Mead Valley, California, burning heavy vegetation at a rapid rate on Tuesday, according to Riverside county fire department. Officials say the 4 hectare (10 acre) fire has been stopped from its forward progress but has not yet been contained. Mead Valley is about 60 miles (97km) south-east of Los Angeles. 'Several outbuildings and vehicles were destroyed in the fire,' Riverside county fire department said on Twitter. The cause of the fire is not yet known Continue reading...

The dream is in place, the field has been built. Major League Cricket finally launches on Thursday outside Dallas. But will the people come?For decades, cricket's powers have dreamed of making it big in America. Starting on Thursday the grandest, richest attempt yet to get Americans hooked on cricket will begin in a converted baseball stadium (capacity: 7,200) on the outskirts of Dallas. Major League Cricket, as the new competition is known, has money: close to $50m already spent, with another $130m on the way. It has wealthy patrons: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella leads a roll call of leading Indian-American tech executives who've signed up to throw cash at the new venture. It has the blessing of an International Cricket Council desperate to lift its sport's profile in America ahead of the 2024 T20 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the United States and the West Indies. It has powerful allies: four Indian Premier League franchises and two state cricket bodies from Australia have signed on as either full owners or operational partners for the fledgling league's six founding teams. It has a slot in the international cricket calendar that's relatively uncrowded, with only the men's and women's Ashes as real competition for the committed global cricket fan's attention. It has a list of team names that combine, in delightfully unbound American style, the patriotic (Washington Freedom) and ecological (Seattle Orcas) with the borrowed-from-the-IPL nonsensical (MI New York).Most importantly it has players, and some extremely capable ones at that: sprinkled among the little-known local talents (Corne Dry, anyone?) the new competition features the genuine stardust of Wanindu Hasaranga, Kagiso Rabada, Tim David and Anrich Nortje, among many other established T20 internationals who've made the trek out to the suburbs of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex to help launch cricket's latest big shot at success in America. But will Major League Cricket have any viewers? Will the American public thrill to the spectacle of a beefy heave through midwicket from Aaron Finch? Will it learn to lament, as millions of cricket fans throughout the world already do, the lost opportunities of a wasted PowerPlay? Will it grow to appreciate the finer points of an Adam Zampa strangler down leg side, or a topless cameo from Faf du Plessis on the player balcony? The final touches - the marking of the boundary barrier, the laying of the turf wicket, the engineering of the outfield - have just been applied to convert the former home ground of now-defunct off-brand baseball side the Texas AirHogs into an international-grade cricket venue. The dream is in place, the field has been built. But will they come? Continue reading...

As climate pledges become reality, opposition to the green agenda is growing. And the populist right is latching on to itWhen floods swept Europe in July 2021, killing more than 200 people in Germany, Belgium and neighbouring countries, it was a disaster that came as the climate crisis was moving to the top of Europe's political agenda. All of a sudden, climate was no longer an abstract threat that could be batted into a distant future; it was already here, causing shocking weather events, destroying lives and leaving people homeless.In northern Europe especially, spurred by the Fridays for Future school strikes, the climate crisis had already spilled into politics, pushing policy into action. But in 2021, measurable progress towards the goal of net zero emissions by 2050 began to be made. The EU didn't just limit itself to ambitious targets, enshrined in laws and regulations. It also put its money where its mouth was. Continue reading...

Nato and the EU are the twin pillars of European security, but Britain now has to pretend there is only oneNato must protect Ukraine from Russian aggression, and also Ukraine cannot join Nato while it is at war with Russia. That is the conundrum that leaders of the western military alliance grapple with at their annual summit in Vilnius.Kyiv craves the security of a mutual assistance pact - the ultimate solidarity that treats an attack on one Nato member as an aggression against them all. Nothing short of that guarantee, underwritten by US firepower, will persuade Russia to respect post-Soviet borders.Rafael Behr 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...

Legislation is latest in raft of anti-abortion laws passed in states across the country since supreme court overturned Roe v WadeIowa's state legislature voted on Tuesday night to ban most abortions after around six weeks of pregnancy, a time before most people know they are pregnant.Republican lawmakers, which hold a majority in both the Iowa house and senate, passed the anti-abortion bill after the governor, Kim Reynolds, called a special session to seek a vote on the ban. Continue reading...

In reversal justice department says presidency doesn't shield Trump from lawsuit, paving way for possible trial in JanuaryThe justice department has reversed its position on defending Donald Trump in a lawsuit brought by the writer E Jean Carroll, paving the way for a possible trial in January.The department said in a court filing on Tuesday that it could no longer conclude Trump was acting in his capacity as president when he made allegedly defamatory statements about Carroll in 2019. Continue reading...

Dozens of children died at the school a century ago but their grave sites have been lost to timeArchaeologists have started digging for the remains of children who died at a Native American boarding school in Nebraska. Grave sites of dozens of children who died at the Genoa Indian industrial school have been lost for decades, a mystery that archaeologists aim to unravel as they dig in a field that a century ago was part of the sprawling campus.Genoa was part of a national system of more than 400 Native American boarding schools that separated Indigenous children from their families and cut them off from their heritage. Continue reading...

Relentless temperatures upwards of 100F leave millions under extreme heat warnings and outdoor events cancelledRecord-breaking heat is baking the US south-west this week, putting millions under extreme heat warnings as temperatures upwards of 100F (38C) hit Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and southern California for days on end.Even desert residents accustomed to scorching summers are feeling the relentless grip of the heat. Phoenix, which hit a 12th consecutive day of 110F on Tuesday, could see its longest ever heatwave. Continue reading...

Van Houten, now 73, is out on parole after her conviction for participating in the 1969 LaBianca murders at age 19Leslie Van Houten, who was sentenced to life for participating in the infamous murders by the Charles Manson cult when she was 19, walked free from a California prison on Tuesday after 53 years behind bars.Van Houten, now 73, was convicted for helping Manson's followers carry out the 1969 killings of Leno LaBianca, a grocer in Los Angeles, and his wife, Rosemary. Continue reading...

Cause of landslide that destroyed a dozen homes remains unclear as officials say nothing can be done to stop descentThree days after a landslide destroyed a dozen hillside homes in southern California, the cause of the disaster is still unclear, even as the homes continue their slow descent into a canyon.Sixteen people have been displaced since the land between the homes began shifting and sliding over the weekend. Continue reading...

Bill faces few hurdles from being passed as state's house, senate and governor's office are all Republican-controlledIowa's state legislature held a special session on Tuesday ahead of voting on a bill the same day that would ban most abortions at around six weeks of pregnancy, when most people don't yet know they are pregnant. The state is the latest in the country to vote on legislation restricting reproductive rights after the overturning of Roe v Wade last year, which ended the nationwide constitutional right to abortion.Iowa's Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, called for the special session last week, vowing to continue to fight against the inhumanity of abortion" and calling the pro-life" movement against reproductive rights the most important human rights cause of our time". Lawmakers in the GOP-controlled legislature will debate house study bill 255, which was released on Friday and seeks to prohibit abortions at the first sign of cardiac activity except in certain cases such as rape or incest. Continue reading...

Aileen Cannon sets 18 July for hearing as ex-US president asks for trial delay; grand jury to decide if Trump has case to answer on election interference

Gal Luft charged in absentia with arms trafficking, violations of sanctions on Iran and making false statementsA US thinktank chief who accuses Joe Biden of China-linked corruption involving his son, Hunter Biden, and who has been presented by Republicans as a missing" witness against the president, was charged with China-linked offenses including failing to register as a foreign agent, arms trafficking and violations of sanctions on Iran.Gal Luft, 57 and a dual US-Israeli citizen, is co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS), based in Maryland, near Washington. Continue reading...

Djokovic equals Federer's record to reach 46th grand slam semi-final and Svitolina stuns Swaitek to keep dream run alive.Pegula and Vondrousova have just come out on No 1 Court. Both look very focused, this is new ground for both of them. Neither has ever made it past the Wimbledon third round before. Vondrousova reached the French Open final back in 2019, but has had three wrist surgeries since then. She has certainly found some form here, though, losing just one set so far this tournament.

Deadly deluge has saturated parts of New England and New York, while the south and west are under worsening heatwaveA Vermont reservoir on Tuesday risked overwhelming a dam protecting the state's capital and exacerbating catastrophic" flooding that has already shut roadways leading out of town and trapped some residents in their homes.The dangerous storm that has dumped up to two months' worth of rain on Vermont in two days has cut off the capital of Montpelier from the rest of the state while the deadly deluge that saturated parts of New England and New York continues to spark flash flood warnings. Continue reading...

Grand jury will decide later this summer whether the former president and his associates will face criminal chargesA grand jury selected in Georgia on Tuesday is expected to say whether Donald Trump and associates should face criminal charges over their attempt to overturn the former president's defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 election.The district attorney of Fulton county, Fani Willis, has indicated she expects to obtain indictments between the end of July and the middle of August. Trump also faces possible federal charges over his election subversion, culminating in his incitement of the deadly January 6 attack on Congress. Continue reading...

The court has vastly overextended its own power and flaunted its corruption. It will take a political movement to stop themHow much do the supreme court's six Republican justices care about what Americans think of them? The question haunts most accounts of the supreme court, an anxious subtext detectable in every discussion among court watchers and pundits when the court agrees to hear a specific case and after every oral argument.There is a safe assumption - borne out in the conservative supermajority's decisions, in their statements and in their pre-court careers - that they are all personally inclined to take the maximalist conservative route. If they were unconstrained by other factors, like public opinion and the legitimacy of the court, one gets the distinct sense that they would do the worst thing possible: reverse the most social progress, cause the most suffering, undermine democratic representation as much as possible and accrue as much political power as they can to themselves. What stops them, or slows them down, is not an instinct for moderation, or a sense of respect for the other branches, or the law. What slows them down is a caution about public opinion, a fear of what will happen if their institution is delegitimized in the minds of the people - what slows them down, that is, is something like shame.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Trump's long-shot competitors had to have known that their entry into the race would only make his renomination more likelyAlready in this early stretch of the Republican presidential primary campaign, there are nearly as many candidates in the field as there were in 2016, when Donald Trump bested a slew of the Republican party's most prominent figures on his way to the White House. But unlike 2016, of course, Trump has been the race's perhaps prohibitive favorite from the jump - over the last three months, Trump has moved from plurality to outright majority support from the Republican electorate in the polls.Far from damaging his candidacy, his two indictments have, if anything, encouraged more and more Republican voters to rally to his side. And, unfortunately for those hoping he loses the nomination, the sheer size of the field will make it difficult for any one of his rivals to consolidate enough of the non-Trump vote to mount a real challenge to his candidacy. Each of his long-shot competitors had to have known that their entry into the race would only make his renomination likelier. Yet they jumped in anyway. Why?Osita Nwanevu is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Man who used bedsheets made into a rope to escape jail is getting some assistance' to stay in the area, according to policeA homicide suspect who used bed sheets to escape from a north-western Pennsylvania jail is probably still in the area and someone may be helping him to evade capture, police said after discovering possible campsites in nearby woods.Michael Burham, 34, fled the Warren county prison late last Thursday by climbing on exercise equipment, climbing through a window and down a rope fashioned from jail bedding, authorities said. Burham was being held on $1m bail and was charged with kidnapping, burglary and other counts. Continue reading...

John Victor Russell, 75, was charged with two felony counts, including cruelty to animalsA North Carolina horseman of the year" has been arrested after he allegedly shot his son's horse dead during an argument.John Victor Russell, 75, has been charged with two felonies after the shooting, police said. The shooting came a month after he was recognized for his services to horses during a ceremony in Tryon, North Carolina. Continue reading...

The state has become the focus of the nation's divisive reparations conversation as it advances its reparations effortsAs California considers implementing large-scale reparations for Black residents affected by the legacy of slavery, the state has also become the focus of the nation's divisive reparations conversation, drawing the backlash of conservatives criticizing the priorities of a liberal" state.Reparations for Slavery? California's Bad Idea Catches On," commentator Jason L Riley wrote in the Wall Street Journal, as New York approved a commission to study the idea. In the Washington Post, conservative columnist George F Will said the state's debate around reparations adds to a plague of solemn silliness". Continue reading...

The legislation is designed to remove those arriving by irregular routes - this will be devastating for survivors of modern slaveryI remember the day I decided I was finally ready to report my trafficker's abuse after the false promise of a job turned into sexual exploitation. It was September 2018, and a woman from the organisation Women at the Well, which provides support to people affected by trafficking, came out to meet me at Starbucks with a notepad.I told her going to the police was the last thing I wanted to do. I worried about what he would do if he found out, if his other victims would be OK, whether I had broken the law and would be deported. But mostly I just wondered if anyone would believe me. My ability to trust people was almost nil: after all, my trafficker had proven to me that I shouldn't trust anyone. Continue reading...

Our galloping infantilisation continues at a new centre where there will presumably be less screaming than usual, greater participant continence and a bar. Is this what modern life has come to?There is a generational sweet spot - I'm guessing anyone between 65 and 80? - who won't know what soft play is. You take the principle of a playground, then move it indoors, often to a windowless space in which redeeming features such as fresh air have been removed. Then you add a load of padding and hollow plastic balls in primary colours and reduce the mean age of the children to three or under - when they are mainly screaming or making bad choices. Mess with the acoustics - it's either the lack of windows or the aggressively cheap corrugated wall material - so that the cacophony is warped and comes from every direction, then submerge all the children beneath the balls, which mysteriously makes them louder, but now invisible.Now, every adult is in a chamber of hypervigilant solitude - you can't see your kid and you can't figure out whether that noise is coming from him or her, or a pack of wolves - and disoriented by the visual overload. Continue reading...

Agnes Callard has her view - but we'd be better off if more people were willing to experience new places with open mindsThe peak summer travel months are upon us, and that means millions of people the world over are packing a bag and setting off to somewhere else - maybe a familiar every-summer destination, maybe on a new adventure. This summer travel season is projected to be among the busiest on record.But why travel at all? Continue reading...

A hazing scandal uncovered by the student newspaper brought down Northwestern's football coach. After what appears to be a failed cover-up, should the university president be next?The grotesque Northwestern University football hazing scandal is an almost too-perfect case study in how cultures of harm are allowed, even encouraged, to flourish in the world of big-time US college football.The details of how younger players were subjected to abusive hazing, brilliantly reported by the university's student paper, The Daily Northwestern, are appalling, including the disturbing practice of running", in which first-year players who had made mistakes in practice would be subjected to 8-10 upperclassmen dressed in various Purge-like' masks, who would then begin dry-humping' the victim in a dark locker room". In another hazing practice, freshmen were forced to strip naked and perform various acts, including bear crawling and slingshotting themselves across the floor with exercise bands." The Daily Northwestern's report catalogs additional forms of hazing as well. Collectively, these allegations were supported both by an independent report by law firm ArentFox Schiff and by subsequent reporting from ESPN's Adam Rittenberg and WildcatReport.com's Louie Vaccher. Continue reading...

A geomagnetic storm forecast could make aurora borealis more visible at lower latitudesThe northern lights may present themselves in more than a dozen states this week as a geomagnetic storm makes them more visible at lower latitudes than usual.On Wednesday and Thursday, the lights - also known as aurora borealis - have the potential to be seen, weather permitting, in parts of Washington, Idaho, Vermont, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Massachusetts, Maryland, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Maine, according to forecasters at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Continue reading...

Joe Biden must be bold at this week's summit, and help to give Kyiv the security that would allow it to rebuildUnless the US gives bolder leadership on long-term security for Ukraine at Nato's Vilnius summit this week, historians may one day ask, Who lost Ukraine?" And their shocking answer might be: President Joe Biden.I say this after talking to a wide range of people in Kyiv last week, before departing Ukraine on Saturday, the 500th day of the largest war in Europe since 1945. There's still the extraordinary fighting spirit that I found on my last visit, in February. But in five months, some people seem to have aged five years. They are exhausted. The casualties, military and civilian, continue to mount.Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political writer and Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Gal Luft, director of a Washington-based organization is accused of recruiting and paying a former adviser to Donald TrumpThe head of a US thinktank has been charged with acting as an unregistered agent of China, as well as seeking to broker the sale of weapons and Iranian oil, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said.Gal Luft, a citizen of the United States and Israel, is accused of recruiting and paying a former high-ranking US government official on behalf of principals based in China in 2016, without registering as a foreign agent as required by law. Continue reading...

A Cessna 172 nosedived into a roof with its tail sticking straight up after a landing and takeoff practice went wrongA pilot escaped with only minor injuries after a single-engine plane nose dived into the roof of a hangar Monday at a southern California airport, authorities said.The crash happened around 2.30pm while the pilot of the Cessna 172 was practicing landings and takeoffs" at Long Beach airport, south of Los Angeles, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. Continue reading...

Release date changed to 2032, records show, but reasons for change are unclearElizabeth Holmes' prison sentence was quietly shortened by two years, new records show.An update to Holmes' profile on the website of the Bureau of Prisons now projects her release date as 12 December 2032, two years sooner than initially scheduled. A spokesman for the federal agency confirmed the update but said he could not comment further citing privacy, safety, and security reasons" for inmates. Continue reading...

The 14-year-old's grandmother had reported the girl's absence and authorities said a marine had been taken briefly into custodyTwo weeks after a 14-year-old girl's grandmother reported that she had run away in early June, the teenager was found in an unusual location: inside the barracks at a California Marine Corps base north of San Diego.Federal law enforcement officials said Monday that they are investigating and had taken a marine with the combat logistics battalion 5, 1st marine logistics group into custody briefly for questioning. He has since been released to his command while the investigation continues, said Marine Capt Charles Palmer of the 1st marine logistics group at Camp Pendleton, about 40 miles (65km) north of San Diego. Continue reading...

Jesssica Burgess of Nebraska admits to providing abortion after 20 weeks and tampering with human skeletal remainsA Nebraska mother has pleaded guilty to giving her 17-year-old daughter pills for an illegal abortion last year and helping to burn and bury the fetus.Under a plea agreement, Jessica Burgess, 42, of Norfolk, admitted to providing an abortion after 20 weeks of gestation, false reporting and tampering with human skeletal remains. Charges of concealing the death of another person and abortion by someone other than a licensed physician were dismissed. Continue reading...

An unruly passenger was allegedly upset about the menu and raised a stink after plane took off from HoustonA United Airlines flight heading from Houston to Amsterdam was diverted to Chicago after an unruly business class passenger interrupted the flight, reportedly because his first meal choice was unavailable.The flight took off at 4.20pm local time in Houston on Sunday, and was in Chicago airspace two hours into the flight. Flight tracking website Flightradar24 showed that the plane circled Chicago's O'Hare airport as it had to use up fuel, known as dumping fuel, or it would have been too heavy to land. Continue reading...

Gen David Berger steps down as Alabama senator stages months-long blockade of successor to protest over abortion policiesThe commandant of the US Marine Corps, Gen David Berger, stepped down on Monday, leaving the military branch without a confirmed leader for the first time in more than 150 years.The vacancy comes as one Republican senator, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, has staged a months-long blockade of Pentagon nominations to protest against the department's abortion policies. Continue reading...

Residents of a dozen homes had to evacuate as structures moved from their foundations and could fall into a canyon belowHillside homes in an affluent southern California community crumbled and cracked over the weekend as the land beneath them shifted and slid into a canyon below, forcing residents to evacuate.More than a dozen residents of the Rolling Hills Estates in Los Angeles county rushed to leave on Saturday after the sidewalks fractured and houses splintered. Continue reading...

Kansas will now be among only a few states that do not allow any such changes after lawsuit from Republican state attorney generalKansas must stop allowing transgender people to change the sex listed on their driver's licenses, a judge ordered on Monday as part of a lawsuit filed by the Republican state attorney general.The district judge Teresa Watson's order will remain in effect for up to two weeks, although she can extend it. It is significant because transgender people have been able to change their driver's licenses in Kansas for at least four years, and almost 400 people have done so. Continue reading...

Torrential rain flooded homes and caused extensive damage in New York's Hudson valley on Sunday, killing at least one person. Footage shared on social media showed flood water rushing through houses as people waded through knee-deep water. New York officials said rescue teams found the body of a woman in her 30s who drowned after being swept away while trying to evacuate her home, and several people are still missing. The storm is expected to have already caused tens of millions of dollars worth of damage in the Hudson Valley area. The National Weather Service extended flash flood warnings into Connecticut and Massachusetts

Heavy rain drenches parts of US north-east, washing out roads, forcing evacuations and halting some airline travelRescue teams raced into Vermont on Monday after heavy rain drenched parts of the US north-east, washing out roads, forcing evacuations and halting some airline travel. One person was killed in New York as she was trying to leave her home.Mike Cannon of Vermont Urban Search and Rescue said crews from North Carolina, Michigan and Connecticut were among those helping to get to towns that had been unreachable since rain belted the state overnight. Continue reading...

Barack Obama was proud' of his fellow Hawaiian, who saw off the challenge of England's Charley Hull to win her first majorWhen Barack Obama is leading the tributes, it is impossible not to realise the scale of success. Allisen Corpuz prevailed over Charley Hull at the US Women's Open at Pebble Beach on Sunday and Obama was immediate in his praise towards his fellow Hawaiian. You make us all proud," said the 44th president of the United States on social media. He has done a lot in his career," Corpuz responded with more than a hint of understatement. That is really special."The nature of Corpuz's triumph was similarly striking. The 25-year-old had been trending in the right direction in majors - she was tied fourth at the Chevron Championship and shared 15th at the PGA championship - but missed three cuts in four previous US Open appearances. Corpuz had never won a mainstream tour event before; the weight of expectation at Pebble Beach played a part in her deliberate approach and she was warned she could be penalised for slow play during round four. Continue reading...

Guns or butter? To build up the military capacity vital for self-protection, European nations will have to make painful choicesHowever Russia's war in Ukraine ends, Europe is staring uncomfortably down the barrel of a decade of defence. A wounded, vengeful Russia will remain a threat as long as Vladimir Putin, or like-minded successors, are in power. There is no way back to the post-cold war security order, which was cracked by Moscow's assault on Georgia in 2008, ruptured by its annexation of Crimea in 2014, and finally shattered by its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February last year.The end of Europe's holiday" from defence is going to be expensive and impose painful choices between guns and butter, which the left will find particularly uncomfortable.Paul Taylor is a senior fellow of the Friends of Europe thinktank and author of the report After the war: how to keep Europe safe Continue reading...