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President Trump redux could break the law, tear up treaties and trample on basic rights. Time for hard thinking about what that would meanThe question from the Finnish journalist to President Biden at last month's US-Nordic leaders' summit in Helsinki was direct: What actions will you take to assure Finland that the US will remain a reliable Nato partner for decades to come?"Biden replied: I absolutely guarantee it. There is no question. There's overwhelming support from the American people," before adding the caveat: You know, no one can guarantee the future, but this is the best bet anyone could make ... As sure as anything can possibly be said about American foreign policy, we will stay connected to Nato - connected to Nato, beginning, middle and end."Bruce Wolpe is a senior fellow at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. He is author of Trump's Australia (Allen & Unwin, 2023) Continue reading...

This blog is now closed. Read the full story hereTwice impeached and now arrested and indicted three times. Donald Trump faces serious criminal charges in New York, Florida and Washington over a hush-money scheme during the 2016 election, his alleged mishandling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.As Trump prepares for those cases to go to trial, the former president is simultaneously reeling from a verdict that found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation toward writer E Jean Carroll. A New York jury awarded Carroll, who accused Trump of assaulting her in 1996, $5m in damages. Continue reading...

A grand jury in Georgia has issued an indictment accusing Trump of efforts to overturn the 2020 election - read the full text hereA grand jury in Georgia has issued an indictment accusing Donald Trump of efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.Prosecutors brought 41 counts against Trump and his associates, including forgery and racketeering, which is used to target members of organized crime groups. Continue reading...

Legal watchers say the Fulton county district attorney's entire career has prepared her for the prosecution of Donald TrumpThe synopsis for a Fani Willis biopic would probably go something like this: In Fulton county, the first Black woman to serve as district attorney takes on an unlikely case. Willis grew up attending court with her father, a defense attorney and Black Panther. Now, she sits on the opposite side of the courtroom, hoping to indict a former president who sought to overturn election results and often espoused white supremacist rhetoric while doing so.The film's montage would pull from real life, depicting a determined, unflappable Willis relentlessly poring over documents, leading her team through the long work hours and security risks that come with bringing an indictment against an often inflammatory former president, even as national attention on the case reached a groundswell. Continue reading...

Ex-president is defendant in fourth criminal case as 41-count indictment accuses him of planning criminal enterprise

Victory heralded as a landmark achievement for Democrats, particularly the Black voters who make up much of the party's baseAfter nearly three years, two statewide recounts and a violent attack on the US Capitol, Donald Trump is finally facing criminal charges over his relentless campaign to overturn Joe Biden's 2020 victory in the battleground state of Georgia.On Monday, the former president and his allies were indicted on a total of 41 counts in Fulton county, Georgia, where the district attorney, Fani Willis, has been investigating the former president and his associates since 2021. The 13 charges against Trump himself include racketeering, forgery and perjury. News of the Georgia indictment came less than two weeks after Trump pleaded not guilty to a separate set of federal charges stemming from special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into the January 6 attack and 2020 election subversion efforts. Continue reading...

Public utilities commission had allowed Google's Waymo and General Motors' Cruise to operate all day in a vote on ThursdayAfter months of debate, the California Public Utilities Commission voted Thursday to approve an expansion that allows vehicles on the streets at all hours of the day. This weekend, as videos of robotaxi malfunctions began appearing on social media, opponents say they are seeing their fears realized.On Friday, amid increased traffic from the Outside Lands music festival, a number of self-driving cars seemed to glitch. One TikTok user recorded a Cruise vehicle causing mayhem" outside of the festival where it was stuck at an angle in the middle of the street. They're causing mad confusion over here," the user said. A Twitter user shared a video of a Cruise vehicle nearly running over a family on a crosswalk over the weekend. In San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood, as many as 10 Cruise cars blocked a main thoroughfare, stoking anger from locals. Continue reading...

Lawyers for voters called Alabama's plan, which maintains one majority-Black congressional district, discriminatoryAlabama Republicans on Monday defended their decision not to create a second majority-Black district in a hearing before a panel of federal judges over the state's redrawn congressional maps.State Republicans continue to resist court orders, including from the supreme court in June, to amend the congressional maps to give Black voters increased political power and representation. Continue reading...

New indictment charges former billionaire with seven counts of conspiracy and fraudSam Bankman-Fried used stolen customer funds to make more than $100m in campaign contributions ahead of the 2022 US midterm elections, federal prosecutors said on Monday in a new indictment filed against the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange.The new indictment charges the 31-year-old former billionaire with seven counts of conspiracy and fraud over the collapse of the exchange. He has previously pleaded not guilty. Continue reading...

Whether you live in the area or have visited before, we would like to hear your memories and experiences of LahainaAt least 96 people have been confirmed killed after a ferocious wildfire swept through Maui last week. With hundreds still missing, officials have warned the death toll may rise.The fire all but destroyed Lahaina, the historic town on Hawaiian island's west side. More than 2,700 structures have been destroyed, including the oldest house on Maui, the Baldwin Home Museum, the Waiola church and the 90-year-old Hongwanji Shin Buddhist temple. Continue reading...

The nearest abortion clinic - in Chicago - was too far away and too expensive for her mother to provide her with the procedureA 13-year-old girl in Mississippi gave birth to a boy after she was raped as well as impregnated by a stranger - and then was unable to get an abortion, according to a Time magazine report published on Monday.The mother of the girl, who uses the pseudonym Ashley in the report, was looking to get an abortion for her daughter but was told the closest abortion provider was in Chicago - a drive of more than nine hours from their home in Clarksdale, Mississippi.Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html Continue reading...

Group of six white Mississippi police officers had tortured two Black men for an hour and a half during a house raidIn late January, a group of six white Mississippi police officers raided a house in Rankin county, a suburb outside of Jackson, and tortured two Black men for an hour and a half. The following month, the justice department opened a civil rights investigation into the Rankin county sheriff's department, and since then, the officers have either resigned or been fired. Activists have also called for the resignation of Rankin county sheriff Bryan Bailey.On Monday, the former officers pleaded guilty to state charges of obstruction of justice and conspiracy in the assault of Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker. The former sheriff's deputies Brett McAlpin, Hunter Elward, Christian Dedmon, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke, along with Joshua Hartfield, a former police officer in nearby Richland, had already pleaded guilty to federal charges on 3 August. Continue reading...

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Banking group settles US government lawsuit alleging fraud related to residential mortgage-backed securities in 2006 and 2007Banking group UBS has agreed to pay $1.43bn in penalties to settle a civil action alleging fraud in the sale of residential mortgage-backed securities ahead of the 2008-09 financial crisis, the company and the US justice department said on Monday.The civil action was filed in November 2018 alleging misconduct related to UBS's underwriting and issuance of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) issued in 2006 and 2007, according to the justice department. Continue reading...

Residents returned to Lahaina this weekend, just days after Maui's devastating fires all but levelled the historical town. The death toll from the Maui wildfires was 96 on Monday, the worst recorded in the US in more than 100 years. With hundreds still missing, officials said the number of dead could rise Continue reading...

Josh Green says it's impossible to guess' final death toll as rescue teams search destroyed LahainaHawaii's governor warned that many more people could be found dead, nearly a week after a ferocious wildfire raged through parts of Maui.The death toll from last Tuesday's inferno has reached 96, making it the US's deadliest wildfire in the past 100 years. Continue reading...

I remember you humming like a bulbul in our back yard in Kabul. When you are finally given a visa you will see there are all sorts of colourful birds here in Melbourne

The four men were reported missing on Sunday after they did not resurface 50 miles off the coastThe US Coast Guard and Navy rescued four divers who were reported missing on Sunday off the Carolinas, officials said on Monday.The coast guard's mid-Atlantic division announced the rescue on social media. It said the divers were rescued about 46 miles (74km) south-east of North Carolina's Cape Fear River. Continue reading...

Whether it's one of the many stars in this summer's blockbuster, or the bratty bully in Talk to Me, trans stars are showing up on cinema screens. And the big deal is that it's no big dealThe last few weeks have quietly seen a significant and mostly unremarked flowering of on-screen trans visibility, to the extent we might consider cinema is at a tipping point for trans acting. In Barbie, Talk to Me and Red, White and Royal Blue, three films on worldwide release at the same time offer vastly different declensions of trans representation at a time when trans rights are being rolled back around the world. This variety of depictions, from billion-banking blockbusters to breakout hits and cult concerns, has raised few eyebrows from audiences, giving a few clues as to cinema's ability to provide hope as to public views on trans people.That hope is needed. Just last week it was reported that the A24 horror film Talk to Me, in which a crucial supporting role is taken - and brilliantly performed - by transmasculine actor Zoe Terakes, had been banned in Kuwait because of Terakes' gender identity. In an Instagram post, the actor hit out at the decision, saying: Our film doesn't actually ever mention my transness, or my queerness. I am a trans actor who happened to get the role. I'm not a theme. I am a person." Continue reading...

The England captain is coming from a team known for its ability to mess things up - that experience should change in his career with the German champions

Laura Loomer, banned from social media after describing herself as proud Islamophobe', draws approval from former presidentIn an online video, Donald Trump praised the white nationalist conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer as terrific" and very special" and said: You are a very opinionated lady, I have to tell you. And in my opinion, I like that."Loomer, 30, is a Floridian activist and failed political candidate who once described herself as a proud Islamophobe", earning bans from major social media platforms. Continue reading...

Frustration at government response to deadliest wildfire in recent US history is mounting but community groups mobilized to helpNearly a week after Hawaii's devastating wildfires destroyed the historic town of Lahaina and killed at least 96 people, the need in Maui is still so great that when boats approach the western side of the island with donations, people run across the beach to welcome them.It's a sight Edgar Rodriguez appreciates - and understands. Rodriguez and his family lost their Lahaina home to the flames. In the days since, he has shepherded supplies to those who stayed behind in the closed portion of the island with the Pacific Whale Foundation, a marine conservation nonprofit. Continue reading...

A vintage MiG-23 fighter jet crashed during the Thunder Over Michigan airshow, as the pilot and crew member ejected to narrowly avoid serious injury. The Soviet-era plane went down in Belleville, on Detroit's outskirts, striking unoccupied vehicles in the car park of an apartment complex. No ground injuries were reported at the apartments or the airshow, hosted by the Yankee Air Museum

Words that criminal defendants have written or spoken are used against them all the time. Perhaps you've heard of a confession?If Donald Trump stood in the middle of Fifth Avenue after robbing the Chase Bank branch by passing a note to the teller saying, Your money or your life," he'd likely plead the first amendment as his defense: I was just exercising my rights to free speech!"Of course, he'd be wrong. Words that criminal defendants have written or spoken are used against them all the time. Perhaps you've heard of a confession.Laurence H Tribe is the Carl M Loeb University Professor of Constitutional Law Emeritus at Harvard University. Follow him on @tribelawDennis Aftergut is a former federal prosecutor, currently of counsel to Lawyers Defending American Democracy Continue reading...

The death toll in Lahaina is expected to rise in what the deadliest US blaze in a century. Plus: press freedom outcry over police raid of small Kansas newspaper

Many see climate breakdown as a problem of the future, but it's here now. To move forward, we must understand our part in itDuring the summer of 2021, I flew to Greece to learn more about the wildfires there. I wanted to hear people's stories, to understand what it meant to be displaced by environmental disaster. I have family in Greece and Cyprus and the approach of each summer causes a lot of anxiety. That year, fires were raging in Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Croatia and Cyprus, and I was three months pregnant. Feeling Evie growing inside me made me wonder what kind of world she would live in - and made me all the more determined to learn as much as I could about what people had experienced.I spent a lot of time in Mati, a small town on the east coast of Greece, less than 20 miles from Athens. There, I talked to local people, and their experiences profoundly moved me. In a cafe that had survived the fire, a hub of safety and community for survivors, I met brave children who now have to live with terrible scars, physical and emotional. I met a man who could not even speak to me, his eyes filling with tears, and he told me that he had no words in a way that has stayed with me ever since. Continue reading...

Academics are boycotting their annual meeting after they say leadership spurned a union request to move online or cancelThe union representing thousands of hotel workers on strike in Los Angeles is clashing with a group of political scientists over a request to move its gathering out of the city. It has sparked tensions within the professional group, as members - experts in power and politics - are dissenting over how they ought to respond.About 6,000 political scientists were to descend on downtown Los Angeles for days of paper reviews, networking events and off-site happy hours at their flagship annual convention by the American Political Science Association (APSA) in late August. It would be the largest conference happening in the city over Labor Day weekend, according to the union. Continue reading...

Witness summonses give clear indication prosecution is about to start, with indictments also expected against more than a dozen othersThe Fulton county district attorney investigating Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia is expected early this week to seek multiple charges against more than a dozen defendants including the former president, according to two people briefed on the matter.The timeline for when the district attorney, Fani Willis, would present evidence to a grand jury came into sharper relief over the weekend after prosecutors summoned the former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan and reporter George Chidi to testify on Tuesday. Continue reading...

A friend persuaded me that everyone does it'. That may be true, but maybe honesty - and self-worth - are better policiesI lied about my age on Tinder and now I'm menopausal, spooning an unsuspecting millennial while he sleeps.Everyone over 50 lies about their age on dating apps, plus you don't look 53." I never should have listened to Helen. We're best friends and I love her, but we're polar opposites. Continue reading...

The former Ajax midfielder was always attuned to the feelings of his teammates. A move into the world of psychology seemed like a natural stepWhen people recall the 2002 US men's national team and their run to the quarter-finals of the World Cup, they may remember the quintessential Dos a Cero match. Or Clint Mathis' surprise mohawk. Or their first game, in which they upset a golden-generation Portugal team 3-2.One of the crucial elements to that US team - indeed, the guy who scored their opening goal of the tournament - was John O'Brien, a skillful and cerebral midfielder from Los Angeles. O'Brien also assisted Mathis' goal against South Korea with a ridiculously accurate chip, and played a beautiful, Pirlo-esque pass to set up Landon Donovan's insurance goal that buried Mexico in the round of 16. Continue reading...

In some districts, the law has brought parents and teachers in closer alignment. In others, it's poised to harden divisionsWhen JD Davis, the department chair of English at a high school in Twin Falls, Idaho, was told last year that half of the committee he was leading to pick new texts and materials for the district's English language arts classrooms would be parents and community members, he objected.I said, I'm not going to have parents involved! They don't know what we're doing. They don't know what we need in a textbook," recalled Davis, who also teaches journalism, leads the school newspaper and advises the Gay-Straight Alliance. Continue reading...

The assumption is that Moscow and Washington will dictate events. Regional leaders don't accept that, and therein lies hopeA coup belt" now extends across the African continent, running along the Sahel region that bisects north and sub-Saharan Africa. On 10 August, Niger, where the democratically elected president was deposed by a military junta, became the last link that completed the corridor of countries run by coupsters. It is the ninth coup or attempted power grab in west and central Africa since 2020. This might appear at first glance as a retrenchment, the thrusting of African countries back into military rule and weak democratic cultures, with a dash of Russian mischief to complete the picture of a fragile region at the whim of local strongmen and meddling. The reality is much more complicated, and perhaps even oddly hopeful.

If altered charges come back, lawyer says the question is: What infected the process?'After five years, the US attorney pursuing Hunter Biden has only been able to file tax and unlawful gun possession charges - and that shouldn't change just because the prosecutor has been named special counsel in the case, the lawyer for the president's son has said.If anything changes from his conclusion ... the question [that] should be asked [is] what infected the process that was not the facts and the law?" Hunter Biden's attorney, Abbe Lowell, said on CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday. Lowell also said: There's no new evidence to be found. Continue reading...

Press freedom outcry after police serve search warrant to the Marion County Record's Joan Meyer, 98, over its investigation into local restaurateur

Officials say hotel rooms needed to house thousands of displaced residentsOfficials in Hawaii have urged tourists to avoid traveling to Maui, as many hotels prepared to house evacuees and first responders on the island after wildfires killed more than 90 people and destroyed hundreds of homes.About 46,000 residents and visitors have flown out of Kahului Airport in West Maui since the scale of the devastation in the historic town of Lahaina became clear on Wednesday, according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority. Continue reading...

Three people taken to hospital - one in critical condition - as authorities investigate cause of explosion in community of PlumFive people were found dead after a house explosion in western Pennsylvania destroyed three structures and damaged at least a dozen others, authorities said on Sunday.The police chief of the community of Plum, Lanny Conley, said the bodies of four adults and one adolescent were recovered after the blast shortly before 10.30am on Saturday. Continue reading...

Governor says death toll in Lahaina is expected to rise after worst natural disaster that Hawaii ever faced'

Both teams are desperately lacking a holding midfielder with discipline and this encounter was fun but worryingly openIf, as free-market orthodoxy tells us, price is dependent on the interaction between demand and supply, Brighton and Southampton should probably be thinking of adding a few million to the fees of both Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia. There is only one of each and both Liverpool and Chelsea are in desperate need of players who can add discipline and muscularity to their midfields.There were stories during the hyperinflation in Zimbabwe of golfers who would pay for their drinks before a round because by the time they got to the bar the price would have gone up. Having signed Jude Bellingham for an initial 88.5m two months ago, Real Madrid find themselves in a similar position, as the market for central midfielders becomes seriously overheated. Continue reading...

Wyatt Kauffman slipped on a cliff and fell after moving out of the way so other people could take a picture'A 13-year-old North Dakota boy has survived falling 100ft from a ledge at the Grand Canyon's north rim during a family trip.Emergency crews needed two hours to rescue Wyatt Kauffman after he slipped on a cliff Tuesday and plunged nearly 100 ft (30 meters) at the Bright Angel Point trail, authorities said.The Associated Press contributed to this report Continue reading...

Darell T Caldwell of Maryland was finally apprehended after the multi-highway chase and vehicular theft spree injured fiveA Maryland man stole an ambulance and left a wake of more than a dozen hit-and-run crashes in Virginia this weekend before being arrested in Washington DC, authorities said.Virginia state police said there were no reports of serious injuries in Saturday's crashes on portions of Interstate 66, Interstate 395 and the George Washington Memorial Parkway. Continue reading...

Will Hurd offers sharp rebuke of Trump's conduct: This is about a president trying to overturn an election and creating a conspiracy'Donald Trump is running for election in 2024 because he's trying to stay out of jail", one of his rivals for the Republican White House nomination said, as legal woes continue to surround the former president.Will Hurd, a former Republican congressman for Texas, offered the sharp rebuke of Trump's conduct in an interview with CNN, as Chris Christie questioned whether the guy under indictment in four different cases" can beat the Democratic incumbent Joe Biden. Continue reading...

A white police officer investigating car thefts handcuffed a 12-year-old boy who was taking out the trash from his home in LansingThe police department of Lansing, Michigan, has apologized after a white police officer handcuffed a Black child outside his home in what the agency called an unfortunate case of wrong place, wrong time'".The department posted the apology on Facebook after cellphone video circulated on social media showing the officer leading the boy - whose hands were cuffed behind his back - through the parking lot of an apartment complex on Thursday. The officer had been searching for a suspect in a string of car thefts when he spotted the child. Continue reading...

Americans holidaying in Europe are stressed about being able to drink enough H20 on the continent. Despite its obvious abundance, they may have a pointAccording to the New York Times, Europe is the top destination for holidaying Americans this summer. This has prompted some anxiety - Jennifer from Seattle wrote to ask for advice on a closed shoe that wouldn't out me as l'americaine" - but also a drawing of cultural battle lines between the US and Europe. Classic summer fun: it was at this time in 2018 that the New York Times also published its classic claim that porridge and boiled mutton" were staples of British cuisine, as if we eat like Dr Johnson tackling a fit of gout.This year it's Watergate. Not that one; the TikTok one, which kicked off when an American woman working in Albania with organs turning into beef jerky" asked the entire continent the provocative question: Why are y'all not more thirsty?" Apparently, Europeans hate water, and Americans have been remarking on it for months, mocking our tragic Sylvanian-sized glasses and filming themselves joyfully glugging when they finally find a (bottled) source. Reactions included many pointing out our supply of free, drinkable tap water and querying the notion of Europe" as one homogenous, crumbling, dark and dehydrated entity. Some were funnier: Never in my life have my lips touched water - all I do is drink wine and olive oil," one TikTok commenter said. We probably get our hydration from porridge and pea-souper fogs. Maybe our skin is water-permeable when we don't use our Mary Poppins umbrellas?Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

From unsolicited offers of sperm to procreation freaks', our quest for someone just right has certainly been an eye-openerHi, do you need sperm? I have a supply ;) When do you want to meet?" This isn't a message from somewhere deep within my hidden requests folder on Instagram. This seedy correspondence - in the most literal sense - is just one example of the kinds of messages my partner and I have been receiving over the past year in our search to find a couple or single person to co-parent with.For us, the ideal parenting setup would consist of three or four of us sharing responsibility for a child (the others involved would also be responsible for providing the sperm). The way we see it, why not use the implicit obstacles we face as a same-sex couple to become parents in a way that works for us and redefines the family unit completely?Eleanor Margolis is a columnist for the i newspaper and DivaDo 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...

Mutter Museum in Philadelphia at centre of ethics dispute over provenance of its collection of skulls, fetuses and body partsThe Mutter Museum in Philadelphia looks like any other respectable establishment in the United States: a trim brick building with an American flag outside.But behind its doors lies a remarkable medical collection of the dead, diseased and disfigured that has attracted visitors and tourists for decades but is now at the center of a roiling dispute over the ethics of such exhibits in the 21st century. Continue reading...