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The Guardian is coming to Saginaw, Michigan, before the presidential election to find out which issues people there most care about - and we want your helpIn the run-up to the US presidential election, the Guardian will be spending at least a month in Saginaw, a pivotal county in the key swing state of Michigan where voters were almost evenly divided between Donald Trump and his Democratic opponents in the last two presidential elections.We will be listening to how local people see a race that has already taken dramatic and unexpected turns. We are interested not only in how you might vote, if at all, but what you think the candidates should be talking about, whether or not they are doing so. Continue reading...

Amid a rise in gun threats, firearm-detecting dogs become popular' safety measure that also has emotional benefitsAs the new school year got under way in Tennessee, students in the Wilson county school district near Nashville welcomed two new school employees, Zander and Zena.But they are not assistants or janitors, they are black labrador dogs on a serious mission - to protect the school community from gun violence and mass shootings in a country awash in firearms carried by the public. Continue reading...

With just 5 million people, Ireland ranks sixth globally for foreign direct investment in US, above Italy and MexicoMore than 80 years since helping develop the nuclear bomb, Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the mountains of eastern Tennessee remains a critical piece of the US government's research-and-development infrastructure.Inside its walls lie the world's fastest supercomputer; fusion, fission and neutron research projects; and thousands of expert scientists and researchers. Continue reading...

Given rambling speeches and personal attacks over policy talk, supporters wonder if events do more harm than goodAs Donald Trump emerged to a thunderous roar of approval in the heart of Pennsylvania's Rust belt, he was back in his comfort zone among the people who once put him in power.But by the time he stepped off the stage nearly two hours later, even some of the former US president's supporters were wondering whether his rallies are doing his re-election campaign more harm than good. Continue reading...

The Florida native tapped as America's next great tennis star opens up about his meteoric ascent, sitting out the Olympics and where he plans on going from hereI'd say, if I had a grade myself on playing, I've played B or C tennis so far this year," Ben Shelton says. I don't think that I've played my best tennis this season. I don't think that we've seen my peak this year."Shelton is fresh off of Wimbledon when he tells me this. The same grand slam where, in a span of a week, he played three grueling five-setters and two doubles matches before falling to world No 1 Jannik Sinner in the round of 16. He also began the tournament with a bone bruise on his knee from a bad fall at a practice. I actually wasn't sure if I was going to play," he says. Continue reading...

Friendships based on sport and alcohol don't always allow us to be our true selves. Shared vulnerabilities enrich our livesIn my early 20s, I worked as a naked dancing ghost. I was a late stand-in for a production of Richard Wagner's The Flying Dutchman. A couple of evenings a week I strolled in the dark to Malmo Opera's functionalist home, with its marble-clad columns and huge, warmly lit window surfaces.Backstage in the dressing rooms, it was almost like the atmosphere before a lower-division football game, the guys shooting the breeze, talking rubbish, except that when they returned one by one from the cubicle where the makeup was being applied, they were naked and corpse-pale, their bodies dotted with splashes of black. Lips were chalky-white and eyes were adorned with dark rings that gave faces a startled expression. Continue reading...

The Democrats are hoping to win voters over on vibe alone. But feelings are fickle, and people could be persuaded either wayIf you're not across much of popular culture, the US election may require some interpretation. The Democratic National Convention has been an exercise in creating a theatrical cast drawn from celebrity, music and drama. Take, for instance, Nancy Pelosi, the Mother of Dragons" - a main character in Game of Thrones - as she was introduced at the DNC. A dragon tamer who was also introduced as brat before brat was brat" (a buzzy reference to the musician Charli xcx's album of the same name, which denotes a confident, nonchalantly rebellious woman). Kamala Harris herself was anointed as brat" the moment that Joe Biden stepped down, but already Harris's mother - who had Indian heritage and raised Harris as a single parent - has been declared the uberbrat, more brat than even her daughter.If all that's too obscure, perhaps Taylor Swift is a more familiar touchstone. Commentators have suggested that Swift's boyfriend, the NFL player Travis Kelce, has much in common with vice-presidential candidate and Harris running mate Tim Walz, and more broadly with the wife guys" of the DNC - all of whom are men who, while confident in their masculinity, are not ashamed to talk up their wives and girlfriends and take a back seat. Harris has captured this loose amalgamation of cinematic performance and cultural zeitgeist by delivering liberals what they sorely need: a Beyonce moment". She is experiencing her Renaissance", according to the New York Times columnist Charles M Blow - a reference to the spectacular pyrotechnic tour that elevated Beyonce to pop icon status. The rumour that Beyonce herself was appearing as a surprise guest at the DNC drew much speculation, as if her presence alone would bless the campaign and ordain its political legitimacy.Nesrine Malik 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...

Park officials say Chenoa Nickerson, 33, who wasn't wearing a life vest, was swept into Havasu Creek last weekThe body of a woman has been discovered three days after she was swept up in a flash flood that required the rescue of more than 100 people near the Grand Canyon in Arizona, officials have said.The body of Chenoa Nickerson, 33, was discovered by a commercial river boat on the Colorado River about 20 miles (30 km) downstream of where she went missing on Thursday, the US National Park Service said in a statement. Continue reading...

Unusually strong and rare snow system dusted Sierra Nevada mountain range early SaturdayThis summer, Californians have had to endure blistering heatwaves, raging wildfires - and now snow.An unusually strong and rare snow system dusted California's Sierra Nevada mountain range early Saturday, the first time snow has fallen in August in the so-called Golden State in more than 20 years. Continue reading...

Amid close race, Harris to go on tour in Georgia as Trump surrogate insists state's governor will back ex-presidentAs Kamala Harris and Donald Trump brace themselves for what promises to be an ugly and bruising sprint to the finishing line in November, both presidential candidates' campaigns are turning their sights back on the handful of desperately close swing states where the battle is likely to be decided.Georgia is coming into view as a critical battleground for both leaders as they struggle to gain voters' attention in an epochal election. On Wednesday, the vice-president will travel from the White House to southern Georgia to hold her first campaign event in the state with her recently anointed running mate and former high school football coach, Minnesota governor Tim Walz. Continue reading...

Jersey, worn by baseball player in his final home run in the series, is most expensive sports collectible sold at auctionThe jersey that legendary baseball player Babe Ruth wore when he called the shot" - and batted a home run - during game 3 of the 1932 World Series has sold for a record-setting $24.1m (18.1m) with Heritage Auctions.The sale makes the jersey the most expensive sports collectible to ever be sold at auction. The jersey in question, belonging to the late New York Yankees star, was last auctioned in 2005 for $940,000. But at the time the item was only linked to the 1932 World Series, and not directly to the famed episode where Ruth pointed his bat to the outfield stands before he hit a home run into center field off Chicago Cubs pitcher Charlie Root. Continue reading...

Both Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar gain from stoking the fires of war. That could be perilous for all of usThe abrupt, deeply alarming weekend escalation in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon is exactly what the US, France and Britain have been working desperately to prevent ever since Israel's assassination of the Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran almost a month ago.The renewed violence, which appears to have abated quickly but could plainly flare up again at any moment, represents a potentially serious setback for international peace efforts. It is a further blow in particular to US president Joe Biden, whose hopes of a wider Middle East settlement before he leaves office are in tatters.Simon Tisdall is the Observer's foreign affairs commentator

The postnatal period can feel overwhelming. But there is wisdom to be gained from living in the in-between

Max Kennedy says endorsement is inconceivable' and implores public to ignore his sibling's decisionMax Kennedy, the brother of Robert F Kennedy Jr, has implored the public to ignore his sibling's decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential election and endorse Donald Trump's campaign to return to the White House.In an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, Max Kennedy said Trump was exactly the kind of arrogant, entitled bully" that his father, former US senator and attorney general Robert F Kennedy, stood against before he was assassinated in 1968 as he pursued the Democratic presidential nomination. Continue reading...

Trump has also proved to be a formidable fundraiser but appears to be outpaced in Harris's month-old campaignKamala Harris's presidential campaign says it has now raised $540m for its election battle against Donald Trump.The vice-president's campaign has had no problems getting supporters to open their wallets since Joe Biden announced on 21 July he was ending his run for re-election to the White House and quickly endorsed Harris. The campaign said it saw a surge of donations during last week's Democratic national convention in Chicago where Harris and her vice-presidential running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, accepted their nominations. Continue reading...

Cuts ruin lives and raise costs. This scandal is already playing out in the system, and it should be a warning to LabourAutumn, it seems, will begin on Tuesday, with a set-piece speech by Keir Starmer. The sunny anthem that serenaded New Labour to power has been frostily remixed: Things will get worse before we get better," he will reportedly warn, while he serves notice of tough choices" and unpopular decisions". To no one's great surprise, he and Rachel Reeves will clearly be sticking to their promised parsimony. In the departments where Labour ministers are finding their feet, the only reform" projects that have any chance of success will be those driven by savings. But as winter bites, they will face ever-louder calls for the opposite: money to fill deep gaps and repair 14 long years of damage.One huge story embodies all this. At its heart are children and young people in England whose schooling and care fall under the category of special educational needs and disabilities, or Send. The system that is meant to help them is overseen by local councillors and public servants who often seem buried in failure, and unable to see a way out. As with so many of our national problems, much of the mess goes back to the Tory-Lib Dem coalition, and a story that Starmer, Reeves and their colleagues should bear in mind - about how imposing cuts not only ruins lives but soon results in the reverse of what was intended: costs go up, often uncontrollably. Continue reading...

Survivors of child sex abuse by male and female clergy seek justice - but are answered with silenceGeo, the name he prefers, sits in a coffee shop on a rainy afternoon as streetcars clang along outside. He is 64. He arrived at Madonna Manor, the Catholic orphanage he is now suing, in August of 1967, as a ward of Louisiana, age seven.My childhood was horrific," he says matter-of-factly. My father was an abusive alcoholic, my mother diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic. Madonna Manor was a place where dysfunctional parents dumped their children. My mom was subject to electroshock therapy and thorazine. She lost a baby. She had a psychotic breakdown and was placed in a mental hospital. The state took me over." Continue reading...

Just when my husband and I were getting used to the empty nest, there's a new occupant to worry about. We have never felt more helplessAn unexpected thing has happened: I, we, have had a baby. A surprise change-of-life baby! That wasn't part of our empty nest plan, but sometimes fate decides and you're dragged along for the ride. You probably want details: well, we're not sure of the sex, but it's probably female because of the incubation temperature and the fact it weighs 17g. OK, it's a baby tortoise.Our new arrival came as a complete shock. Our two female tortoises sometimes lay eggs, but none have ever been fertile. One male is a foul sex pest who molests them tirelessly, but we assumed that the fact he's a quarter of the ladies' size created insuperable, er, logistical problems (we often we find him flailing on his back, because they've tired of his squeaking, humping antics and flipped him). The other is larger, but lower-key: he likes being alone and chomping dandelions (I know who I'd rather was the daddy). Continue reading...

The 30 ceasefire delegates worked tirelessly, staging a sit-in and moving more than 300 Harris delegates to join themAsma Mohammed organized the uncommitted movement in Minnesota because she was seeing children who look like my son be massacred".June Rose, an uncommitted delegate from Rhode Island, joined the cause because they were raised as an orthodox Jew, kept away from Palestinians and taught that the occupation of Palestine was for their safety. Then Rose went to Palestine. And I realized that not one single child needs to die in order to keep me safe," they said. Continue reading...

Joe Moore, who for years investigated the Ku Klux Klan, issues a chilling warning for the 2024 election and beyondAmerica's fraught 2024 election could be hit by far-right violence, warns a high-profile FBI informant who spent years infiltrating the Klu Klux Klan in a new book.Joe Moore spent a decade tasked with infiltrating KKK chapters in Florida to investigate enduring ties between law enforcement and the white supremacist organization, an assignment that included disrupting a murder plot by a trio of Klansmen who worked as prison guards. Continue reading...

Republican Florida governor's attack on universities suffers twin embarrassments of book dump and spending scandalIt has been a rough month for Ron DeSantis's rightwing rebranding of higher education in Florida. Embarrassments at two high-profile universities where the Republican governor has been waging his culture war against woke" have forced his administration into something of a cleanup.Sarasota's New College, the once liberal arts school subjected to a hostile takeover" by well-rewarded, ultra-conservative DeSantis allies, was exposed by the city's Herald-Tribune for dumping thousands of library books, including a clear-out of its gender and diversity center. Continue reading...

Vice-president enjoys post-convention glow but her policies are undefined as Trump searches for line of attackAs Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for US president, and 100,000 red, white and blue balloons floated down from the rafters, Charlene Dukes' eyes filled with tears. It was when she spoke about her family, her upbringing, which is so similar to many of us," said Dukes, a Black woman from Maryland.Many of us were not born with a silver spoon in our mouths," added Dukes, who said the prospect of the US electing a woman of colour as president for the first time in its 248-year history left her feeling euphoric". Continue reading...

Architects of Team USA's squad say they salivate with the athleticism that could ... be in the pool' for 2028 debutAny NFL stars who are truly serious about joining the US's national flag football team when the sport debuts as an Olympic discipline at the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games will get their opportunity - but they will need to submit to what could shape up to be a trials process like no other, according to those in charge of picking the squad.Scott Hallenbeck and Eric Mayes of flag's American governing body, USA Football, told the Guardian in a recent interview that they are as excited as anybody to explore fielding NFL talent at the Olympics in a manner the NBA has done for the US since the 1992 Dream Team. Continue reading...

Far from acting as a broker, Beijing is playing both sides in a state torn by brutality and chaosThings fall apart, if you let them - and ethnically, religiously, ideologically fractured Myanmar, formerly Burma, has never been a model of harmonious, integrated nationhood. Yet since the 2021 military coup and ensuing civil war, new and old divisions have grown rapidly. Western and neighbouring states supporting a democratic restoration now face a more fundamental, urgent challenge: how to prevent Myanmar's anarchic disintegration.A break-up would send destabilising shock waves coursing across the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh and all of south-east Asia. The humanitarian implications for its 54million people are dire. A collapse would boost separatist forces and non-state actors elsewhere. And itwould severely dent China's claimsto regional leadership. If President Xi Jinping cannot manage Myanmar, what price Beijing's superpower pretensions?Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

The landscaper's daughter who couldn't crack her college team's lineup opens up about retiring while the getting's good from a career defined by overachievementIn the fall of 2012, when she was an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Florida, Danielle Collins joined a tennis team fresh off an NCAA championship and filled with collegiate players of the highest caliber. Unfortunately, she wasn't one of them. During her year in Gainesville, Collins wasn't able to crack the lineup.Collins and I first spoke by phone in May, on the heels of her back-to-back victories on the hard courts of Miami and the green clay in Charleston. She is the current world No 11 and, come the end of this 2024 season, after eight years on tour and nearly $9m in prize money, plans to retire. There is an uncanny delight in the fact that of her four WTA singles titles, half were won in quick succession in this final stretch of her career, as though somehow the conviction in what she wants for her life off-court - time, freedom, the chance to start a family - has unlocked a sense of liberated clairvoyance. She is going to retire, but first, she is going to win. In an era of players calling it quits when their bodies and years on courts have extended and bended long past their physical prime, Collins is doing an unusual thing. She's leaving the court while the getting's good. Continue reading...

Call it uncool to have a word, but you can't let young people just get hammered in a fieldThere are many parenting styles for teenagers, but sometimes it feels like there are just two: cool and uncool. Often, cool, liberal parents are lovely: just trying to let their kids breathe. Then you get the other kind, doing the cool parent" thing. The ones who are smug and tiring. Who make you feel fogeyish and hysterical about raising concerns (their attitude: What's the weather like in Daily Mail land?"). The ones who often seem misinformed and out of date. They are many things, but I've come to think they can also be dangerous.Cool parents are out in force right now. The uncool ones too: the anxious and alert. The TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp is in the news for letting her 15-year-old son go Interrailing with a friend, prompting a discussion about children and parental permissions. Continue reading...

Prostitution puts lives in danger yet sexual exploitation is permitted to thrive in the UKLabour's most ambitious pledge isn't to reach the highest sustained growth in the G7, or to transition Britain to zero-carbon electricity by 2030. It is to halve male violence against women and girls over the next decade. At least 100 women were killed by a man in 2023. So achieving this would be an extraordinary feat that would transform the experience of being female in the UK. But a real test of Labour's commitment is whether it is prepared to protect some of the most vulnerable women in society who find themselves trapped in prostitution.Prostitution puts women in mortal peril; it is hard to quantify precisely but women in prostitution are many, many times more likely to end up murdered than other women. Femicide Census figures highlight that 47 women involved in prostitution were killed by men in the UK between 2009 and 2023. Continue reading...

Strong winds and heavy rain may inflict damage over weekend, with wind raising wildfire risk on drier sidesTropical Storm Hone was approaching the southern edges of Hawaii on Saturday with gusts of wind and heavy rain, potentially inflicting flooding and wind damage on the Big Island over the weekend and raising the risk of wildfires on the drier sides of the islands.The National Weather Service has issued a tropical storm warning for Hawaii county, which includes all of the Big Island, and a red-flag warning for the leeward sides of all islands. Continue reading...

Winners of prizes such as the Nobel are concentrated in a handful of universities, which runs the risk of narrowing debateEconomists are pro-competition, warning against concentrated markets - dominated by a few large firms that face too little pressure to keep prices down or quality up.But where is concentration high and increasing? In economics itself, according to fascinatingnew research by US and Chinese academics. They gathered data on the top researchers (those receiving the most prestigious awards -, such as Nobel prizes) across different scientific fields, spanning engineering, natural and social sciences. Continue reading...

The Democratic contender tells it like it is about Donald Trump

Statue of congressman, who died in 2020 of cancer, replaces obelisk erected in 1908 celebrating the ConfederacyA 12ft-tall statue of John Lewis was unveiled in Georgia on Saturday morning, honoring the legacy of the civil rights leader and congressman who died in 2020.The statue stands in Decatur Square outside the historic Decatur courthouse in outer Atlanta, in a district Lewis represented in Congress from 1987 to his death. Lewis was 80 when he died due to complications related to pancreatic cancer. Continue reading...

The 21-year-old insists she's inspired being back at the scene of her remarkable New York triumph and won't change her methods whatever the criticismWhen Emma Raducanu first returned to New York two years ago to defend her unprecedented 2021 US Open triumph from the qualifying rounds, things did not go as smoothly as she had hoped. A year of scrutiny and unwelcome pressure had taken its toll and, with her body so frail, it seemed an injury or ailment was always around the corner. Raducanu fell meekly in the first round without winning a set.Having missed last year's edition as she recovered from surgery, the 21-year-old returns to Flushing Meadows seemingly in a better position than since the aftermath of her victory. Continue reading...

Hard-right hosts resurrect racist Obama birther conspiracy theory and lament Democrats' treatment of Joe BidenAs the Democratic party enjoys the afterglow of an exuberant national convention, the rightwing media has settled on consistent counter-programming: complaining about joy", hyping up pro-Palestinian protests and expressing a newfound concern for the treatment of Joe Biden.The coverage, which has at times avoided the more pointed Democratic criticisms of Trump by cutting to ad breaks, has also including the criticism of women both for smiling too much and not smiling enough, and the coining of a new name for Barack Obama: Barack-Stabber". Continue reading...

A study linking processed meat like ham to diabetes is further proof that no matter how tasty, we're better off without itWhile teetotalism has replaced veganism as the thing people tell you about themselves instead of having a personality, the harmful effect of processed meat remains a serious issue.A recent University of Cambridge study has shown that eating the equivalent of two slices of ham a day leads to an increased risk of diabetes. Continue reading...

Former head of the CDC's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease is expected to make a full recoveryAnthony Fauci is recovering at home from a West Nile virus infection, a spokesperson told news outlets on Saturday.The former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease was hospitalized for six days with the virus. Fauci, 83, is expected to make a full recovery. Continue reading...

The vice-presidential nominee's son, Gus, was unrestrained in his reactions at the Democratic conventionFor Gus Walz, the Democratic national convention in Chicago last week may not have been the light, good vibes fest that it was for adults in the 17,000-seat Chicago arena.The intense emotional response of vice-president hopeful Tim Walz's son to seeing his father on stage - That's my dad!" - thrust him into the spotlight as the convention's breakout star and with them raised the issue of nonverbal learning disorders, ADHD and an anxiety disorder that the 17-year-old is reported to experience. Continue reading...

Jannik Sinner broke his silence after an independent tribunal cleared the Italian tennis player of fault or negligence for two positive anti-doping tests. The world No 1, who tested positive for clostebol in March, said: 'I always believe that I kept playing tennis because in my mind I knew that I haven't done anything wrong'.

GOP lawmakers have made the state hostile for trans youth. These teens and their parents vow to assert themselves'Some parents have stockpiled medications in hidden locations. Some have stopped socializing with neighbors. Some have made plans to flee the state.In Missouri, transgender youth and their families are grappling with an onslaught of attacks on their rights. Last year, Republican lawmakers outlawed critical healthcare treatments for trans youth and banned many trans athletes from school sports. Local school districts worked to censor LGBTQ+ books and prohibit trans children from using bathrooms that match their gender identity. Continue reading...

Extracurricular classes teach the majesty and value of Black history' from the origins of Africa to Jim Crow policiesWhen I say, because', you say: Black people invented it,'" Renee Scott Best told a class of predominantly Black students one Monday last month. The call and response from the kids grew louder as they read a fictional story about a dystopian world without African Americans and their inventions. A folding bed, tricycle, clock, toilet, heating furnace, thermostat and air conditioner were among the innovations that no longer existed because, Black people invented it," the students shouted.Because we were brought here as slaves, they try to make us think we're not very smart," Best said toward the end of the lesson. She stood beside a poster that displayed the cover of her poetry book about 50 Black inventors, Black Inventors Poetry in Motion, which inspired the day's lesson plan. She said: We know that's not true, because without all of the Black inventions in and around your home, you'd be in a cabin!" Continue reading...

Rambling speeches peppered with insults, narcissism and an obsession with crowd size have raised questions about the former president's fitness for officeEven some of Donald Trump's supporters are now asking the question that was the undoing of Joe Biden: is the former president fit for office?But while Biden's run for re-election was largely sunk by a single disastrous televised debate before a national audience, Trump is ramping up doubts with each chaotic, disjointed speech as he campaigns around the country. Continue reading...

Test your knowledge of tennis, cricket, the Paralympic Games - plus American and association football Continue reading...

Decline in early prenatal care was accompanied by 5% rise in number of patients who received no prenatal care at allFewer women received early and adequate prenatal care in 2023, new data released this week by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows.The small year-over-year decline comes amid tectonic shifts in women's rights and access to reproductive healthcare in the US and in spite of a federal government initiative meant to improve prenatal care access. Seventeen states ban abortion at conception or soon after. Continue reading...