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Arrest of architect Rex Heuermann, accused of murder of three women, brings relief and fear to residents of Massapequa ParkThe arrest of the 59-year-old Long Island architect Rex Heuermann, accused of the murder of three women, has brought relief to residents of Massapequa Park, a suburban town seven miles from Gilgo Beach where the remains of 10 adults and a child were found more than a decade ago.Everybody stopped going to the beach at night. It was an intense vibe that someone was committing serial crimes on the island," recalled Alexandra Calabro, 26, on Friday, standing steps away the small single-story home in the commuter town where Heuermann lived. Continue reading...

Wall-to-wall cookery shows and recipe books can undermine our confidence. It's time to be kind to yourself in the kitchenI was tired and a bit overworked, and that's when it happened: the lid fell off the jar at the wrong moment, and all was lost. Or was it? For a long, despondent minute, I considered the disaster before me. In my best Le Creuset pan on the top of the oven were the sausages I was turning into a pasta sauce for dinner, and about 10 times the amount of chilli flakes I'd intended to add. Oh no! Thoughts of takeaway pizza floated into my mind. But I hated to waste both the sausages and my efforts up to this point, so I decided to plough on regardless. Some like it hot, and we two are among them. How bad could it be, really?The answer is: not bad at all. I might not have fed it to guests, but we both ended up having seconds. It was ... memorable, I guess, and later on, as I loaded the dishwasher and worried vaguely about what I might cook tomorrow in this, the busiest and craziest of weeks, I got to thinking about kindness in the kitchen - kindness to myself, in this instance. Don't worry. I'm not about to turn into some gruesome self-help guru. All I mean is that, sometimes, I should give myself a break. In fact, we all should. If perfection is elusive, equally, seeming catastrophe is rarely that. Most dishes can be salvaged. Nearly everything is edible, in extremis. Delia Smith - Delia bloody Smith! - loved the cake I panic-baked for her when I interviewed her last year. It hadn't risen properly. As I took it out of my bag, it resembled nothing so much as a house brick wrapped in foil. But as I heard later - she said this to her audience during an event at Conway Hall in London, and some of them were kind enough to email me afterwards - she and Michael, her husband, devoured every last cardamom-scented crumb. Continue reading...

From World Emoji Day to being cited in court cases, the language of symbols has come of ageThere have been plenty of, shall we say, unusual or eye-raising legal decisions around technology. Such is the way when a massive industry, if one can reduce technology" to the singular, which we can't, utterly changes the way we live (or the way we die, which, according to former Google engineer Ray Kurzweil, may not actually happen).In recent times we've had, rather gloriously, the Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man meme debated by a judge in Florida, and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) recognised as legal property in the UK. Meanwhile, Elon Musk is, in addition to challenging Mark Zuckerberg to a cage fight and a literal penis-measuring competition, threatening to sue the head of Meta over the company's Twitter clone, Threads. But the thing that caught my eye last week was a Canadian court decision that ruled a thumbs-up emoji is legally permissible as contract assent. There are more examples of emojis finding their way before the bench. In 2014, a Michigan court tried a defamation case involving a stuck-out tongue emoticon (rendered as :-p). In Ohio, a judgment in a harassment case queried what, exactly, the rat emoji meant in that context. Continue reading...

Having friends over to eat is part of who we are, with set-piece encounters feeding into plays, films and books. Talk of their demise is prematureI know. The dinner party is always over, or about to be so. In my long(ish) life, the announcement of its passing has been made several times, and on each occasion it has somehow risen from its bed like Lazarus, and tottered once more into the kitchen, wooden spoon in hand.Still, I'm minded now to regard the situation as extremely serious: the patient, it would seem, really is in intensive care, and may not live to see another lasagne, nor even a small bowl of olives. Nigella Lawson, who is effectively the Mother of the Nation these days, says she's out of the habit of throwing them - and if she is, so must we be. For where Nigella treads, we follow, breathing deeply the better to pick up the heady scent of cardamom. Continue reading...

Nancy Mace calls measure to block reimbursement of travel costs for military seeking procedure asshole move' then votes for itThe fallout from the decision by House Republicans to include a divisive anti-abortion measure in Friday's defense spending vote has snared the South Carolina congresswoman Nancy Mace, who has been accused of hypocrisy for voting for it.On Thursday, Mace, who has frequently been at odds with her party over its abortion stance, launched a profanity-laced tirade apparently against the inclusion of an amendment that would block the reimbursement of travel costs for military members who seek the procedure. Continue reading...

The Republican field is full of anti-abortion ideologues - but Pence has positioned himself as a candidate with unpopular and extremist viewsMike Pence will never be president for one simple reason: he's extremely creepy. Members of the former vice-president's own political party find him unappealing. His general demeanor is so off-putting and unsettling that he even gives horror-writing legend Stephen King the creeps. Continue reading...

Suspect in attack on busy street in Fargo killed by officers returning fire, as motive remains unknownOne police officer died and two others were critically injured after a suspect began shooting on a busy street in Fargo, North Dakota, on Friday afternoon, police said.Officers returning fire killed the suspect during the shooting, which occurred before 3pm. A civilian also was seriously wounded, police said in a late-night statement that provided no details on a possible motive. Continue reading...

Inquiry ordered following Guardian investigation into retired priest who confessed decades ago to child molestationA high-ranking federal official has ordered an investigation after the Guardian exposed how New Orleans's Roman Catholic archdiocese went to extreme lengths to conceal a retired priest who confessed decades ago to child molestation, is still living and has never been prosecuted.Yet the investigation recently ordered by federal judge Jane Triche Milazzo is not designed to aid efforts to criminally charge the cleric or hold the church administrators who hid his past accountable. Instead, the inquiry is aimed at determining whether anyone violated broad confidentiality rules governing the New Orleans archdiocese's pending bankruptcy protection filing and related litigation before the Guardian's report on 91-year-old Lawrence Hecker was published on 20 June. Continue reading...

Political scientists read the Republican runes and suggest Trump will win the nomination - but how would he fare in a 2020 rematch?As it stands, political scientists expect Donald Trump to win the Republican nomination for president. Most GOP candidates are in lockstep with Trumpist policies and culture wars, failing to differentiate in an already scattered field; despite the appearance of a united front, factions within the party cannot agree on when and how to pass hardline legislation. Traditional conservative forces are looking for a less volatile alternative with a more viable path to win the general election, and as that concern mounts, some experts say Biden could be narrowly re-elected if the race is a rematch of 2020.Trump is the mainstream," said Allan Lichtman, distinguished professor of history at American University, pointing out that so-called mainstream Republicans" such as Liz Cheney are now out of office. Continue reading...

New NHS research reveals the direct effect of the cost of living crisis on people's mental health. The most vulnerable must be protectedThe first thing that came to mind when reading the obituaries of Milan Kundera, the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, was not the man, but the title of his book. The unbearable lightness of being could be an apt way to describe the precarious nature of many people's lives across the UK right now: unbearable, treated lightly by those in positions of power, but ultimately still being in the world, if hanging on only by a thread.Food insecurity has now been linked by the NHS to the rise in eating disorders, and this is interesting for two primary reasons. First, the new research overturns commonly held stereotypes. It had long been assumed that this illness affected affluent, white, middle-class women and girls. The new findings prove this is not the case, with the rise occurring in people from low socioeconomic backgrounds, who are disproportionately black and from ethnic minorities. This is striking, and will no doubt have a profound effect on the way we diagnose and treat eating disorders in the future.Dorothy Dunn is a freelance journalistIn the UK, Beat can be contacted on 0808 801 0677. In the US, the National Eating Disorders Association is on 800 931 2237. In Australia, the Butterfly Foundation is at 1800 33 4673. Other international helplines can be found at Eating Disorder Hope Continue reading...

A below strength USMNT were upset in the Gold Cup. But the important developments are happening elsewhere as 2026 preparations step upThe Gold Cup, the biennial money-spinner for Concacaf, inspires a very different mood around the US men's national team compared with the World Cup. Superiority, not inferiority, dominates the conversation.After all the hand-wringing from the inadequacies on display during the round-of-16 loss to the Netherlands in Qatar, here's a tournament that prompts fretting if the Americans don't win it every time, given their status as perennial hosts and the low caliber of most of their opponents. Continue reading...

Retirement from Rainbow PUSH Coalition follows several health problems in recent yearsThe US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson is to step down down as head of the Chicago-based Rainbow PUSH Coalition he founded.The organisation announced on Friday that the civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate would be celebrated this weekend at the coalition's annual convention. Continue reading...

I joined my hometown group in Cornwall simply to have people to swim with. I didn't expect to find a nurturing support networkWith apologies, I must smash the glass on the case marked: X days since the Guardian published an article about wild swimming." Don't worry: I am not here to extol the life-giving properties of cold water or of being at one" with nature. If I can find a sympathetic read on the eye-rolls directed at open-water swimming (much of which, to be honest, feels little short of thinly veiled misogyny, given its popularity with women), it's that so much of it skews painfully individualistic: singular voyages of discovery clad in neoprene. But for me, the loveliest thing about sea swimming is the sense of community it's created, rooting me in my distant home town.I grew up in Cornwall and started swimming in the sea when I was small. (I agree with Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett that when you live somewhere coastal, it's just called swimming", no faddy branding needed.) Back then, I liked to swim alone, paddling out far enough that I could sing pop songs to myself where no one could hear, and staying in so long that my lips went blue and I had to be forcibly extracted and revived in the shower. But three years ago this month, when I returned home to Falmouth for a spell after lockdown finally lifted, my friend Flo invited me to swim as part of a small group of women who met early each morning at Swanpool beach. Our ages ranged from early 30s to late 60s. Flo soon moved to a different town and stopped coming, but I kept going, pleased to have a regular outdoor appointment and fresh faces to see during the endless months of working from home. Continue reading...

Portland Thorns striker loves the spotlight and pressure' of having a big role to play in America's quest to defend their titleWhere Sophia Smith goes, confidence follows. Take for example the viral Michael Jordan-esque, shoulder-shrug celebration of her goal four minutes into last year's National Women's Soccer League Championship. The goal clinched her team, Portland Thorns, a third NWSL title and secured Smith the MVP game trophy to cap off her MVP season.I just did it," Smith said after the match. There's been a lot of people who don't think that I deserve to win MVP. So that was a little bit of, you know, that's that." Continue reading...

Hottest weather of the year just beginning, warns National Weather Service, as authorities prepare to protect most vulnerableAfter days of unrelenting temperatures across much of the region, the American west is bracing for even more intense heat this weekend with more than a third of Americans under extreme heat alerts.California is facing a powerful heatdome, bringing sweltering conditions expected to build Friday and through the weekend, in central and southern parts of the state. The National Weather Service warned many residents they should prepare for the hottest weather of the year as desert area highs could exceed 120F (48.8C). Continue reading...

Charging documents released on Friday show how investigators have tied architect Rex Heuermann to 11 sets of human remainsA New York architect, who allegedly made taunting calls to the relative of a victim police investigators suspected he murdered, is in custody facing accusations that he is the so-called Long Island serial killer.Rex Heuermann's arrest and indictment on Friday, on six charges of murder, marks a key moment in a case that has captivated the public and confounded authorities for more than a decade. Continue reading...

Lawyers for former US president ask Georgia's highest court to prevent district attorney from prosecuting himRepublican House speaker Kevin McCarthy condemned congressman Eli Crane for using an outdated and offensive term to refer to African Americans on the House floor:Politico reports that Crane has apologized for using the language: Continue reading...

Police arrest Rex Heuermann in significant breakthrough in decade-old Gilgo Beach case which gripped countryA man who appears to have been hiding in plain sight in a small seaside community for more than a decade while a serial killing gripped the nation was arrested and on Friday charged with murder in connection with several grisly deaths.Police in Suffolk county, New York, arrested the 59-year-old local architect Rex Heuermann, in a significant breakthrough in the so-called Gilgo Beach case in Long Island. Continue reading...

The fossil fuel industry has spent billions on winning over the public. Green activists must learn from its tacticsYou may think we have all the proof we need. More of it is in front of us right now, with heatwaves scorching through Europe, breaking records, wreaking havoc. In Athens, they closed the Acropolis on Friday as temperatures at the site headed towards 48C. In Lisbon, visitors expecting perfect blue skies have been disappointed to find them streaked with grey - not clouds, but smoke from forest fires. In Italy, there was no spring this year: floods gave way to unbearable heat with barely a pause.It's happening all over - biblical downpours in New York state, unquenchable fires in Canada - and yet humanity is not acting as if it is confronting a planetary emergency. Extreme weather is fast becoming the norm in the US, and yet Americans tell pollsters it is a low priority, ranking it 17th out of 21 national issues in a recent Pew survey. Even when the impact is personal, as it was for many Australians when bushfires raged through the country in 2019, opinions prove stubbornly hard to shift: one study found that among those directly impacted" by the fires, around a third saw no connection to the climate. They were unmoved."Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Senate must now consider bill to fund US military containing amendments on abortion, transgender healthcare and diversityThe Republican-led House of Representatives on Friday approved a huge defense bill that includes amendments overturning the Pentagon's policies on covering abortion services for the military, healthcare costs for transgender service members and diversity initiatives - setting up a historic clash with Democrats and the Biden administration that could imperil spending on the armed forces.The amendments, pushed by the GOP's right flank with the support of the speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, represent the latest instance of conservative lawmakers using their influence in Congress's lower chamber to attempt to change Joe Biden's policies on a range of issues that chiefly animate the Republican base. Continue reading...

Sofia Marks, 20, arrested over allegedly selling drugs that led to death of Leandro De Niro Rodriguez, 19, earlier this monthA woman has been arrested on federal narcotics charges for allegedly selling the drugs that led to the death of actor Robert De Niro's 19-year-old grandson, a law enforcement official said on Friday.Sofia Marks, 20, was arrested on Thursday by New York police officers and federal drug agents on charges of selling drugs to Leandro De Niro Rodriguez, according a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the arrest. Continue reading...

Wall Street bank's profits rise 40% to $13.3bn as interest rates charged to borrowers increaseOne of the world's largest banks, JP Morgan, is preparing for a potential surge in defaults by borrowers as households face pressure from high inflation and ever-climbing interest rates.The Wall Street bank put aside $1.7bn (1.3bn) for credit losses between April and June, according to its latest financial report, marking a 54% jump from a year earlier, when provisions totalled $1.1bn. Continue reading...

The union representing Hollywood actors formally announced a strike on Thursday, joining writers who have already been on strike for weeks. The action by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (Sag-Aftra), which began on Friday, marks the first time in 63 years that Hollywood writers and actors are striking simultaneously.Sag-Aftra has said the industrial action is being held over pay, conditions and concerns over the use of artificial intelligence. The simultaneous strikes are expected to halt the majority of Hollywood's film and TV production, and have a significant impact on the Los Angeles economy

From the first day of the year to the end of June, the US endured 28 mass killings, and the death toll rose just about every weekSlain at the hands of strangers or gunned down by loved ones. Massacred in small towns, in big cities, inside their own homes or outside in broad daylight. This year's unrelenting bloodshed across the US has led to the grimmest of milestones - the deadliest six months of mass killings recorded since at least 2006.From 1 January to 30 June, the nation endured 28 mass killings, all but one of which involved guns. The death toll rose just about every week, a constant cycle of violence and grief. Continue reading...

An archive holding works by writers purged in the 1930s also hosted Victoria Amelina, lost to a Russian strike this summerOn 12 October last year, I met up in Kyiv with the novelist and war crimes investigator Victoria Amelina, who died on 1 July from injuries sustained in an attack on a Kramatorsk pizza restaurant. We had first encountered each other some days earlier at a literary festival, Lviv BookForum, and taken the same overnight train to the Ukrainian capital. Ninety minutes after we arrived, on the morning of 10 October, Moscow targeted the city centre with cruise missiles.The first person I rang to make sense of events, after the deafening whoosh-bang shook my hotel room windows, was Amelina. Her taxi home had taken her past three of the missile sites. Being absolutely unshakable in her calmness, and because of her determination to bear witness to events, she had got out of her taxi, filmed the smoking craters and recorded precisely what she had seen. One of the missiles had destroyed a children's playground in Taras Shevchenko park nearby, which two days later we were now sitting in. Continue reading...

Plus, a hair-raising theory behind Nadine Dorries's unwavering loyalty towards Boris JohnsonMaybe he IS my king after all ... According to a royal expert (a posher, creepier version of David Attenborough comes to mind, tiptoeing from pot plant to pot plant down the palace corridors to chart the exotic creatures' habits) it is Charles and Camilla's custom to sleep in separate bedrooms every night. Continue reading...

The Huw Edwards saga shows how the UK tabloids are both reckless and dangerously restrained at the same timeI hesitated about writing this column because, as a Brit in America, I don't like it when my mother country looks ridiculous. (Yeah, I know, the last decade has been rough.) And there is simply no way to write this without making the UK, and more specifically, its media ecosystem, look ridiculous. Sorry King Charles, I tried my best.So what's going on? Good question: nobody really knows. But it all started last Saturday when the Sun put out an explosive front-page story claiming that an unnamed but well-known male BBC presenter had been paying a now 20-year-old more than 35,000 since they were 17 in return for sordid images". The British tabloid, which built its brand by featuring topless women on its page 3 for almost 50 years, is not known for being nuanced and restrained. Still, even by the paper's own questionable standards, the reporting on this was shocking. The Sun rushed out a story suggesting a serious criminal offence, without seeming to possess much of the underlying evidence to support the allegation.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Since losing his best friend in the 2018 nightclub attack, Wolf has become an outspoken advocate for gun safety and LGBTQ+ rightsSeven years after surviving the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, and dealing with the guilt of losing his best friend there, Brandon Wolf is living life to the fullest. He belongs to an energized generation of young Democrats. He is a prominent gun safety and LGBTQ+ civil rights activist and, at just 34, is a newly published author.But in Governor Ron DeSantis's Florida, he does not always feel safe. Continue reading...

Group called Advancing Our Values registered as non-profit two weeks earlier but mailers intended to be anti-Trump', says expert

Negotiations between the US's largest shipping company and its union have stalled less than a month before the contract expires - here's what we knowTime is running out for negotiations to avert the largest strike against a single employer in US history. Contract negotiations between UPS, the largest shipping company in the US, and its workers' union have stalled less than a month before the union contract expires on 31 July. Without a contract, the union said that its 340,000 full- and part-time workers will strike, something that would significantly disrupt the US economy.Here's what we know so far about negotiations and the potential strike: Continue reading...

Fines on list given to the Guardian were levied by agency created at Ron DeSantis's behest to investigate voter fraud, which is rare. Plus, Anchor, first and oldest US craft brewery, to closeGood morning.Florida Republicans have hit dozens of voter registration groups with thousands of dollars of fines, the latest salvo in an alarming crackdown on voting in the state led by the governor, Ron DeSantis.Who is most likely to be affected? A crackdown on third-party voter registration groups is likely to disproportionately affect Floridians of color, who are about five times more likely to register with third-party groups than white voters are.What's happening elsewhere? Mild El Nino climatic conditions brewing in the Pacific Ocean will strengthen throughout the year, with an outside chance of a record-breaking event that will further turbocharge already sweltering temperatures around the globe, scientists have forecast. As well as the US, heatwaves have roiled China, India, parts of Europe and the Arctic. Continue reading...

Tommy Tuberville, from Alabama, had seemed determined to support extremists despite condemnation from his colleaguesPoliticians typically enter office with a variety of interests, goals and focuses.A wave of progressive Democrats were elected in 2018 with the stated goal of bringing universal healthcare to the US. Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised to lead the country out of the Great Depression with the New Deal. Donald Trump wanted to build a wall, drain the swamp", and force people to say Merry Christmas". Continue reading...

Street Soccer USA brought the tournament to California this year to showcase 300 players from 40 national teamsWhen the ball grazed the Finnish goalkeeper, the people in the stands celebrated wildly. But Sienna Jackson stood emotionless on the pitch. The 24-year-old American forward couldn't believe she had just scored the first goal of the Homeless World Cup, hosted for the first time in the United States.Just a few years ago, Jackson was sleeping on the streets of downtown Sacramento, less than 5 miles away from the Hornet Stadium at California State University where she was now playing. Continue reading...

After a formidable academic and athletic career at Stanford University, the Californian is an integral part of the defending champions' World Cup campaignEach Saturday morning as a young child growing up in San Jose, California, Naomi Girma would show up to the park to play a version of soccer that was as informal as you can think", she says now.The children were divided by the adults into three groups: little, medium, and big. From there, the kids would scrimmage, their voices cutting through the crisp, California air uninterrupted by any formal coaching. Continue reading...

The Nanny star blasts Hollywood studios after talks between the actors' union and studios fail to avert a strike, calling them 'disgusting' for claiming they're losing money while 'giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs'. Fran Drescher is president of Hollywood's biggest union, Sag-Aftra. About 160,000 of its members are joining the Writers Guild of America in a strike, marking the biggest shutdown of Hollywood since both unions last went on strike together in 1960. The unions are fighting for better terms with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents major studios and streamers, including Amazon, Apple, Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros DiscoverySubscribe to Guardian Australia on YouTube

Melissa Tempel dismissed after she tweeted frustration at ban of Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus song exalting virtues of inclusivityA teacher in Wisconsin has been fired from her job after she criticized her public school district's decision to ban the song Rainbowland, which exalts the virtues of inclusivity, from a children's concert at her campus.The members of the board governing public schools in the solidly Republican community of Waukesha voted unanimously to dismiss Melissa Tempel from her job on Wednesday, saying the teacher's defense of the Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton duet violated district policy because she did not speak to her supervisors first. Continue reading...

The son-in-law and former adviser to the ex-president testified that Trump seemed to believe that he had won the 2020 electionDonald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner was among several witnesses to testify before a grand jury in recent weeks about the former president's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, US media reported on Thursday.Testifying at a federal courthouse in Washington DC last month, Kushner, a former White House adviser to Trump, said it was his impression that Trump truly believed the 2020 election was stolen, the New York Times reported, citing a person briefed on the matter. Continue reading...

Officer is seen hitting woman twice in face as she holds her baby in video released by LA county sheriff Robert LunaFor the second time in a week, the Los Angeles sheriff's department is facing scrutiny over a brutal force incident, this time after a deputy was caught on camera punching a mother twice in the face as she held her newborn baby.The LA county sheriff, Robert Luna, on Wednesday released footage of the July 2022 incident in Palmdale, north-east of the city of Los Angeles. Continue reading...

Prosecutors urged judge to reject Trump's request to postpone the trial and set December dateFederal prosecutors asked the judge presiding over the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case on Thursday to reject Donald Trump's request that any trial should not take place until after the 2024 presidential election and reset the trial date for December.There is no basis in law or fact for proceeding in such an indeterminate and open-ended fashion, and the defendants provide none," the prosecutors wrote in an 11-page court filing that sharply attacked Trump's arguments. Continue reading...

No age restriction on sales for Perrigo's once-a-day Opill, which will be available in stores and online early next yearThe US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first over-the-counter contraceptive pill, allowing millions of women and girls in the country to buy contraception without a prescription at a time when some states have sought to restrict access to birth control and abortion.FDA officials said on Thursday it cleared Perrigo's Opill - an every day, prescription-only hormonal contraception first approved in 1973 - to be sold over-the-counter. The pill will be available in stores and online in the first quarter of next year, and there will be no age restrictions on sales. The regulatory approval paves the way for people to purchase the pill without a prescription for the first time since oral contraceptives became widely available in the 1960s. Continue reading...

Law took voting authority from Black residents in Hinds county and Jackson, says DoJ, and created two-tiered system of justice'A recent Mississippi law that allows the state to appoint judges and prosecutors in Hinds county, including the majority-Black capital of Jackson, constituted a crude scheme that singles out and discriminates against Black residents", the justice department said on Wednesday.The agency announced its intent to intervene in a lawsuit filed by the NAACP against the state, arguing that the law, signed by the Republican governor, Tate Reeves, in April, took voting authority away from Black residents in Jackson and Hinds county, which are both Democrat-run and majority-Black. Continue reading...

President says Tommy Tuberville is jeopardising national security with protest against defense department's abortion policyThe Alabama Republican senator Tommy Tuberville is jeopardising US national security by blocking military leadership confirmations in protest of Pentagon policy on abortion, Joe Biden and the US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, said on Thursday.Speaking to reporters in Finland, where he attended meetings after the Nato summit in Lithuania, Biden said he would talk to Tuberville if he thought there was any prospect he would change his ridiculous" position. Continue reading...

Court will sentence Robert Bowers for 2018 attack that killed people, after he was convicted on 63 criminal countsThe shooter behind the deadly 2018 antisemitic attack that killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue may face the death penalty, a federal grand jury concluded on Thursday.The verdict, five years after the devastating mass shooting at Tree of Life synagogue, now means the court will sentence Robert Bowers either to life imprisonment or death by capital punishment. Federal prosecutors argued that Bowers, who had spent months planning the attack and has since said he regretted not killing more people, met the standard that he had an intent to kill. Continue reading...

Biden says process under way' to free Wall Street Journal reporter held in Russia and accused without evidence of spyingJoe Biden has said he is serious about pursuing a prisoner exchange for the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been detained in Russia for more than 100 days, and claimed the process was under way".I'm serious on a prisoner exchange," Biden told reporters on Thursday when asked about Gershkovich's continued detention in Russia. Continue reading...

The hypocrisy of its critics is grim to watch. Still, the BBC can retain support by making a virtue of transparencyOnce the feeding frenzy is over, this is what we're always left with. Families shattered, lives ruined and a thin, greasy feeling of shame descending over all who got caught up in the heat of the moment.The worst-kept secret of the week is out, for whatever that is worth. We all know now that the anonymous BBC presenter accused by the Sun of paying for sexually explicit images was Huw Edwards, the corporation's weighty anchor, in every sense of the word: the reassuring face and voice of every great state occasion, from election night to the death of a monarch.Gaby Hinsliff 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...

Inquiry into bag of drug found in West Wing concludes but lack of physical evidence' hampers efforts