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Departures are exacerbating existing shortages and creating very unsafe' conditions for patients, veterans and health workers sayThe Department of Veterans Affairs has lost thousands of healthcare professionals deemed core" to the system's ability to function and without which mission-critical work cannot be completed", agency records show.The number of medical staff on hand to treat veterans has fallen every month since Donald Trump took office. The VA has experienced a net loss of 2,000 registered nurses since the start of this fiscal year, the data show, along with approximately 1,300 medical assistants, 1,100 nursing assistants and licensed practical nurses, 800 doctors, 500 social workers and 150 psychologists. Continue reading...

Gemfields, which owns brand, agrees deal with SMG Capital, controlled by Sergei Mosunov

Ignore suggestions that further occupation would be temporary. Act now! This outrageous landgrab is ethnic cleansing in plain sightIt is hard to describe in words the pain of witnessing your people being destroyed for more than 670 days. It is even more unfathomable to contemplate another Israeli escalation, after witnessing so much suffering and so many crimes committed against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. How can this be allowed in full view of the world for so long? Will the world stand by?Israel's security cabinet declared this escalation when it approved a plan to fully occupy" the Gaza Strip and attack concentrations of population, starting with Gaza City itself. The consequences of this newest military onslaught are foreseeable and predictable. In May 2024, Israel attacked Rafah despite international warnings and in defiance of an international court of justice order - Rafah no longer exists. In November and December 2024, Israel attacked the northern towns of Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun and Jabaliya, and destroyed them in a campaign that former minister of defence Moshe Ya'alon described as ethnic cleansing". More recently, Israel unilaterally violated the ceasefire agreement, imposed starvation on the 2 million survivors and destroyed the southern city of Khan Younis. Continue reading...

With the AfD surging, it could soon be the largest party here. But, if he acts now, that dark scenario need not come to pass

Vice-president tries to deflect criticism of government's refusal to release so-called Epstein files, triggering renewed calls for transparency - key US politics stories from Sunday 10 AugustVice-president JD Vance's attempt to deflect attention away from the Trump administration's handling of the case against convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has backfired, triggering renewed calls for transparency.In an interview with Fox News broadcast on Sunday, Vance tried to brush off criticism of the administration's refusal to release documents related to the scandal, accusing Joe Biden of doing absolutely nothing" about it when he was in the White House. Continue reading...

Lee fire chars more than 167 sq miles with 6% containment as California crews reach 62% containment on Canyon fireA Colorado prison was evacuated as one of the largest wildfires in state history continued to grow, and officials warned residents of remote areas to be ready to leave on Sunday as gusty winds and low humidity fed the flames.Evacuation orders were already in place for mountain communities as the Lee fire charred more than 167 sq miles (433 sq km) across Garfield and Rio Blanco counties, with just 6% containment. No injuries or structural damage has been reported. Continue reading...

Vice-president tries to deflect criticism and blames Biden for doing absolutely nothing' about convicted sex offenderFour days after JD Vance reportedly asked top Trump administration officials to come up with a new communications strategy for dealing with the scandal around the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, he appears to have put his foot in it, sparking a new round of online outrage even as he tried to defuse the furor.In an interview with Fox News broadcast on Sunday, the vice-president tried to deflect criticism of the administration's refusal to release the Epstein files by blaming Democrats. He accused Joe Biden of doing absolutely nothing" about the scandal when he was in the White House. Continue reading...

President demands unhoused residents leave US capital or face eviction and vowed to use officers to make arrestsIn a social media post on Sunday, Donald Trump has demanded homeless residents of Washington DC leave the country's capital or face eviction, and again promised to use federal officers to jail criminals, even though violent crime in the city was at a 30-year low when he took office in January.The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Sunday morning, shortly after being driven from the White House to his golf club in Virginia. We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital." Continue reading...

The UN security council met on Sunday after Israel said its military would 'take control' of Gaza City.Many ambassadors condemned Israel's plans, including the coordination director of the UN's humanitarian office, Ramesh Rajasingham, who said they would take a 'further human toll'

Deadly violence not random as staff have endured months of mistreatment, neglect and vilification', says unionA union representing US Centers for Disease Control employees has demanded that the federal government condemn vaccine misinformation after a man who evidently blamed the Covid-19 vaccination for making him depressed and suicidal aimed gunfire Friday at the CDC's headquarters in Atlanta.The 30-year-old shooting suspect, who killed a police officer and died during the attack, had also tried to get into the CDC's headquarters - but he was stopped by guards before driving to a pharmacy across the street and opening fire, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press on Saturday. Continue reading...

Governor warns lawmakers who left to foil redistricting plan that he coould call special session to extend battleTexas governor, Greg Abbott, has stepped up his war of words with Democratic lawmakers who have left the state to foil an aggressive redistricting plan aimed at giving his Republican party five additional seats in Congress, saying on Sunday that the fight could literally last years".Abbott issued his new threat on Fox News Sunday, saying that he would use his powers to call a special session of the Texas legislature to extend the battle indefinitely. The special session lasts 30 days, he said, and as soon as this one is over, I'm going to call another one, then another one, then another one, then another one". Continue reading...

A woman died and a man was trapped inside a vehicle after strong winds toppled a large tree and crushed carStrong storms in eastern Nebraska early Saturday killed one person, seriously injured another in a state park and displaced hundreds of inmates after two prison housing units were damaged, officials said - as other midwest US states also braced for bad weather.Meanwhile, more than 40 million Americans have been put on alert for dangerous heat and fire weather. In terms of fire weather, a blaze which prompted mandatory evacuations in two Colorado counties was of particular note.The Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...

Nobody told us anything,' one of women said after all other passengers were rebooked on earlier flight amid delaysThe US's Southwest Airlines has publicly apologized after two women who are blind were both left behind by a plane flying to Orlando that the pair evidently should have had the opportunity to be on.Southwest eventually ended up flying the women, Camille Tate and Sherri Brun, on another flight for which they were the only two passengers, with the rest being rebooked on a plane that left earlier, according to recent reporting from the Orlando news stations WSVN and WOFL. Nonetheless, as WSVN noted, the two friends from Florida remained outraged at their experience, which resulted from their not being able to see information about the rebooked flight and not being verbally notified of the switch by the airline. Continue reading...

Republicans see it as the epitome of Trump keeping his promises, while for Democrats it's an opportunity to return from the political wildernessEarlier this summer, Republican lawmakers gathered around Donald Trump and applauded as he sat before a desk outside the White House and put his signature on what he calls his one, big, beautiful bill".But there were few claps for Mike Flood this week when the Republican congressman appeared before an auditorium of his Nebraska constituents to extol the tax and spending legislation's benefits - just boos and jeers. Continue reading...

Having fled Castro's Cuba at age five, Jorge Malagon Marquez honors the landmark reopening in SeptemberJorge Malagon Marquez's first sighting of Miami's iconic Freedom Tower, the so-called Ellis Island of the south for its role in processing more than half a million Cubans fleeing Fidel Castro's communist revolution, was through a flood of tears.It was May 1967, and his family had just arrived from Havana on one of the first so-called Freedom flights ferrying refugees allowed to escape the dictator's tightening grip on the island. Continue reading...

Donald Trump's second term has seen a sustained assault on democratic institutions - political, judicial, media, cultural, academic - that appears to be only acceleratingThe anger was raw and resolute. Speaking at the Republican congressman Mike Flood's town hall in Lincoln, Nebraska, a woman pointed to the estimated $450m cost of Alligator Alcatraz", an immigration detention facility in Florida. How much does it cost for fascism?" she demanded. How much do the taxpayers have to pay for a fascist country?"The crowd erupted in applause and whoops. In the week that Donald Trump marked his 200th day in office, few mainstream political commentators are bandying around terms such as fascist". But many are warning of a societal march towards authoritarianism that, far from losing momentum, appears to be gathering pace. Continue reading...

The puerile standoff between the US and Russia ought to alert a slumbering public to a risk that is in many ways greater than during the cold warNuclear weapons - their lethal menace, dark history and future spread - are back in the headlines again and, as usual, the news is worrying, bordering on desperate. Russia's decision last week to formally abandon the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty banning medium- and short-range nuclear missiles completes the demolition of a key pillar of global arms control. It will accelerate an already frantic nuclear arms race in Europe and Asia at a moment when US and Russian leaders are taunting each other like schoolboys.Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, has repeatedly threatened the west with nuclear weapons during his war in Ukraine. Last November, Russian forces fired their new Oreshnik hypersonic, nuclear-capable intermediate-range missile at Dnipro. It travels like a meteorite" at 10 times the speed of sound and can reach any city in Europe, Putin boasted - which, if true, is a clear INF violation. Moscow blames its decision to ditch the treaty on hostile Nato actions. Yet it has long bypassed it in practice, notably by basing missiles in Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave on the Baltic sea, and Belarus.Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator Continue reading...

Commerce secretary begins process could let the government seize Harvard patents; Tammy Bruce nominated for deputy US ambassador to UN - key US politics stories from 9 August 2025The Trump administrations has threatened Harvard's lucrative portfolio of patents amid its long-running dispute with the university, accusing it of breaching legal and contractual requirements tied to federally funded research.In a letter, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick demanded that Harvard provide within four weeks a list of all patents stemming from federally funded research grants, including how the patents are used and whether any licensing requires substantial US manufacturing". Harvard did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Continue reading...

White House escalates offensive on Ivy League university by calling for review of federally funded researchThe latest phase of the Trump administration's offensive against Harvard University is a comprehensive review of the university's federally funded research programs, and the threat to strip the school's lucrative portfolio of patents.In a letter to the Harvard president, Alan Garber, posted online on Friday, Donald Trump's commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, accused Harvard of breaching its legal and contractual requirements tied to federally funded research programs and patents. Continue reading...

Shooter, a 30-year-old man who died during violence, fired dozens of rounds into buildings and killed police officerA Georgia man who opened fire on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta on Friday, shooting dozens of rounds into four buildings and killing a police officer, had blamed a Covid-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press on Saturday.

Bruce, dubbed a great patriot' by Trump in announcement, now serves as state department spokespersonDonald Trump said on Saturday he was nominating Tammy Bruce, the state department spokesperson, as the next US deputy representative to the United Nations, which would make the former Fox News commentator an ambassador.The president made the announcement on Truth Social, where he praised Bruce as a Great Patriot, Television Personality, and Bestselling Author". Continue reading...

Trump removed Billy Long from post months after agency said it couldn't release information on some taxpayersThe removal of the Internal Revenue Service commissioner Billy Long after just two months in the post came after the federal tax collection agency said it could not release some information on taxpayers suspected of being in the US illegally, it was reported on Saturday.The IRS and the White House had clashed over using tax data to help locate suspected undocumented immigrants soon before Long was dismissed by the administration, according to the Washington Post. Continue reading...

Prasad left the agency after far-right influencer released edited audio misleadingly suggesting he was anti-TrumpVinay Prasad is returning to his role overseeing vaccine, gene therapy and blood product regulation at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) a little more than a week after he left the agency.At the FDA's request, Dr Vinay Prasad is resuming leadership of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research," Department Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a statement to Reuters. Continue reading...

Progressive evangelical group says ideas shared by pastors and amplified by defense secretary are very disturbing'The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, recently shared a video in which several pastors say women should no longer be allowed to vote, prompting one progressive evangelical organization to express concern.Hegseth reposted a CNN segment on X on Thursday that focuses on pastor Doug Wilson, a Christian nationalist who co-founded the Idaho-based Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), In the segment, he raises the idea of women not voting. Continue reading...

A plan to redistrict states to benefit Republicans was conceived of 15 years ago. It's been an enormous successThe gerrymandering wars are back. Perhaps they never really went away.Extreme GOP gerrymanders have remade American politics over the last 15 years. They have locked Republicans into office in state legislatures nationwide, even in purple states when Democratic candidates win more votes. They have delivered a reliable and enduring edge to the GOP in the race for Congress. Continue reading...

Archdiocese has proposed a system based on type of abuse suffered by victims as part of its ongoing bankruptcy caseDocuments filed recently in the New Orleans Roman Catholic archdiocese's five-year bankruptcy case provide more clarity on how claims will be doled out to victims of clergy abuse if a proposed settlement is approved. Points will be assigned to each abuse claim based on the severity of the abuse and its effects on each victim's life, but the records do not offer much clarity on how much actual money those points will be worth.Claims that a Catholic church employee raped them will be worth twice as much money to abuse survivors as having a priest masturbate in front of them, four times more than if a cleric touched them under their clothes and seven times more than being shown pornography, according to details from a settlement disclosure statement filed and amended recently. Continue reading...

Republican push for gerrymandered congressional maps triggers down-and-dirty from new generation - will it work?It was a stirring speech that brought Democrats to tears. When someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you don't stoop to their level," Michelle Obama told them in Philadelphia in 2016. No, our motto is: When they go low, we go high.'"Fast forward to Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, speaking in Chicago this week. This is not the Democratic party of your grandfather, which would bring a pencil to the knife fight," he insisted. This is a new Democratic party. We're bringing a knife to a knife fight, and we are going to fight fire with fire." Continue reading...

Appointed by Carter to head FBI in 1978, Webster helped improve the image of an agency tarnished by scandalWilliam H Webster, the former FBI and CIA director whose troubleshooting skills and integrity helped restore public confidence in those federal agencies, has died, his family announced on Friday. He was 101.Webster led the FBI from 1978 to 1987 and the CIA from 1987 to 1991, the only person to guide the nation's top law-enforcement agency and its primary intelligence-gathering organization. Continue reading...

Co-founded by president's eldest sons, Eric and Don Jr, World Liberty has earned the family $500m since its launchWorld Liberty Financial, a crypto venture backed by Donald Trump and the US president's family, is sounding out investors for a $1.5bn fundraising round meant to set up a public company that will hold its WLFI tokens, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.The structure of the deal is yet to be finalized, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter, adding that large investors in the crypto and tech space had been approached for the venture. Continue reading...

Witnesses say disabled death-row man was in distress upon gurney, while lawyer calls execution 100% botched'For attorney Kelley Henry, the visible blood was the first indication that the execution of her client was going wrong.At 10.15am on Tuesday inside the Riverbend maximum security prison in Nashville, the longtime Tennessee death row lawyer watched as staff attempted to place an IV into the right arm of Byron Black. Black was locked on to a gurney with crisscrossing black straps over his chest, stomach and legs, and Henry saw blood ooze from the injection site. Continue reading...

NYPD say shooting took place after verbal dispute and one person is being held in custodyThree people have been injured in a shooting at New York City's Times Square after a 17-year-old opened fire, the New York police department has said.Police said they were questioning one person who is being held in custody, but that no charges have been pressed yet. Continue reading...

US president said end to war will involve some swapping of territories' before announcing meetingPresident Volodymyr Zelenskyy said early on Saturday that Ukrainians will not give their land to occupiers" after Donald Trump said he would meet Vladimir Putin next week and that an end to the war must involve some swapping of territories".The Ukrainian president said Kyiv was ready for real solutions that could bring peace but that any solutions without Ukraine would be against peace. Any decisions against us, any decisions without Ukraine, are also decisions against peace. They will achieve nothing," he said, adding that the war cannot be ended without us, without Ukraine". Continue reading...

Roland Beainy from Lebanon, who opened chain of restaurants in support of president, says charges not true'The owner of a Donald Trump-themed hamburger restaurant chain in Texas is facing deportation after immigration authorities under the command of the president detained him.Roland Mehrez Beainy, 28, entered the US as a non-immigrant visitor" from Lebanon in 2019 and was supposed to have left the country by 12 February 2024, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) spokesperson told the Guardian. Continue reading...

Deal to end four-decade conflict includes creation of transit corridor named Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity'The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a peace agreement at the White House on Friday, in a deal brokered by the US that brings decades of conflict to an end.The two countries in the South Caucasus signed agreements with each other, as well as the US, that will reopen key transportation routes while allowing the US to seize on Russia's declining influence in the region. The deal includes an agreement that will create a major transit corridor linking Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan, with the United States owning development rights to the corridor. It was to be named the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, the White House said. Continue reading...

At several points during his presidency, Biden could have stopped starvation from spreading in Gaza. He didn't do thatIn March 2024, the global authority on food security warned that Palestinians were experiencing catastrophic levels of hunger", and famine was imminent in northern Gaza as Israel continued its siege of the territory. That report was one of the most direct warnings from the UN and international relief groups, which had been raising alarms about the potential for widespread starvation in Gaza since December 2023.Joe Biden was in the White House at the time, and his administration not only failed to heed those repeated warnings, but it worked to undermine UN agencies and humanitarian groups that tried to focus attention on Israel's use of starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. Today, Donald Trump and his administration are deeply complicit in the human-made famine unfolding in Gaza, but it's important to remember that US complicity predates Trump - and it's another stain on Biden's legacy as president.Mohamad Bazzi is director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, and a journalism professor at New York University Continue reading...

The far-right Republican and conspiracy theorist is suddenly speaking (a small amount of) sense. Weird!Here's a sentence I never thought I'd write: Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right conspiracy theorist and bigot who also happens to be a Republican congresswoman, has suddenly started to speak (a small amount of) sense. It's unclear what exactly precipitated it, but the Georgia congresswoman has declared war on her fellow Republicans.The course that [the Republican party] is on, I don't want to have anything to do with it," Greene told the Daily Mail last week. Continue reading...

These days it's not enough to disagree with opponents - it seems we have to accuse them of being con artists tooOur world is full of grifters. Or so it seems, considering how often that word is thrown around in public life these days.This year alone, Zarah Sultana, the former Labour MP and founder of a new left party with Jeremy Corbyn, called the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, a billionaire-backed grifter" (perhaps borrowing from the language of Coutts staff who referred to him as a disingenuous grifter" when his bank account was closed two years ago). Sultana, in turn, was accused of being a grifter" duping honest socialists" by the journalist Paul Mason.Anoosh Chakelian is Britain editor of the New Statesman Continue reading...

Confusion over his role and a lack of standout skills were always likely to make it difficult to switch sports but rugby is welcoming him back with open armsWhen you're super talented and have options, you do what is best for you," is how former New York Giants cornerback Jason Bell explains Louis Rees-Zammit's unexpected return to rugby union from the NFL.Less than a week after Rees-Zammit's sudden announcement that he is leaving Jacksonville Jaguars on the eve of the 2025 season, the Wales coach, Steve Tandy, all but named him in his first squad for the forthcoming Autumn Nations games against Argentina, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa, describing his impending return as a great boost to the game, to fans and to coaches". Continue reading...

Michelle Obama is a fan of the world No 12, who is a vocal supporter of women's sport, especially basketballFrances Tiafoe is in his element when he talks passionately about the growing presence of black and mixed heritage players at the highest levels of men's tennis. During a stroll on tournament grounds he reels off the names of players he competes with regularly on the tour. Now they're at a position where I have wars with them and go back and forth. So this is great, man. It's great to see," he says. And then you have Giovanni [Mpetshi Perricard], you have Gael [Monfils], who I looked up to."Seconds after Tiafoe mentions his name, Monfils suddenly appears from around a corner as if magically summoned by the American's utterance. His arrival naturally leads to a pause in this interview as an excited Tiafoe greets Monfils by heaping praise on his new haircut, particularly focusing his attention on the Frenchman's sleek fade. Monfils responds with a compliment of his own: You're looking like a wedding day," he says, laughing. Continue reading...

A recent boxing showcase in Brooklyn promised opportunity. But it exposed fighters to unnecessary risk in front of an enthusiastic crowd and an influential audienceThe videos are troubling. They've made their way online through social media and other postings.A club fighter, Jacob Solis, is in the ring with a world-class fighter named Marquis Taylor. Both men are wearing headgear. Solis is under the impression that this is a sparring session. Taylor has been incentivized to treat the encounter as something more. Continue reading...