The NWSL's transgender participation policy, thought to still be in place, was abandoned in 2022, the league confirmedAs the United States supreme court agrees to hear two cases in the fall intended to enforce bans on transgender women from sport, the Guardian can reveal that the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) has not renewed its 2021 policy on transgender players and is operating with no policy on the subject.The NWSL established a policy in 2021, stating: athletes who transition from male to female are eligible to compete" if they declare their gender identity is female - subject to testosterone levels being within typical limits of women athletes". The 2021 policy also stated athletes designated female at birth transitioning to male and undergoing testosterone hormone therapy were ineligible to compete in the NWSL. Continue reading...
Exclusive: For roughly 100 days, Thomas says he faced harsh detention conditions, despite agreeing to deportationThomas, a 35-year-old tech worker and father of three from Ireland, came to West Virginia to visit his girlfriend last fall. It was one of many trips he had taken to the US, and he was authorized to travel under a visa waiver program that allows tourists to stay in the country for 90 days.He had planned to return to Ireland in December, but was briefly unable to fly due to a health issue, his medical records show. He was only three days overdue to leave the US when an encounter with police landed him in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) custody. Continue reading...
Readers share their experiences after a US appeals court vacated the FTC's click-to-cancel' ruleCancelling subscriptions could continue to be a grueling process after the US court of appeals for the eighth circuit vacated the Federal Trade Commission's click-to-cancel" rule, which would have required companies to allow consumers to cancel subscriptions using the same method they used to sign up.The court's decision came down due to the commission behind it failing to follow required procedures under the FTC Act. In response, the Guardian asked readers to share their experiences while trying to cancel their various subscriptions - from Hulu, to Roblox, to dating apps. These are their stories. Continue reading...
Gus, nine, fell face-first on arrow, which penetrated his head and came within less than an inch of exiting his skullA hospital in Minnesota was left in disbelief after a nine-year-old boy survived an accidental fall that sent an arrow through his brain and nearly out the back of his skull.Abby Deterding recently told the Minneapolis news station KARE it's a miracle" that the freak mishap did not kill her son, Gus. We're just thankful, so grateful," she said. Continue reading...
Port of Antwerp-Bruges figures show 15.9% drop in export of cars, vans, trucks and tractors to USThe Port of Antwerp-Bruges has been turned into a giant car park with thousands of cars, vans, trucks and tractors bound for the US sitting idle as manufacturers try to avert the worst of Donald Trump's tariffs.Figures released by the port show a 15.9% drop in the transport of new passenger cars and vans to the US in the first six months of 2025 compared with the same period last year, with a sharp decline emerging in May - one month after the US president announced his liberation day" tariffs. Continue reading...
With claims of 2bn TV views, $2.1bn revenues and a push for it to go every two years, Infantino's pet project is here to stayAll that can be said with certainty about the future of the Club World Cup is that it is not going away. The 24-carat gold Tiffany trophy presented to Reece James by Donald Trump in New York, in one of the most surreal scenes seen in a sports stadium, will be up for grabs again in four years. The event could well be bigger, Fifa intends it to be better and the presentation will surely not be as brash.Gianni Infantino was widely criticised for imposing the Club World Cup on an indifferent sporting public, against a backdrop of hostility from players' unions and domestic leagues, but his belief that top clubs would back his vision has been vindicated, albeit largely because of the $1bn prize fund. With Chelsea banking 85m for winning seven matches, others are keen for a slice of the pie. Continue reading...
In today's newsletter: Donald Trump says he wants to finish' the war in Ukraine, as diplomatic relations break down with Vladimir PutinGood morning. It looks like the bromance between Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, is over. Maybe for good.Last night an exasperated Trump said he had finally had enough of tough guy" Putin's refusal to give him what he wants: an end to the war in Ukraine. The United States, he announced, will start selling what the Nato secretary general Mark Rutte, sitting alongside him at a White House press conference, called massive numbers" of weapons to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia.Middle East crisis | A feud has broken out between the Israeli government and the military over the cost and impact of a planned camp for Palestinians in southern Gaza, as politicians attacked the former prime minister Ehud Olmert for warning that the project would create a concentration camp" if it goes ahead.UK news | A senior coroner's officer who first reviewed the deaths of babies at the Countess of Chester hospital for Cheshire police in 2017 has said she believes Lucy Letby has suffered a miscarriage of justice. Last month, Stephanie Davies wrote to Cheshire's senior coroner that: I am now extremely concerned that the convictions of Ms Letby are wholly unsafe."NHS | Wes Streeting has said resident doctors' strikes would be a gift to Nigel Farage" before a meeting with the British Medical Association this week where he will seek to avert industrial action.UK news | Constance Marten and Mark Gordon have been found guilty of the manslaughter of their newborn daughter, who died after they took her to live in a tent in freezing wintry conditions to evade social services.Media | A report on the behaviour of Gregg Wallace has substantiated 45 allegations made against the former BBC presenter, including claims of inappropriate sexual language and one incident of unwelcome physical contact. Continue reading...
The stories of curator Kathleen Reinhardt and provenance expert Lynn Rother show how exclusion can be turned to powerful insightIn February 1990, the German news magazine Der Spiegel ran the headline Why are they still coming?", adding: In West Germany, hatred for immigrants from the GDR could soon reach boiling point." That year, resentment towards so-called newcomers from the east erupted without restraint. East Germans were insulted in the streets, shelters were attacked and children from the former GDR were bullied at school. There was a widespread fear that the weekly influx of thousands of people would overwhelm the welfare system and crash the housing and job markets. The public consensus? It needed to stop.That same year, Kathleen Reinhardt and her parents moved from Thuringia in the former GDR to Bavaria. She was in primary school, and her new classmates greeted her with lines such as: You people come here and take our jobs. You don't even know how to work properly." Continue reading...
by Robert Mackey, Lucy Campbell, Shannon Ho and Tom A on (#6YMJN)
This liveblog is now closed.With Trump's headache not showing any signs of going away, Politico learned that an ally supportive of the Trump DOJ's handling of the Epstein case, has pitched senior White House officials on the idea of Bondi and deputy attorney general Todd Blanche doing an all-questions-addressed news conference in an attempt to exhaust the press and put the story to bed."Maga influencer and far-right activist Laura Loomer also told Politico on Sunday that there should be a special counsel appointed to do an independent investigation of the handling of the Epstein files so that people can feel like this issue is being investigated, and perhaps take it out of [Pam Bondi's] hands, because I don't think that she has been transparent or done a good job handling this issue". Continue reading...
More than 82,000 Afghans had been evacuated after Taliban's takeover and were allowed a temporary parole'A US appeals court has for now blocked the Trump administration from removing the temporary protective status of thousands of Afghans in the United States, court documents showed on Monday.An administrative stay on the termination of temporary protected status for Afghans will remain until 21 July, the US court of appeals for the fourth circuit said in an order granting a request from immigration advocacy organization Casa. Continue reading...
Bongino appears to be on course to be the Trump administration's first casualty of the Epstein files falloutThe future of the deputy FBI director, Dan Bongino, is unclear after he stormed out of a meeting with Pam Bondi, the attorney general, and told friends he was considering quitting over the controversy surrounding Jeffrey Epstein.Bongino, a former New York police officer and Secret Service agent who helped protect George W Bush and Barack Obama, appears on course to be the Trump administration's first casualty of the Epstein fallout, which is threatening to split the Make America great again" (Maga) movement Continue reading...
Bob Becker of Fort Lauderdale finished the Badwater 135 ultramarathon held in California's sweltering desertAn 80-year-older runner has made history as the oldest person to complete the Badwater 135, nicknamed the world's toughest foot race".Last week, Bob Becker of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, became one of 93 people to complete the ultramarathon course - which covers 135 miles, beginning 282ft below sea level in California's sweltering Death Valley and climbing to 8,360ft at the trailhead to Mt Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States. Continue reading...
Trump gives Putin a deadline to make peace; president claims trophy given to cup winners Chelsea is copy of Oval Office one. Key US politics stories from Monday 14 July at a glanceDonald Trump has said he sealed an agreement with Nato allies that will deliver Patriot missiles and other key arms to Ukraine - and warned Russia it would face severe sanctions if the war did not end within 50 days.Unveiling the military assistance deal, the US president expressed increased frustration with Vladimir Putin, whom he accused of giving the impression of pursuing peace while intensifying attacks on Ukrainian cities. He gave the Russian president a new deadline of 50 days to make peace or face 100% tariffs on Russian goods, and more importantly, sweeping secondary tariffs", suggesting trade sanctions would be imposed on countries that continue to pay for Russian oil and other commodities. Continue reading...
LA reports 72,308 people as unhoused, a 4% decrease from last year, as California pushes to break up encampmentsHomelessness in Los Angeles county declined by 4% to an estimated 72,308 people in 2025, the Los Angeles homeless services authority (Lahsa) announced on Monday.The southern California metropolitan area previously reported its highest unhoused population in 2023, when it counted 75,518 people experiencing homelessness. That count decreased slightly to 75,312 people in 2024. Continue reading...
Former governor lost the Democratic primary to Zohran Mamdani by more than 12 points last monthAndrew Cuomo, the former New York governor, said on Monday that he will run as an independent in New York City's mayoral race, after losing in the Democratic primary to Zohran Mamdani.Many saw Cuomo as the favorite in the primary, but he ultimately lost to Mamdani, a current member of the New York state assembly, by more than 12 points. Continue reading...
Move is latest in series of dismissals as Trump and allies seek etribution against civil servants in the agencyThe US attorney general, Pam Bondi, fired the justice department's top ethics adviser on Friday, the latest in a series of dismissals that comes as Donald Trump and allies have sought retribution against civil servants in the agency.Joseph Tirrell, who had served as the head of the justice department's ethics office, since 2023, revealed he had been fired in a post on LinkedIn. He shared Bondi's letter to him, which misspelled his name and did not give a reason for his termination. Continue reading...
The former Lions QB has been suspended while under investigation for allegedly providing impermissible benefitsFormer NFL quarterback Teddy Bridgewater has been suspended from his position as a high school football coach in Miami while under investigation for allegedly providing impermissible benefits.Bridgewater, 32, confirmed his suspension by Miami Northwestern in a Facebook post on Sunday but said he remains committed to his alma mater. Continue reading...
Samuel Bond Haskell, whose father represented major stars, was charged with dismembering his wife and killing her parentsA California man who was charged with murdering and dismembering his wife and her parents in the home they shared in the Los Angeles suburbs, then dumping his wife's remains into a garbage bag, has died by suicide in jail, the Los Angeles county district attorney confirmed on Monday.Samuel Bond Haskell IV, 37, was arrested in November 2023 and charged with the murders of his wife, Mei Haskell, her mother, Yanxiang Wang, and her stepfather, Gaoshan Li. Haskell pleaded not guilty to the three murder counts in January 2024 and was being held without bail pending trial. He was facing a sentence of life in prison with no parole. Continue reading...
Dairy officials tout great day for Maha"' as Trump officials claim deal leads to healthier options, especially for childrenIn what Trump administration officials dubbed a major announcement", health and agriculture department leaders said the US dairy industry agreed to voluntarily remove synthetic dyes from ice-cream.The announcement continues the Trump administration's pattern of voluntary agreements with industry - from health insurers to snack food makers. Continue reading...
Justices lift federal judge's order that reinstated nearly 1,400 workers affected by mass layoffs in win for presidentThe US supreme court on Monday cleared the way for Donald Trump's administration to resume dismantling the Department of Education as part of his bid to shrink the federal government's role in education in favor of more control by the states.In the latest high court win for the president, the justices lifted a federal judge's order that had reinstated nearly 1,400 workers affected by mass layoffs at the department and blocked the administration from transferring key functions to other federal agencies. A legal challenge is continuing to play out in lower courts. Continue reading...
Jaime Alanis, 57, died a day after falling off a greenhouse roof during an immigration raid of a cannabis farmThe farm worker who died from injuries he sustained after falling from a greenhouse roof during an Ice raid of a California cannabis farm was a hard-working, innocent farmer" and the sole provider for his wife and daughter, his family says.Jaime Alanis died a day after a frenzied immigration raid of Glass House Farms in Ventura county where authorities arrested at least 200 workers. The 57-year-old, who was from the town of Huajumbaro in Michoacan, Mexico, is the first known person to die during the Trump administration's enhanced immigration enforcement operations in southern California. Continue reading...
by Joseph Gedeon in Washington and Edward Helmore on (#6YMPY)
One person in critical condition after blaze rips through residence for seniors in Fall River on Sunday nightNine people were killed after a fire ripped through an assisted living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts, on Sunday night, with one person remaining in critical condition in hospital.More than 30 residents were taken to area hospitals and dozens were rescued by ladder as firefighters battled heavy smoke that filled the Gabriel House Assisted Living Residence on Oliver Street, local officials said.The Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...
We've fled the attacks again and again. Now Israel plans to force us into the ruins of Rafah in order to increase pressure on HamasAfter 21 months of war, the Israeli minister of defence, Israel Katz, has proposed a new initiative to force all Palestinians in Gaza into a camp on the ruins of Rafah.I lived west of Gaza city, just five minutes away from the beach. I used to see the waves from the roof of our house. The area was marvellous, with luxury architecture, hotels and tourist resorts.Nour Abo Aisha is a freelance writer based in Gaza Continue reading...
Several children up in intensive care and two died amid uptick in poisonings as popularity of pouches explodeReports of US children under six ingesting nicotine pouches - the small rectangles containing flavored nicotine that have exploded in popularity - jumped 763% in just three years, according to a study published on Monday.Several of the children ended up in intensive care after ingesting the pouches and two children died, the report said. Continue reading...
Potential lawsuit follows vote by the board to require additional registration information from voters in a perennial battleground stateThe Democratic National Committee is threatening to sue the North Carolina board of elections if they go forward with plans to purge almost 100,000 voters from the rolls.The state elections board - with a new Republican majority - voted at its 24 June meeting to require registered voters to cast provisional ballots if they have not provided their driver's license number, last four digits of their social security number or an identification number supplied by the state. Continue reading...
Aggressive, motivated, extremely talented and now champions of the world, Enzo Maresca's squad have the confidence and real depthWhen Chelsea won the Conference League in May, a victory secured by the standard ice-cold Cole Palmer performance in a final, the reaction was restrained and there was no internal talk of an impending title challenge. The vibe is different now. It is hard not to dream when Chelsea perform as they did against Paris Saint-Germain in the final of the Club World Cup.Nobody is getting carried away. Chelsea know what the rest of us know, which is that they are not the best team in the world. They are not the finished article. They are young and still have much to learn. Yet there is a gold badge on the shirt for the next four years and if Chelsea woke up feeling $100m on Monday morning it will not only have been because of the prize money made during their month in the US. Continue reading...
Donald Trump announces that the US will send Patriot missiles and other weapons to Kyiv, and will impose 'very severe tariffs' on Russia if there is no deal to stop the war in Ukraine in 50 days
Death marks first recorded plague death in Coconino county since 2007 but not the most recent case in the stateA person has died from pneumonic plague in Coconino county, Arizona, the first such death there since 2007 - though officials are saying the death is unrelated to a recent die-off of prairie dogs in the area that may also be plague-related.Health officials in Coconino county, which incorporates part of the Grand Canyon national park and lies north of Flagstaff, confirmed the death on 11 July. Continue reading...
Suspect, who was shot by police and pronounced dead at the scene, wounded a state trooper before fleeing to a church and shooting four peopleA suspect shot and wounded a state trooper near a Kentucky airport on Sunday before fleeing to a nearby church, killing two women and wounding two men, and later was fatally shot by police.On Monday the shooter was identified by a coroner as Guy House, 47. At 11.36am ET on Sunday, House opened fire near Blue Grass airport in Lexington and wounded a state trooper, according to authorities. Continue reading...
Nearly 30 years after Andrew Wakefield's discredited study linking the MMR vaccine and autism, we badly need an injection of rationalityIt's easy to say in hindsight, but also true, that even when the anti-vax movement was in its infancy in the late 90s before I had kids, let alone knew what you were supposed to vaccinate them against, I could smell absolute garbage. After all, Andrew Wakefield, a doctor until he was struck off in 2010, was not the first crank to dispute the safety and effectiveness of childhood vaccines. There was a movement against the diphtheria-tetanus-whooping cough vaccine in the 1970s in the UK, and a similar one in the US in the early 1980s. The discovery of vaccination in the first place was not without its critics, and enough people to form a league opposed the smallpox rollout in the early 1800s on the basis that it was unchristian to share tissue with an animal.So Wakefield's infamous Lancet study, in which he claimed a link between the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine and autism, going as far as to pin down the exact mechanism by which one led to the other, was new only in so far as it had all the branding of reputable research, when in fact it was maleficent woo-woo, a phenomenon as old as knowledge. It was noticeable, though, that it fell on parched ground - a lot of people were very keen for it to be true. That was partly simple news appetite: vaccines are inherently boring. Devised by humans co-operating with one another, motivated by nothing more complicated than a desire to help the species - and indiscriminately, no one baby more worthy of protection than any other - there is no animating conflict here, nothing hidden, no complexity. Is there anything more tedious than humanity at its finest? So wouldn't it be at least piquant if it turned out to be a giant mistake?Do 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...
Pennsylvania man called for execution of other civil servants in video in which he displayed severed headA Pennsylvania man has been ordered to spend the rest of his life in prison after being convicted of fatally shooting his federal government employee father, decapitating him and brandishing the severed head in an online video that called for the execution of other civil servants.Justin Mohn, 33, was sentenced on Friday after a five-day trial by a judge that found him guilty of murder and terrorism charges, Pennsylvania state prosecutors said. Continue reading...
An old-versus-new, established-versus-insurgent dynamic is being played out among the candidatesA gen Z influencer, a former state lawmaker and the daughter of a former representative are facing off in a special Democratic primary in Arizona on Tuesday that showcases the party's internal debate in the run-up to the midterm elections.Longtime Arizona representative and progressive stalwart Raul Grijalva died in office from complications of lung cancer treatment in March at age 77, leaving open a seat representing southern Arizona and its borderlands. Continue reading...
A tournament won by Chelsea exposed international divides and sparked questions about workload and weatherFifa: The world's governing body had hoped to gain more of a foothold in the club game with the expanded version of this tournament. Now that it has taken place without major disruption or mass protest, chances are it won't go away any time soon. In many respects, that alone is mission accomplished - Fifa now runs a property that will allow it to control the global profile of some of the world's biggest soccer properties, which had been mostly out of its reach. There are also plenty of positive storylines Fifa can pick to tout (more than 2.4m cumulative attendance and any number of highlights on the field), even if some of those are balanced out by some less flattering realities (more than 1.5m empty seats). Continue reading...
The Democratic mayoral candidate has faced controversy over his calls for a rent freeze. But the plan has plenty of precedentDuring the New York City mayoral primary campaign, Zohran Mamdani's proposal for a citywide rent freeze became a contentious topic. The Democratic nominee says to achieve a cap on annual rent increases for the city's 1m rent-stabilized apartments, he would appoint members to the city's rent guidelines board who support it. Critics decry a rent freeze as a pie-in-the-sky, unrealistic proposal.I served as a rent guidelines board member for nearly four years, appointed by then mayor Bill de Blasio in 2018. And it's clear this controversy isn't just about rent freezes - there's a larger agenda to deregulate rent-stabilized housing, under which rent ceilings prevent landlords from raising the rent too high and tenants must be offered renewal leases (unless the landlord shows legal reason not to). Continue reading...
Ehud Olmert says plan would be ethnic cleansing, and anger at Israel over Gaza war is not all down to antisemitism. Plus, why are numbers of first-time US homebuyers at a generational low?
A report suggests New Yorkers pay nearly $26,000 a year on childcare and Mamdani's promise could transform livesMaggie Stockdale hadn't given much thought to childcare before welcoming her first child last year. But once she learned the high price of full-time daycare tuition in Brooklyn, New York, she knew she had to find another solution.Now, her care duties are split between Stockdale's parents, who relocated from Wisconsin to help out, and her husband, who cut his hours down to part time and arranged with his employer to let him bring their 10-month-old to work several days a week. Continue reading...
Amal Clooney says the policy allows for safe and frank' conversation. But what if you want to show George a cool meme of an anteater posing?Would you willingly surrender your phone if you were invited to the Clooneys'? Because that's the deal, apparently. I now have a phone basket that I use to take everyone's phones away!" Amal Clooney recently told Glamour magazine in a rather stilted conversation" with the cosmetics diva Charlotte Tilbury. It's important to get that balance where you have time alone with your family and with your friends where people feel like you can have a safe and frank exchange," she explained.Hmm. I'm fine with shoes-off households (although you reap what you sow when it comes to the state of my socks or my toes). But the phone basket is reminiscent of those aggressively jocular pub signs that say: No wifi - talk to each other." What if you're dealing with a family or work situation, need to hide in the loo and stroke your shiny pocket rectangle to recharge your social batteries, or want to show George a cool meme of an anteater posing? Yes, the Clooneys are the A-est of A-list, with attendant privacy concerns and young children. But if you can't trust people to behave properly, what are they doing in your home? Continue reading...
Katie Taylor's decisive victory over Amanda Serrano at MSG on Friday capped a watershed night for Most Valuable Promotions, who are betting big on women's boxingOn Friday night, 11 July, Katie Taylor earned the clear-cut win that had eluded her in two previous victories by controversial decision over Amanda Serrano. Fighting before a sold-out crowd of 19,721 on the first all-women's boxing card ever at Madison Square Garden, Taylor outboxed her longtime rival and solidified her status as one of the greatest women boxers of all time.The evening was a celebration of women's boxing and also marked a significant step forward for Most Valuable Promotions (Jake Paul's promotional company), which orchestrated, produced and marketed the event. Continue reading...
Irishman explains the emotion of winning Claret Jug at Portrush in 2019 after the toughest 24 hours of my sporting life'The gable end of a house on Causeway Street in Portrush delivers a reminder of Shane Lowry's Open triumph in 2019. The fantastic mural not only depicts Lowry with the Claret Jug in hand, but how Ireland, whether north or south, unites behind its sportspeople. Lingering memories from six years ago recall Lowry stretching away from the field towards the end of round three. He was in an unassailable position.The subsequent epic, week-long celebrations are another key reference point; the new Open champion showed the sporting world how to party and it fuelled a misconception, a tired cliche of the bearded, drinking Irishman. Continue reading...
US president Donald Trump handed Chelsea the Club World Cup trophy after the side beat Paris Saint-Germain in the final of the football tournament's new expanded format. Fifa president Gianni Infantino moved out of frame for the television cameras while Trump stayed put, finding himself squarely in focus as Chelsea captain Reece James lifted the trophy and his teammates celebrated around him
Buckingham Palace invites Trump for trip at a time when UK parliament is not sitting, avoiding the prospect of him addressing House of Commons. Key US politics stories from Sunday 13 July.King Charles has invited Donald Trump for an unprecedented second state visit in September, scheduling the trip for three days when parliament is not sitting and removing the possibility of the US president addressing parliament.The visit is a coup for the White House, with Trump becoming the first elected politician in modern history to be granted two state visits, after his earlier one in 2019. Continue reading...
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