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Exclusive: Incident raises questions of exploitation of public services, but Secret Service says it was requested for safe navigation'JD Vance's team had the army corps of engineers take the unusual step of changing the outflow of a lake in Ohio to accommodate a recent boating excursion on a family holiday, the Guardian has learned.The request from the US Secret Service was made to support safe navigation" of the US vice-president's security detail for an August outing on the Little Miami River, according to a statement by the US army corps of engineers (USACE). Continue reading...

School is first public university whose funding is targeted by White House over allegations of civil rights violationsIn a sweeping escalation of its attacks on institutions of higher education, Trump administration has suspended $584m in federal funding for the University of California, Los Angeles - nearly double the amount that was previously expected, the school's chancellor announced on Wednesday.UCLA is the first public university whose federal grants have been targeted by the administration over allegations of civil rights violations related to antisemitism and affirmative action. It represents an expansion of the administration's months-long campaign targeting largely private, Ivy League colleges. Continue reading...

Seven-time grand slam winner is back on the US circuit with aim of being the best she can be despite health strugglesStill haven't seen the Rolling Stones," says Venus Williams, smiling, as she reminisced about her unforgettable professional tennis debut at the age of 14 in Oakland, California, an occasion that justified years of hype surrounding her stratospheric potential. Her first ever professional tennis match took place next door to a Rolling Stones concert. Now, 31 years later, at 45 years old, Williams is still here.Three weeks after returning to professional tennis for the first time in 16 months with a straight sets singles victory over the then world No 35 Peyton Stearns at the Citi Open in Washington, which marked her as the second-oldest woman in history to win a WTA Tour-level singles match and also silenced criticisms about her enduring presence on the tour, Williams now takes her comeback to the Cincinnati Open. Continue reading...

Lawmakers had been sheltering in Illinois after denying Texas Republicans quorum for gerrymandering schemeTexas Democrats who left the state say they experienced a bomb threat at their Illinois hotel on Wednesday morning amid an ongoing clash with Texas Republicans over their effort to block a new congressional map from going into place.John Bucy III, a Democrat who represents Austin in the state legislature, confirmed the threat on X on Wednesday and said the lawmakers had been evacuated. This is what happens when Republican state leaders publicly call for us to be hunted down'. Texas Democrats won't be intimidated," he said. Continue reading...

Parts of base were on lockdown earlier, as base says all five victims are in stable condition and expected to recoverAn active-duty soldier opened fire at Fort Stewart military base in south-east Georgia on Wednesday, wounding five other soldiers before being taken into custody.All victims are in stable condition and expected to recover. Three of the soldiers required surgery, and two were transferred to Memorial Health University medical center in Savannah, the top-level trauma center for coastal Georgia. Continue reading...

Fallout goes beyond deaths and injuries, including lung damage and deaths caused by healthcare disruptionsNew research looking at the aftermath of some of the deadliest wildfires to have struck the US in recent years has shed light on the devastating effects the disasters have on human health, with impacts that extend far beyond the official death toll and injury counts.Three studies published this week examine the long-term fallout from the Maui and Los Angeles wildfires, including depression, suicide and overdose deaths, lung damage, and deaths caused by healthcare disruptions. Continue reading...

Men's pro competition plunged into further uncertainty with Miami Sharks' withdrawal after merger and NOLA exit last weekMajor League Rugby was reduced to eight teams on Wednesday by the withdrawal of the Miami Sharks, just a week after a founding team quit the competition and two California teams merged.Miami and MLR did not immediately comment but multiple league sources confirmed that the Sharks' withdrawal after two years in the league was finalized on Tuesday.Martin Pengelly writes on Substack at The National Maul, on rugby in the US. Continue reading...

Gathering reportedly to include Pam Bondi, Kash Patel and Susan Wiles to discuss strategy for dealing with scandalJD Vance will reportedly host a meeting on Wednesday evening at his residence with a handful of senior Trump administration officials to discuss their strategy for dealing with the ongoing scandal surrounding the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.The vice-president's gathering, first detailed by CNN, is reportedly set to include the attorney general, Pam Bondi; the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche; the FBI director, Kash Patel; and the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles. Continue reading...

US president cites youth crime in call to strip the capital of local rule, despite declining violence and local oppositionDonald Trump is threatening to strip Washington DC of its local governance and place the US capital under direct federal control, citing what he described as rampant youth crime following an alleged assault on a federal employee who worked for the so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge).In a post on his Truth Social platform, the president said he would federalize" the city if local authorities failed to address crime, specifically calling for minors as young as 14 to be prosecuted as adults. Continue reading...

Jesse Calhoun, indicted last year after three bodies found in 2023, charged over death of Kristin Smith in November 2022A man accused of killing three women in the Portland area and dumping their bodies has been indicted on a fourth murder charge.A grand jury has indicted Jesse Calhoun in the November 2022 death of 22-year-old Kristin Smith, the Multnomah county district attorney, Nathan Vasquez, said on Tuesday. The new indictment, which comes roughly two and a half years after Smith's remains were found, adds one count each of second-degree murder and abuse of a corpse to Calhoun's case. Continue reading...

Incineration of $9.7m of contraceptives to lead to 174,000 unintended pregnancies and 56,000 unsafe abortions, IPPF saysA decision by the US government to incinerate more than $9.7m (7.3m) of contraceptives is projected to result in 174,000 unintended pregnancies and 56,000 unsafe abortions in five African countries.More than three-quarters of the contraceptives (77%) were destined for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Mali, according to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), an NGO global healthcare provider and advocate of sexual and reproductive rights. Continue reading...

President repeats threat to bring in levies within next week or so' in attempt to get companies to move production to USShares in European pharmaceutical companies have sunk to a four-month low, after Donald Trump repeated his threats to introduce tariffs on drug imports within the next week or so".Europe's STOXX Healthcare index slid by 2.8% on Wednesday, falling to its lowest level since mid-April, shortly after the US president's initial liberation day" tariff announcements. Continue reading...

The Republican senator and vocal abortion foe supported Trump's baseless claims of fraud during the 2020 electionThe Republican senator Marsha Blackburn announced on Wednesday she will run for governor of Tennessee.A staunch ally of Donald Trump who represents a state he carried by nearly 30 percentage points, Blackburn would become the first female governor in Tennessee's history if she wins next year. The vocal abortion foe supported Trump's baseless claims of fraud during the 2020 election, and was considered one of the most conservative members of the House of Representatives during 16 years representing a district in middle Tennessee. Continue reading...

Report from senator Jon Ossoff's office found 510 credible reports of human rights abuses since Trump's inaugurationA new report has found hundreds of reported cases of human rights abuses in US immigration detention centers.The alleged abuses uncovered include deaths in custody, physical and sexual abuse of detainees, mistreatment of pregnant women and children, inadequate medical care, overcrowding and unsanitary living conditions, inadequate food and water, exposure to extreme temperatures, denial of access to attorneys, and child separation. Continue reading...

US president has been unusually reticent about plans to punish Russia if it does not agree to end Ukraine war

Amid a year of hardships, thousands flock to Pasadena for kitty adoptions, crocheted beds and community at CatConIt's been a difficult year in southern California, with deadly wildfires, immigration raids that have that left communities in fear and thousands of soldiers deployed to Los Angeles. In downtown Pasadena over the weekend, though, the region received a badly needed dose of joy.On Saturday and Sunday, thousands of cat lovers flocked to the city for a weekend dedicated to all things feline. Inside the city convention center, there were 200 kittens waiting to be adopted and hundreds of vendors selling everything a cat lover could dream of: treats, charmingly kitschy tees, crocheted beds and medieval period-inspired portraits of regal cats. Continue reading...

In a 2019 case, John Roberts said federal courts shouldn't intervene in such matters. Trump's team is taking advantageWith Texas Republicans rushing to fulfil Donald Trump's wish to gerrymander to the max, many Americans are no doubt wondering why there isn't some referee to stop this hyperpartisan race to the bottom that is poisoning our democracy. The supreme court should be the referee that puts a halt to this ugly, undemocratic mess, but in a shortsighted, 5-4 ruling in 2019, the court's conservative majority essentially told state legislatures that anything goes when it comes to gerrymandering. Their message was: no matter how extreme the gerrymandering, we'll look the other way.Writing the majority opinion in that case, Rucho v Common Cause, chief justice John Roberts declared that gerrymandering was a political matter that federal courts shouldn't intervene in (unless it involves racial discrimination). Many legal experts said the conservative justices were defaulting on the court's responsibility to prevent absurdly unfair, undemocratic elections, where the fix is in even before people vote. In a prescient dissent, justice Elena Kagan warned that the huge permission slip the court was giving to gerrymandering would encourage a politics of polarization and dysfunction" and might irreparably damage our system of government".Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labour and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues Continue reading...

Tween jewellery retailer is hit by a slowdown in consumer spending and the switch to online shoppingThe tween jewellery and ear-piercing retailer Claire's has declared bankruptcy in the US for the second time in seven years amid a slowdown in consumer spending and the switch to online shopping.The US accessories retailer, which has more than 2,700 stores in 17 countries including the UK and France, said in papers filed with a court in Delaware that it had debts of between $1bn and $10bn. Continue reading...

In the second of a three-part special report, the remarkable' number of deaths of people in custody at the Cibola correctional center

We would like to hear from new and returning students on how they are approaching the new academic yearHarvard University is in court against the Trump administration, fighting federal attempts to end international student enrolment at the university and challenging the federal freeze on research funds.In May, international students at Harvard were ordered to transfer schools or lose their legal status. While that order was swiftly blocked by a judge, it is one of a series of events creating uncertainty on campuses across the US. Continue reading...

As a child, an activist, and secretary of labor, I've seen the harm bullies cause. Yet I can see what led to Trump's riseI was born on 24 June 1946, 10 days after the birth of Donald John Trump, 12 days before the birth of George Walker Bush, and 56 days before the birth of William Jefferson Blythe III, whose name was later changed to Bill Clinton.I did not become president. but among my earliest memories is my grandmother, Minnie Reich, telling me that I would become president. I think she was trying to reassure herself that despite my being a runt, fully a head shorter than other little boys, I'd make her proud. Continue reading...

The Guardian joins a Jordanian military airdrop for a rare chance to observe a landscape devastated by Israel's offensive. Plus, travels in Trump's Florida

Decades after its passage, the revolutionary law continues to face threats and attempts to pervert its purposeFacing images of violent white mobs defending racial segregation, the condemnation of the world and of its own citizens, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, a law meant to end the hypocrisy of a democratic country that denied Black people the power of their vote.Sixty years later, race remains at the center of American politics. Cases before the US supreme court, and a platoon of Texas legislators fleeing the state to prevent redistricting, demonstrate how the Voting Rights Act - and its erosion - remains on the frontline of the political battlefield. Continue reading...

Fall in operating profits also due to losses on electric car sales in US but drop is less than manufacturer estimated

The 1965 law, a rare and profound act of consensus, has been hollowed out. We cannot forget the power Dr King saw in the right to voteIn a moment when we should be celebrating one of the most important pieces of legislation in American history, we are in fact at a worse place as a nation than when it was passed. Those of us fighting to protect the right to vote find ourselves against a movement that doesn't want to take us back to 1965. They want to create an America that more closely resembles the one of 1865.Sixty years ago, in a rare and profound act of consensus, Congress passed a law to end the centuries-old rigging of American democracy. Yet today the system is as rigged as ever, with the battered Voting Rights Act on life support.Rev Al Sharpton is an American Baptist minister, civil rights activist and radio talkshow host Continue reading...

MLS and Liga MX's joint venture that Lionel Messi helped propel seems to have stalled out, despite fixed issuesIt feels like a fever dream, at this point.In the summer of 2023, Lionel Messi positioned himself over a free kick wearing the pink-and-white colors of Major League Soccer's Inter Miami. Messi's move to the United States had been long-rumored but often dismissed as wild speculation. The league was still a backwater compared to many in Europe and its clubs simply didn't have the financial muscle of others vying for the Argentine's services. Continue reading...

Company, which has reported 37% drop in profits, says switch would not present value for shareholdersThe FTSE 100 miner Glencore has decided to retain its stock market listing in London, rejecting calls for it to move to the US in a boost for the London Stock Exchange.The Swiss-headquartered company said that shifting its listing away to a rival bourse such as New York would not present value for its shareholders, after carrying out a formal review of its options. Continue reading...

Initially, we did not know that Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq had cerebral palsy. But his medical details do not diminish his suffering, or that of other children in GazaBetween April and mid-July this year, more than 20,000 children in Gaza were admitted to hospital for treatment for acute malnutrition, 3,000 of whom were severely malnourished, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global initiative whose members include UN agencies such as the World Health Organization, World Food Programme and Unicef, as well as NGOs and research institutes.Over this period, and in the weeks since, the Guardian has published many images of hungry children, among them at least 20 shown in an emaciated condition. (It does so working to an editorial code that gives special protection to children, publishing on matters that may intrude into their welfare only when there is a strong public interest to do so.) But one photograph, which appeared on the homepage of the website on 23 July and on the front of the print edition the next day, prompted fierce controversy.Elisabeth Ribbans is the Guardian's global readers' editor

Nearly 50 years ago, my son and his wife were tortured and killed and their baby was taken by the military regime. Two decades later, I found her - but hundreds of grandchildren are still missingArgentina's 1976-83 military dictatorship tortured, killed and disappeared" an estimated 30,000 people - political opponents, students, artists, union leaders: anyone it deemed a threat. Hundreds of babies were also taken, either imprisoned with their parents, or given to military families. The Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo have fought for almost 50 years to find these grandchildren. Buscarita Roa is one of two surviving active members.As Argentina's military sank its claws into our country, our young people, the ones with ideas, started disappearing. They were taken from the streets, from their homes, from work. Continue reading...

With its woeful trade deal, Europe prostrated itself before the president. We need a leader who will tell him where to shove itWho remembers the spate of introduction videos" that emerged during the first Trump administration - a series of tongue-in-cheek clips about European countries to introduce them to Donald Trump? The viral video trend was sparked by the Dutch comedian Arjen Lubach, who ended his segment on the Netherlands with: We totally understand it's going to be America first, but can we just say the Netherlands second?" It seems that Europe's leaders remember the videos all too well; that they internalised the caustic message a little bit too much.Afraid of rocking the boat during its trade negotiations with Trump, the EU decided to pre-emptively sink itself. Instead of strategic autonomy, it will spend hundreds of billions of dollars on American weapons; in place of future climate goals, it will pour hundreds of billions into US natural gas; instead of a mutual tariff reduction, it will take a huge unilateral hit to EU exporters; instead of self-respect, humiliating prostration.Alexander Hurst is a Guardian Europe columnist Continue reading...

Is the US in a new gilded age of inequality? On a 400-mile journey from a triumphant conservative youth summit to a hastily constructed immigration detention centre, the answer became clearer ...

Governor files emergency petition with state supreme court to remove representative Gene Wu from office

The Gifford fire has spread through Los Padres forest, prompting evacuations and injuring at least three peopleA huge wildfire tearing through California's Los Padres national forest is threatening hundreds of homes and structures, after injuring at least three people in the days before.The Gifford fire has already scorched nearly 84,000 acres (34,000 hectares) in coastal Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, north of Los Angeles, and was still burning out of control on Tuesday evening, according to fire officials. It is 9% contained. Continue reading...

Midwest state, like Florida, has partnered with Ice and will add more beds at its Miami correctional facilityUS Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) is expanding its detention capacity by 1,000 beds in Indiana through a partnership with the midwest state's prison system, federal officials announced on Tuesday.Ice will be housing detainees at the Miami correctional center, a prison run by the Indiana department of corrections. The move is part of the US government's rapid expansion of immigration jails after Donald Trump's sweeping spending bill allotted roughly $170bn to Ice, an extraordinary sum making the agency the most heavily funded law enforcement department within the federal government. Continue reading...

Texas senator asks FBI to aid law enforcement in locating and arresting Democrats who left the state to forestall redistricting vote. Key US politics stories from Tuesday 5 August 2025A day after Texas Democrat lawmakers fled the state in an effort to halt Republican efforts to redraw their congressional map, Donald Trump said that his party was entitled to the five more seats they could pick up if the updated maps pass through the state's congress.We have an opportunity in Texas to pick up five seats," Trump said. We have a really good governor, and we have good people in Texas. And I won Texas. I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know, and we are entitled to five more seats." Continue reading...

John Cornyn ramps up gerrymandering showdown between lawmakers and Trump administration seeking GOP seatsThe US senator John Cornyn of Texas has asked the FBI to aid Texas law enforcement in locating and arresting Democrats who left the state to forestall a plan sought by Donald Trump to aggressively redraw the state's congressional map in a way that could help Republicans keep their House majority after the 2026 midterm elections.The senator's request is a significant escalation in the fast-moving showdown that could set up a confrontation between the blue state leaders shielding the Democratic state lawmakers and the Trump administration. Earlier on Tuesday, Texas Democrats denied a legislative quorum for the second day in a row by scattering across the country, with many decamping to Chicago, Illinois, where the Democratic governor, JB Pritzker, has vowed to protect them. Continue reading...

Company owned by Rupert Murdoch says president's books are being consumed by AI engines which profit from his thoughts'News Corp is warning Donald Trump that AI is cannibalizing the content of his books, including The Art of the Deal.The company, owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch, owns dozens of newspapers and TV channels around the world including the Wall Street Journal, the Times (in the UK), the Australian and the New York Post. News Corp also owns book publisher HarperCollins, which has published three of Trump's books, though his best-known title, The Art of the Deal, was published by Random House. Continue reading...

Government prevented from using money allocated to Bric community program for other purposesA federal judge blocked the Trump administration on Tuesday from diverting funds from a multibillion-dollar grant program designed to protect communities against natural disasters.US district judge Richard Stearns in Boston issued a preliminary injunction preventing the government from spending money allocated to the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (Bric) program for other purposes. Continue reading...

Byron Black, 69, put to death after legal battle in which lawyers said defibrillator would shock heart repeatedlyTennessee has executed a man without deactivating his implanted defibrillator, despite uncertainty about whether the device would shock his heart when a lethal drug took effect.Byron Black died at 10.43am, prison officials said. Shortly after the lethal injection started, witnesses said Black told a spiritual adviser in the room that he was hurting badly. Continue reading...

Federal Emergency Management Agency says city will receive $64m less this year from its urban area security fundThe Trump administration said it would cut terrorism prevention funding for New York City, according to a grant notice posted days after a gunman killed four people inside a Manhattan skyscraper.The Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) stated in a grant notice posted on Friday that New York City would receive $64m less this year from its urban area security fund. The amount was listed in a single line of an 80-page Fema notice on the grant program. Continue reading...

Screenwriters from Writers Guild of America, also including David Simon and Celine Song, call out president's authoritarian assault' on free speechMore than 2,300 members of the Writers Guild of America, including Spike Lee and Adam McKay, have signed an open letter decrying the actions of Donald Trump's administration that represent an unprecedented, authoritarian assault" on free speech.The letter, a combined effort from the WGA East and West branches, cites the US president's baseless lawsuits" against news organizations that have published stories he does not like and leveraged them into payoffs". It specifically references Paramount's decision to pay Trump $16m to settle a meritless lawsuit" about a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris. The letter notes that Trump retaliated against publications reporting factually on the White House and threatened broadcasters' licenses", and has repeatedly called for the cancellation of programs that criticize him. Continue reading...

Search for an army veteran in Montana stretches to day five, while Tennessee police arrest man linked to four deathsMontana governor Greg Gianforte on Tuesday signed an executive order freeing up more resources for local law enforcement as they searched a mountainous area for a former US soldier suspected of killing four people at a bar on 1 August.The search for Michael Paul Brown stretched into its fifth day with more than three dozen law enforcement agencies helping with an effort that Montana's top officials described during a news conference as the highest priority in the state. Continue reading...

No details yet on suspect after police arrived to halt big party', with possibly armed person seen entering buildingTwo people were killed and six others were wounded in a mass shooting at a warehouse party in downtown Los Angeles early on Monday, officials said.Police first responded around 11pm on Sunday evening to shut down a big party" after officers saw a person possibly armed with a gun go inside a building in the city's warehouse district, Los Angeles police department spokesperson Norma Eisenman told the Associated Press. That person was arrested at the scene, she said.This article and headline were amended on 5 August 2025 to clarify that the shooting took place at a warehouse party that was not affiliated with an unofficial Hard Summer music festival afterparty, as initial reports suggested. Continue reading...

Statue of Albert Pike, a Confederate general, will return to Washington DC, National Parks Service saysA statue of a general in the Confederate army that was toppled and set on fire during social justice protests in 2020 in Washington DC will be reinstated, the National Park Service (NPS) has announced.The bronze statue depicting Albert Pike is being restored, the Park Service said in a statement on Monday, sharing a photo of the statue undergoing cleaning to remove corrosion and paint prior to repairs, with a view to reinstalling it by October. Continue reading...