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Watergate sparked a political reckoning 50 years ago. The scandal wasn't just an abuse of power, but it was a campaign finance scandal - with lessons for todayIt was 50 years ago - on 9 August 1974 - Richard Nixon resigned as president amid the Watergate" scandal. In the American consciousness, Watergate typically means the botched break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters and the resulting illegal cover-up (facts that are newly relevant in the wake of the US supreme court's much-criticized decision on presidential immunity last month). But there is an equally relevant part of the story that is often skipped. Watergate was not just about abuse of presidential power. It was also a major campaign finance scandal.By the time Nixon resigned, Americans were outraged to learn that the Watergate break-in and cover-up and other dirty tricks" had been financed from a secret slush fund made up of donations from corporations and wealthy individuals. In response, Congress passed historic reforms designed to increase transparency and curb the influence of big money in politics. This was a watershed moment that helped reshape the ethos of government in America. Today, however, our elections are once again dominated by big money and secret spending. The post-Watergate reforms are in dire need of repair.Daniel I Weiner is director of the elections and government program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU LawOwen Bacskai is a policy associate at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law Continue reading...

The reigning men's champions will face the hosts, led by the brilliant Victor Wembanyama, and thousands of feisty home fans in the Olympic gold medal gameSteph Curry could admit he was feeling the heat. The USA men's basketball team were trailing Serbia and three-time NBA MVP Nikola Joki by 13 points in the fourth quarter of their Olympic semi-final on Thursday night after falling behind by as many as 17 in the first half, their quest for a fifth straight gold medal dangling by a thread.It was Curry's first encounter with the unique pressure faced by a USA Basketball program with an all-time record of 142-5 in the Olympics, including 35-1 since their notorious flop at the Athens Olympics two decades ago. Win and it's business as usual. Lose and risk a permanent blotch of infamy. Just ask LeBron James, the NBA's all-time leading scorer and two-time Olympic gold medalist who has never entirely outrun the LeBronze branding he earned for his peripheral role as a teenage backup on the US squad that finished third after shock losses to Puerto Rico, Australia and Argentina. Continue reading...

Media reports showed volunteer in charge of bankruptcy expenses admitted to a stunning lack of qualificationsA group of attorneys representing clergy abuse claimants involved in the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans' bankruptcy case - which has cost the church about $40m but remains unresolved - has formally requested the removal of the volunteer tasked by the organization to manage the four-and-a-half-year-old case's expenses after he testified to a stunning lack of qualifications for the role.The abuse survivors' lawyers also requested the appointment of an outside trustee to substitute the volunteer in question, Lee Eagan, in a motion filed late on Thursday. Continue reading...

Direct guilt sits with those who brought violence to our streets, but their hatred was inflamed by lies spread on XOne man is missing. Of course, it's good that so many of those responsible for a week of terrifying far-right violence are facing an especially swift and severe form of justice - but there's one extremely rich and powerful suspect who should join them in the dock. If the UK authorities truly want to hold accountable all those who unleashed riots and pogroms in Britain, they need to go after Elon Musk.To be sure, direct guilt belongs to the culprits on the ground, those currently being fast-tracked in their hundreds through a usually glacial court system - moving from arrest to charges, trial, conviction and (heavy) sentencing in a matter of days. Guilt belongs to those who surrounded hotels housing migrants and refugees, attempting to set them on fire and threatening to kill those inside. It belongs to those who saw fit to trash and loot not only shops, but also libraries and advice centres, many of them lifelines for those who have next to nothing. It belongs to those who smashed and threatened mosques, terrifying those within and whole Muslim communities beyond with a kind of menace many will have heard about in stories passed down from parents or grandparents, but which they will have hoped belonged to a long ago past. Continue reading...

Personality is always central to elections. But this year, it's about who you think the candidates could beNow that the Democrats have found their vice-presidential candidate in Tim Walz, can anyone say what either of the parties are planning to do if they win?Of course not. Donald Trump says immigration is bad, but having claimed a wall would fix things, he's pretty much run out of options. The Democrats are pro-reproductive freedoms, anti-inflation and environment-friendly, but what do they plan to do about it? It's not at all clear. Not to worry though. This election is not being fought on proposed policies or past accomplishments. It's being fought on vibes. Continue reading...

Our panel talks about the riots, their fear, the racial harassment they are experiencing and their hope that inclusive values will prevailI am an asylum seeker from west Africa and have been in limbo for nearly two decades now. My life is just waiting before another refusal. Waiting, refusal; waiting, refusal.The contributor is a west African asylum seeker living in LondonThe contributor is an Afghan asylum seekerThe contributor is an asylum seeker from the Middle East living in Manchester. He works as a journalistThe contributor is a Sri Lankan refugee living in South YorkshireMinnie Rahman is chief executive of the migrant and refugee charity PraxisDo 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...

Trump apparently misremembered a flight with then California governor Jerry Brown during a press conferenceIn his press conference at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, Donald Trump's stream of invective, wild claims and outright lies included a story about a brush with death during a helicopter ride with Willie Brown, a veteran California politician who once briefly dated Kamala Harris, now Trump's Democratic rival in the presidential election.Claiming to know Willie Brown very well", Trump said: In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought, maybe this is the end. We were in a helicopter going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing. This was not a pleasant landing, and Willie was ... a little concerned. So I know him pretty well." Continue reading...

In Congress, Walz was endorsed by gun rights advocates. But after the Parkland shooting, he changed his toneAt his first rally as Kamala Harris's running mate Tuesday, Minnesota's governor, Tim Walz, invoked an issue at the forefront of many Americans' minds: the right for our children to be free to go to school without worrying they'll be shot dead in their classrooms".But Walz wasn't always a fierce advocate against gun violence. The evolution of the vice-presidential candidate, who once boasted an A rating from the NRA, shows the growing relevance of gen Z voters, who've grown up amid a surge in mass shootings in the US and are enthusiastically backing Harris. Continue reading...

Surge caused by rebound in market activity very likely to influence payouts for European outposts of banksBonuses for Wall Street's investment bankers are forecast to jump as much as 35% this year - although experts have warned that payouts could be knocked by stock market volatility and an economic slowdown in the US.Fresh predictions suggest that staff across a range of financial firms - including hedge funds, asset managers and investment banks - will see payouts rise for the first time in two years. It follows a rebound in business confidence and market activity, with companies more willing to take risks amid easing inflation that has started to translate into lower borrowing costs. Continue reading...

The former Catalan president staged a dramatic flight from Barcelona - but his charade could fuel extremism in the region and beyondAn egotistical and polarising rightwing election loser addresses his adoring supporters in a speech, casting himself as a victim and questioning democracy, just hours before parliament is set to vote for the formal investiture of the actual winner. The crowd hold aloft pictures of the loser's face, chanting that he is their rightful president, and then turn their anger on the media, harassing reporters who are covering the event. Chaos ensues as some of the leader's supporters attempt to assault the parliament building. Sound familiar?Carles Puigdemont, the fugitive former president of Catalonia and the leader of the Catalan separatist party Junts, who fled Spain to avoid prosecution after organising an unlawful independence referendum in 2017, staged a dramatic reappearance on a Barcelona stage on Thursday.Maria Ramirez is a journalist and deputy managing editor of elDiario.es, a news outlet in Spain Continue reading...

ABC confirms US presidential candidates will face off for the first time on 10 September. Plus: the return of panda diplomacy

We're vulnerable to presidential whims - and that's opened the door to the far right. We urgently need to build a Sixth RepublicWhen Emmanuel Macron called a shock election after the French far right's victory in the 9 June European elections, he gambled on one of the shortest and most high-risk electoral campaigns in our country's history. At a moment when the far right had just gained a record number of seats in the European parliament, the president's unilateral and reckless act - deciding to dissolve parliament three years before elections were due - plunged the country into fear and uncertainty.Macron was certainly not banking on the left forming a new alliance called the New Popular Front (NFP) and putting a solid programme together in record time to contest the elections. In the end, enough voters mobilised against the far right as a threat to the republic, and the election led to the consolidation of three parliamentary blocs in the national assembly. The NFP came first, beating Macron's centre-right alliance, Ensemble, into second place. Marine Le Pen's far-right Rassemblement National (the National Rally) came third. Continue reading...

Some have noticed the Minnesota governor bears a resemblance to several former Australian PMs, as one website dubs the VP candidate Oz-coded'Kamala Harris's newly minted running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, has had a whirlwind week, in which he's been variously characterised as a teacher, a veteran, a football coach and now, the most Australian prime minister looking American politician" of all time.When US vice-president Kamala Harris chose Walz as her running mate, Australians instantly saw something familiar in him. Continue reading...

As fewer Britons have children, more will be left to navigate our threadbare social care system and overstretched hospitals aloneIt was visiting time at the hospital, and the corridors were full of dutiful middle-aged sons and daughters. The woman who held the ward door open for me was balancing a formidable stack of Tupperware boxes: home-cooked food, in case the nurses were too busy to make sure her elderly father ate. Why hadn't I thought of that? But there's always something more you probably should be doing; always a ball you might have dropped.So much about looking after ageing parents reminds me of early motherhood, that old juggling act that, in retrospect, looks almost like a rehearsal. Hello again, my old friend nagging guilt. And hello again, that sense of needing to be in two places at once - except now it's three, if you are so madly ambitious as to want a job, children and parents.Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Prosecutors in court filing ask Tanya Chutkan for additional time to sort through impact of absolute immunity' rulingDonald Trump's criminal prosecution over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election is expected to be delayed by another month after special counsel prosecutors said they had not finished assessing how the US supreme court's immunity decision would narrow their case.On Thursday, the prosecutors on special counsel Jack Smith's team told Tanya Chutkan, the US district judge presiding over the case, that they needed her to delay until 30 August a deadline to submit a possible schedule for how to proceed with a complicated fact-finding mission ordered by the court. Continue reading...

Candidates will face off for first time after Trump had previously cast doubt about debating Harris on the networkKamala Harris and Donald Trump will face off for the first time in a televised debate on 10 September, ABC News has confirmed.The event is expected to draw a huge viewership, and could be a make-or-break moment for both candidates in what polls indicate is an extremely close race. Continue reading...

This blog is closing for now. You can find the latest US politics coverage here.In a new tweet on Thursday ahead of her address with workers from the United Auto Workers union in Detroit, Michigan Kamala Harris wrote:This campaign is not just about us versus Donald Trump. Our campaign is about fighting for the future." Continue reading...

Second activist also arrested during summer of heat' protest against second largest financier of fossil fuelsA 63-year-old climate activist and professional cellist faces up to seven years in prison after being arrested on Thursday while performing a Bach solo outside the headquarters of one of the world's largest fossil fuel financier Citibank in downtown New York.John Mark Rozendaal, a former Princeton professor, and Alec Connon, director of the climate nonprofit group Stop the Money Pipeline, were arrested for criminal contempt in the public park at the bank's global headquarters as the crackdown against nonviolent climate protesters escalates. Continue reading...

Officials say unnamed woman, 57, was discovered entangled in conveyor belt system in baggage roomA dead woman was found entangled in machinery in a baggage-processing area at O'Hare international airport in Chicago on Thursday.Larry Langford, a spokesperson for the Chicago fire department, said firefighters were called to the airport at about 7.45am for a report of a person pinned in machinery used to move baggage. He said they discovered the woman entangled in a conveyor belt system in a baggage room. Continue reading...

The American confirmed her status as one of the most dominant athletes of the modern era with victory - and a world record - in the 400m hurdles final

Company behind Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon and CBS writes down value of its cable networks by nearly $6bnThe entertainment conglomerate behind Paramount Pictures is to cut about 2,000 jobs in a bid to reduce costs ahead of a merger with the independent film studio Skydance.Paramount Global, which also owns CBS, Nickelodeon and the UK's Channel 5, announced plans to cut about 15% of its US workforce alongside its latest earnings on Thursday. Continue reading...

Storm system brings heavy rain and flooding to Carolinas after making first landfall in FloridaTornadoes spawned by Tropical Storm Debby leveled homes, damaged a school and killed one person early on Thursday, as the system dropped heavy rain and flooded communities across North and South Carolina.It only took 15 seconds for a tornado to devastate Genesis Cooper's home in Lucama, North Carolina, a small town about 40 miles (64km) east of Raleigh. He almost slept through it - if not for an alert on his wife's phone. Continue reading...

Former president attacks Democratic rival in rambling press conference and complains media is favoring herStruggling in the polls and charged with running a lackluster presidential campaign, Donald Trump faced reporters on Thursday for an hour-long press conference that swiftly descended into a familiar mess of freewheeling invective, outlandish claims and outright lies.Nobody was killed on January 6," the former president and Republican presidential nominee said, of the day in 2021 when he incited an attack on Congress now linked to nine deaths, including law enforcement suicides and the shooting by a police officer of Ashley Babbitt, who Trump voters widely claim as a martyr. Continue reading...

Former House speaker on how she concluded the president couldn't beat Trump and should step asideNancy Pelosi has never been that impressed" with Joe Biden's political operation", the former US House speaker said, discussing a judgment that helped her conclude the president could not beat Donald Trump and should step aside.They won the White House [in 2020]. Bravo. But my concern was: this ain't happening, and we have to make a decision for [Biden's withdrawal] to happen," Pelosi told the New Yorker, in an interview published on Thursday. Continue reading...

Overall number of people sickened rises to 43 as CDC says additional death happened in VirginiaThree people have now died in a listeria food poisoning outbreak linked to Boar's Head deli meats, federal food safety officials announced on Thursday, and the overall number of people sickened rose to 43.The additional death happened in Virginia, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a news release on Thursday. The other two deaths were in New Jersey and Illinois. The CDC also said nine more cases were reported since a 31 July release about the outbreak, which started in late May. Continue reading...

Make sure you don't miss a thing with our full, updating localised guide to the dates and times of all the events at Paris Olympics 2024Follow all the latest action live | Support the GuardianSearch for every event and start time at the Paris Olympics with our comprehensive live schedule. From the football pitch to the pool, via track and field and much more, use our filter tool to pinpoint the sports and disciplines you want to follow most so that you don't miss a thing. Continue reading...

Find out who is leading the way at the Paris Olympics, and drill down to see which events each country has won medals forFollow all the latest action live | Support the GuardianAs is traditional, the table prioritises the number of gold medals won. On this basis at the 2020 Olympics, held in Tokyo in 2021, the United States led the field with 39 golds, with China second on 38 and Japan third with 27. If countries have the same number of gold medals, the order is then dictated by which has the most silvers, and finally bronze if the numbers are still identical. Continue reading...

New photos and data show Trump met with Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts in 2022Donald Trump shared a private flight with the head of the rightwing thinktank behind Project 2025, the Washington Post reported, publishing evidence including a picture of the two men in airplane seats, grinning.The flight was on its way to a conference organized by the thinktank, at which Trump told group members they would lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do". Continue reading...

TV was important as we lay rotting on the couch, but it was another modern advance in technology that I have been appreciating mostAfter a horrible two-week battle with the influenza A (A stands for annoying") virus, I am in the home stretch to victory, and as such have entered the final stage - gratitude.This is when, after many days of thinking that you are probably never going to feel good again and all your loved ones should just forget about you and block your number, you start to improve. Everything around you becomes bathed in a warm glow (which isn't your fever for once). Continue reading...

Trump said What they did in Minneapolis was incredible' as Republicans continue to attack Walz for handling of eventsDonald Trump previously praised Tim Walz for his response to rioting in the aftermath of the police murder of George Floyd, audio showed, even as Republicans continued to attack Kamala Harris's running mate for his handling of such events and Trump claimed to have personally saved the Minnesota governor from rightwing protesters.What they did in Minneapolis was incredible," Trump, then president, said in a White House phone call with Walz, the Minnesota governor, and other state leaders on 1 June 2020. They went in and dominated, and it happened immediately." Continue reading...

Court sides against group, whose members say they do not believe in Satan in the literal sense but fight authoritarianismWhenever the city council of Boston meets, a speaker gives opening remarks: sometimes a sermon, sometimes a poem - but usually a prayer, as the majority of the speakers come from Christian organizations.In 2016, the free speech group that styles itself the Satanic Temple asked to be included, offering to give an invocation". When it was denied, the group sued the city, arguing religious discrimination under the first amendment. Continue reading...

Harris expresses openness to discussing Israel-Gaza stance with movement leaders, who are torn over Walz as VP pickLeaders of the uncommitted" campaign spoke with Kamala Harris and her newly announced running mate, the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, before a rally in Detroit on Wednesday to discuss their calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and an arms embargo on Israel.Harris shared her sympathies and expressed an openness to a meeting with the Uncommitted leaders to discuss an arms embargo", the organization said in a statement. Continue reading...

The racists have done one constructive thing: rallied support for the thriving communities they sought to destroyWhen three little girls, Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar, were so callously killed in Southport last week, I - along with the entire country - was sickened and shaken to the core. But there was no time for their families to grieve in peace, or space for the solidarity that arises from a period of national sorrow. Instead, the tragedy was violently hijacked by far-right thugs on the basis of flagrant lies, emerging from a climate of Islamophobia and racist, divisive rhetoric that has always been a threat to us all.Over the past week, my mobile phone has been pinging with messages conveying anxiety and fear from family, friends and colleagues. Clips have been circulating of Muslim businesses torched, ethnic minority members of the public being attacked and chants of Pakis out" at passersby on the streets. Continue reading...

The US once dominated weightlifting before a long period in the doldrums. The balance of power could be shifting again thoughCould a caffeine-fueled 20-year-old from Georgia who doesn't have a driver's license and trains out of his family's garage be at the fore of an American weightlifting resurgence? It might be too early to say, but there's a smouldering optimism about the US camp which only grew on Wednesday when Hampton Morris became the first men's lifter from the United States to win an Olympic medal in four decades by taking bronze in the men's 61kg division.Morris, the youngest US weightlifter at the Olympics since Cheryl Haworth in 2000, ended a long-running American hoodoo by hoisting a combined weight of 298kg (about 657lb) between the snatch and clean-and-jerk segments of the contest, becoming the first male US lifter to reach the podium since Mario Martinez and Guy Carlton took silver and bronze respectively at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Li Fabin of China won the gold with a combined total of 310kg, becoming the first lifter to win consecutive Olympic titles since Turkey's Naim Suleymanoglu won three straight from 1988 through 1996, while Theerapong Silachai of Thailand took silver (303kg) in the leadoff event of the five-day weightlifting competition. Continue reading...

Frances Perkins, the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet, was labor secretary under FDRJoe Biden has been asked to designate a national monument to the former US labor secretary, Frances Perkins, by members of Congress and groups including the National Park Conservation Association.Perkins, who served three terms under Franklin Delano Roosevelt from 1933 to 1945, was the first woman to be appointed to a presidential cabinet and the longest-serving secretary of labor in US history. Continue reading...

The ex-president is chatting with Logan Paul, Adin Ross and others with vast followings as the demographic shifts right

After decades of failed appeals, execution warrant was signed in June despite objections to planned lethal drugA Utah man who killed his girlfriend's mother by slashing her throat was put to death by lethal injection early Thursday in the state's first execution since 2010.Taberon Dave Honie, 48, was convicted of aggravated murder in the July 1998 death of Claudia Benn, the maternal grandmother of his now 27-year-old daughter, Tressa. Continue reading...

Death reports obtained by the Guardian show elderly people are regularly dying on the streets of LA: They're incredibly alone'Thousands of senior citizens died in Los Angeles while homeless in the past 10 years, with residents age 60 and over representing a quarter of all deaths of unhoused people in that period, according to a Guardian analysis of public records.A common misconception about California's homelessness crisis is that the majority of people on the streets are young adults who came from out-of-state, drawn to warm weather and homeless services. But death reports obtained by the Guardian reveal more than 3,000 of the 11,500 people who died while unhoused in Los Angeles county between 2014 and 2023 were 60 and older, highlighting the vulnerability of older residents in one of the US's most expensive regions.More than 1,700 of the unhoused people age 60 and over who died probably lived unsheltered. They were found in alleys, tents, encampments, bus stops, parks, yards, parking lots, cars, RVs and sidewalks and other locations suggesting they may have been living outside.

Analysis shows funding for biotech, defense and video platform - and a fascination with The Lord of the RingsJD Vance's investments reveal potential contradictions between the political persona he has sought to project, his history as a venture capitalist and Peter Thiel acolyte, and his status as a hard-edged tribune of the so-called new right".Companies he has invested in include a firm that carries out medical testing of therapies that may include stem cells in scientific research to tech firms with records of harvesting data. Vance and some of the people behind the various firms he is involved with also exhibit an obsession with references to the mythology around The Lord of the Rings' fantasy world. Continue reading...

The teenager's precocious talent won plaudits at the US Olympic trials. Now he is ready to become his country's youngest-ever male track athlete at the GamesThere was never a time in 16-year-old Quincy Wilson's life that he wasn't fast. It's a fact that has propelled him to the Paris Olympics, where, if ESPN sources are to be believed, Wilson on Friday will become the youngest US male track and field athlete to ever appear at the Games.Wilson's mother, Monique, was the first to chase after her son once his feet touched the ground as a 10-month old. Continue reading...

Even with Harris running, more than one out of five Black voters say they support Trump. But polls can be deceivingThroughout the 2024 cycle, polling has suggested that Republicans are poised to do extraordinarily well with African Americans.Even with Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket, more than one out of five black voters say they support Donald Trump. Younger Black voters seem especially open to casting ballots for the Republican party. Continue reading...

Detroit rally draws 15,000 people and high energy. Plus, Israel minister condemned over starvation remarks