Officials say breaches by two staff members let Grant Hardin walk free, and lawmakers warn of deeper security failuresTwo employees at an Arkansas prison where an inmate known as the Devil in the Ozarks" escaped have been fired for policy violations, corrections officials said on Thursday as they faced questions from lawmakers who said the escape pointed to deeper problems.The head of the Arkansas board of corrections told state lawmakers the violations allowed Grant Hardin to escape from the Calico Rock prison wearing a makeshift law enforcement uniform on 25 May. But officials have said there was no evidence employees knowingly assisted Hardin's escape. Continue reading...
Cases top 1,297, driven by low immunization, summer travel and vaccine policy shifts under Robert F Kennedy JrThe US is in the midst of the worst measles outbreak in 33 years, according to figures released this week. Driven by an outbreak in Texas, the US has now seen more measles cases in 2025 than in any year since 1992.Experts said they expect the growth in measles cases to continue, spurred on in part by the summer travel season. The best way to prevent measles is to be vaccinated against the disease. Continue reading...
Business groups had lobbied hard for law's repeal, but voters could have a chance to reinstate it next yearEight months after voters approved it, Missouri's governor, Mike Kehoe, signed the repeal of a law on Thursday that had guaranteed paid sick leave to workers and inflation-linked adjustments to the minimum wage.The move marked a major victory for the state's largest business group and a frustrating defeat for workers' rights advocates, who had spent years - and millions of dollars - building support for the successful ballot measure. The repeal will take effect on 28 August. Continue reading...
The New York City mayor is posting more on Instagram lately, and it's hard not to see Mamdani's elite TikTok strategy as the reason whyEric Adams, possible resident of New Jersey and mayor of New York City, is a man of many talents. He is the city's most famous vegan", albeit one who eats fish. He has a knack for scoring freebies from foreign governments. He managed the great feat of being the first mayor in the city's history to be indicted while in office. And, on top of all that, he may well be the most unintentionally hilarious man on the internet.Please see, as exhibit one, a classic piece of Adams surrealism from 2011, shot when the mayor was just a humble state senator. Dressed like an undertaker, Adams instructs viewers to search their child's room for contraband. Per Adams, a jewelry box may have a gun in it, and the bullets may be behind a picture frame. Unappreciated for many years, the video finally found an audience when it went viral during Adams's indictment. Continue reading...
New levies, apart from the 25% on auto parts and 50% on steel and aluminium, will come into effect on 1 AugustDonald Trump has said the US will impose a 35% tariff on imports from Canada from the beginning of August, and threatened to impose blanket tariffs of 15% or 20% on most other trading partners.The US president sent a letter to Canada late on Thursday, after an interview in which he warned EU nations to expect a tariff announcement today or tomorrow". Continue reading...
These teens say gender-affirming care saved their lives - now they're protesting as two leading US hospitals halt their treatmentsEli, a 16-year-old Los Angeles student, is spending his summer juggling an internship at a natural history museum, a research project, a physics class and cheer practice - and getting ready to apply for college.But in recent weeks, he has been forced to handle a more urgent matter: figuring out how he is going to access vital medical treatments targeted by the Trump administration. Continue reading...
Men from Mexico, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar were removed from the US and flown to the war-torn countryTom Homan, the US border czar, said he does not know what happened to the eight men deported to South Sudan after the Trump administration resumed sending migrants to countries that are not their place of origin, known as third countries.They're free as far as we're concerned. They're free, they're no longer in our custody, they're in Sudan," Homan told Politico on Friday. Will they stay in Sudan? I don't know." Continue reading...
Leiweke, ex-president of Denver Nuggets and former CEO of MLSE, which owns Toronto's major sports franchises, indicted over $388m arenaA prominent sports executive has been criminally charged with organising a conspiracy to ensure his own company won the bid to build a $388m sports arena in Texas.Timothy Leiweke, the former president of the Denver Nuggets basketball team and former CEO of MLSE, which owns Toronto's major sports franchises including the Leafs and Raptors was charged on Wednesday by a federal grand jury. He resigned as chief executive of the company at the center of the case, Oak View Group (OVG), after the announcement. Continue reading...
Long seen as women's work, childcare is underpaid and considered a private matter for families - not governmentIn 2021, Bri Adams was pregnant with her first child and began signing up for waitlists for childcare - eight, to be exact. She was thrilled when she found a spot, but was quickly horrified when the childcare shut down abruptly.It kind of broke my brain a bit", said Adams, a 34-year-old tech director from Falls Church, Virginia. Scrambling again, she found a new location close to the family's home. Continue reading...
Report from University of South Florida says total includes 100,000 children targeted for sex trafficking in stateMore than 700,000 people fell victim to human trafficking in Florida last year, an alarming new study has revealed. Of that number, about 100,000 were children targeted for sex trafficking.The report, compiled by researchers at the University of South Florida, uses data from a variety of sources, including the Florida department of children and families, to paint a bleak picture of the extent of such crime in the nation's third most populous state. Continue reading...
The BDS movement is today a pillar in the struggle for Palestinian freedom, justice and equalityDo no harm, a principle that many associate with the medical practice, has become a fundamental ethical principle of global solidarity the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has mainstreamed since its inception 20 years ago this week.In the midst of the most depraved phase of Israel's livestreamed genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in the illegally occupied Gaza Strip, our unbearable grief makes it impossible to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the BDS movement. The Israeli state, enabled and emboldened by the shameless and seemingly boundless military, financial, political and discourse complicity of the US, the European Union and the UK, is trying to normalize the fundamentally abnormal and to numb our consciences with its relentless savagery. Continue reading...
The measure exposes the most elaborate charade in recent US political history. But betrayal is Trump's operating principleDonald Trump's so-called big, beautiful bill", which will eviscerate the living standards, healthcare and aspirations of his white, working-class base, conclusively draws the curtain down on his Maga populist conceit, the most elaborate charade in recent American political history.The price will be staggering: $1tn in cuts to Medicaid; throwing 17 million people off health coverage closing rural hospitals and women's health clinics; battering food assistance for families, children and veterans; the virtual destruction of US solar and wind energy manufacturing; limiting access to financial aid for college; and, according to the Yale Budget Lab, adding $3tn to the national debt over the next decade, inexorably leading to raised interest rates, which will depress the housing market. These are the harsh, brutal and undeniable realities of Trumpism in the glare of day as opposed to his carnival act about how he will never touch such benefits. Continue reading...
The risk of cringe British stereotypes felt high. But Mr Darcy fantasies aside, her new series Too Much is an affectionate sendup of the capitalI have watched all six series of Girls at least four times. I watched it as it was castigated for its unlikable characters, lack of diversity, supposed misogyny and sex that wasn't fun" enough, and I've watched it during its recent gen Z-fuelled renaissance. I never thought Lena Dunham's show was perfect, or a window on to all of humanity. But as an arch portrait of a handful of upper-middle-class twentysomething women in New York, thousands of miles away from my reality, I've always believed that it couldn't be bettered.Then Dunham moved to London and released a new show, this time about ... me? Too Much's protagonists are thirtysomethings living in London: Jessica (played by Megan Stalter) moves over from New York after a breakup; her love interest Felix (Will Sharpe) is a Londoner jaded by years of struggling as a session guitarist. The stakes felt high. Not only could a show about my city by an American celebrity be unstoppably cringe, but it could call into question everything I loved about Girls.Barbara Speed is the deputy head of Guardian Opinion Continue reading...
Both countries had major question marks a year from kickoff, but South Korea turned those into one of the most memorable tourney runs everIf there has been some criticism of Mauricio Pochettino almost a year out from the 2026 World Cup, Guus Hiddink could have said the same - and more - in the summer of 2001, when he was on the receiving end of thrashings and a new, unflattering, nickname.A year and five days before South Korea started their campaign on home soil, the Dutchman was in charge as they lost 5-0 at home to France. The same scoreline happened again, a few weeks later, against the Czech Republic. A suddenly doubtful media dubbed the former Real Madrid boss Oh Dae-yong,' a Korean-sounding name that translates as 5-0'. Continue reading...
Donald Trump is closing the borders even though the World Cup and 2028 Olympics will take place in his countryCall it big, beautiful timing. On Tuesday, Fifa announced it had taken an office in Trump Tower. On Wednesday, Donald Trump announced he would attend the Club World Cup final. And who could begrudge the US president a little sporting entertainment after the week he has had? Those Nobel peace prize applications don't write themselves.Trump's attendance at a tournament that we can be 95% sure he doesn't understand is, doubtless, a huge coup and political victory for football. This is a sport that only a decade ago was openly considered un-American, scrawled into the rightwing commentator's list of pet peeves between meteorologists and Judy Blume. Ann Coulter described soccer's growing popularity as a sign of the nation's moral decay". Glenn Beck likened it to Obamacare: It doesn't matter how you try to sell it to us, it doesn't matter how many celebrities you get ... we want nothing to do with it." Continue reading...
Is the newly expanded tournament a waste of time or an interesting idea that brings the world together?There are plenty of reasons to be down on the Club World Cup. The players were already exhausted and overworked; its evolution into a 32-team tournament has been drive by a desire for profit; it has been played in temperatures that make football almost unbearable; the stadiums have often been half empty; and it has given Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino an opportunity to fluff their already inflated egos.But there is something to be said for a competition that brings together teams, and fans, from across the globe every four years. Supporters from around the world, especially Brazil, have lit up the show. And the underdogs have shown up. Flamengo stunned Chelsea; Botafogo shocked PSG; Al-Hilal sent Manchester City home. There have been great games, goals and performances, with PSG putting on a show for the ages in the semi-finals as they hammered Real Madrid. Continue reading...
Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano have already shared 20 rounds and two razor-thin decisions. On Friday, they return to Madison Square Garden to settle their rivalry for goodKatie Taylor and Amanda Serrano have thwacked one another with 861 punches across two punishing, brilliant encounters. There's been not a single knockdown between them, nor an ounce of quit. And not, it seems, a shred of closure either. That will change, or so they hope, on Friday night in New York.For the third and likely final time, two of boxing's most decorated champions and fate-bound dance partners will meet inside the ropes, returning to Madison Square Garden, the site of their epochal 2022 classic, for what is being billed as the decisive chapter in a rivalry that helped transform women's boxing. Taylor's WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO junior welterweight titles are once again on the line. So is a legacy greater than any belts. Continue reading...
As the US president's 9 July deadline came and went, the White House launched a range of new trade ultimatums at countries across the worldDonald Trump ramped up his trade rhetoric this week, firing off more than 20 letters to governments outlining new tariff rates if agreements aren't reached by 1 August.In April, Trump announced a 10% base tariff rate and additional duties ranging up to 50% for many other countries, although he later delayed the effective date for all but 10% duties until 9 July after market panic.Trump informed powerhouse suppliers Japan, South Korea and a number of other nations at the start of this week that they will face tariffs of at least 25% starting from August unless they can quickly negotiate deals.On Wednesday he announced more tariffs on countries like the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Algeria, as well as a 50% tariff on products from Brazil, tying the move to what he called the witch-hunt" trial against its former president, Jair Bolsonaro. Trump criticised the trial Bolsonaro is facing over trying to overturn his 2022 election loss. Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, threatened to hit back with reciprocal 50% tariff on US goods.On Thursday, Trump announced the US would impose a 35% tariff on imports from Canada, despite ongoing negotiations and prime minister Mark Carney's decision last month to rescind a digital services tax that faced criticism from the US president. Carney said his government would continue to defend Canadian workers and businesses in their negotiations and work towards the 1 August deadline.Trump also said on Thursday that a letter would be sent to the European Union, the US's biggest trading partner, today or tomorrow". Last week the EU and US were closing in on a high-level framework" trade deal that would avert 50% tariffs on all exports from the bloc.The steep tariff rates announced throughout the week range from 25-50%, with some of the harshest levies imposed on developing nations in south-east Asia, including 32% for Indonesia, 36% for Cambodia and Thailand and 40% on Laos and Myanmar, a country riven by years of civil war.On his first official visit to Asia, US secretary of state Marco Rubio sought to reassure regional powers of Washington's commitment to them, saying countries there may get better" trade deals than the rest of the world. Prior to Rubio's arrival in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim condemned the tariffs at the opening of an Asean foreign ministers' meeting.Trump has also vowed to implement tariffs of up to 200% on foreign drugs and 50% on copper. Copper prices hit a record high in the US after the announcement.US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said he expected several trade announcements this week, but to date the US has secured just two deals with trading partners. The first with the UK, signed on 8 May, includes a 10% tariff on most UK goods, including cars, and zero tariffs for steel and aluminium. A second deal was reached with Vietnam last week that sets a 20% tariff for much of its exports, although the full details are unclear, with no text released.On Thursday, Trump said the tariffs had been very well-received", adding that the stock market hit a new high today".Global stock markets have largely shrugged off the latest threats. Analysts say traders now expect a deal or another delay, while investors appear to be waiting until a deal is done or the tariffs kick in. Continue reading...
Demonstrators clashed with federal immigration officials carrying out a raid on a farm in southern California, with authorities throwing what appeared to be smoke canisters to disperse the crowd. The confrontation came as federal immigration enforcement agents have ramped up arrests in Southern California, heading to car washes, farms and Home Depot parking lots to take people into custody while stoking widespread fear among immigrant communities
Nearly 15% of domestic workforce to be let go in major restructuring of diplomatic corps - key US politics stories from Thursday 10 JulyThe state department has announced that it plans to move forward with mass layoffs as part of the most significant restructuring of America's diplomatic corps in decades. Officials say the cuts will align their mission with Donald Trump's America First" vision.The layoffs, which are commonly called reductions in force (or RIFs), along with voluntary redundancies, will affect nearly 15% of the state department's domestic staff. A senior department official said that was close to 1,800 people. The restructuring will also see several hundred bureaus merged or eliminated entirely. Continue reading...
by Robert Mackey, Sam Levine, Fran Lawther and Tom Am on (#6YJ47)
Agents, supported by national guard, fire chemical munitions at two cannabis farms in central coast area. This blog is now closed.You can read the trove of documents Erez Reuveni turned over to the senate judiciary committee here.Erez Reuveni, a fired justice department attorney, has provided text messages to the Senate judiciary committee supporting his whistleblower complaint involving Emil Bove, a top department official who is currently being considered for a seat on the federal bench. Continue reading...
Border patrol and US Customs and Border Protection respond to protesters with chemical munitionsFederal immigration officials carrying out raids on two southern California cannabis farms clashed with protesters, firing chemical munitions that sprayed what looked like smoke into the air to disperse the crowd.Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents accompanied by national guard troops in military-style vehicles turned up at two locations operated by Glass House Farms, one in the Santa Barbara county town of Carpinteria, about 90 miles (145km) north-west of Los Angeles, and one in the Ventura county community of Camarillo, about 50 miles from LA. Continue reading...
When it comes to the horrors of genocide we say these words with an ironic frequency. How do we short-circuit the re-run of this pitiful, shameful cycle?Today will be a hard day for Sydneysider Mirela Muratovic, a survivor of the only recognised genocide in Europe since the end of the second world war: Srebrenica.During the 1990s Bosnian war Srebrenica was designated a United Nations-protected safe area" - a label that came to mean nothing. Continue reading...
Several hundred bureaus will be merged or eliminated after supreme court sided with Trump administrationThe US state department has announced that it plans to move forward with mass layoffs as part of the most significant restructuring of the country's diplomatic corps in decades. Officials say the cuts will align their mission with Donald Trump's vision of America first.The layoffs, which are commonly called reductions in force (or RIFs), along with voluntary redundancies, will affect nearly 15% of the state department's domestic staff. A senior state department official said that was close to 1,800 people. The restructuring will also see several hundred bureaus merged or eliminated entirely. The department advises the president and leads the US in foreign policy issues. Continue reading...
The MLS executive has no timetable for a returnAtlanta United president and chief executive officer Garth Lagerwey is undergoing cancer treatment and taking an indefinite leave of absence.United officials announced the news Thursday and noted that the prognosis of a complete recovery is encouraging." There is no timetable for Lagerwey's return. Continue reading...
Brazilian president threatened a 50% tariff on US goods in retaliation for Trump's levy on the Latin American countryIn a move seen by many - including Brazil's president - as an attack on the country's sovereignty, the US president, Donald Trump, announced on Wednesday that he intends to impose an additional 50% tariff on Latin America's largest country from 1 August.Not only was this the highest rate among this week's announcements - and aimed at a country with which the US has maintained a trade surplus for 17 years - but the letter sent to the Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, also stood out for its intemperate tone, in contrast to the standard format adopted in letters to other countries. Continue reading...
The defender faced numerous non-payment issues from the Portuguese club, resulting in his eventual move to QPRAmerican defender Reggie Cannon has won his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas), which overturned a decision by Fifa's Dispute Resolution Chamber and will result in the player being owed about 400,000 euros ($468,000) from Portuguese soccer club Boavista.The court said Wednesday it had overturned Fifa's decision on 3 July. Continue reading...
Precursor to a lawsuit also claims the Palestinian activist was maliciously prosecuted and smeared as an antisemiteLawyers for Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate and Palestinian activist who was detained by the Trump administration for months, have filed a claim for $20m in damages against the administration, alleging Khalil was falsely imprisoned, maliciously prosecuted and smeared as an antisemite as the government sought to deport him over his prominent role in campus protests.The filing - a precursor to a lawsuit under the Federal Tort Claims Act - names the Department of Homeland Security, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the state department. Continue reading...
New York-bound flight took off from Madrid on Sunday, but landed on island in Azores group after engine issueA Delta flight was diverted to an island in the Atlantic this week after the plane experienced a mechanical issue, leaving the nearly 300 passengers on the island for a day.The New York-bound flight took off from Madrid on Sunday, but as the flight made its way over the ocean, the flight crew had to divert it to an island in the Azores island group. Continue reading...
Announcement disappoints her legions of fans who hoped she might one day retake the fieldUS international and two-time World Cup winner Tobin Heath announced her retirement on Thursday, after years away from the sport due to injury, disappointing her legions of fans who hoped she might one day retake the field.Famed for her cool demeanour and extraordinary intelligence on the pitch, Heath picked up two Olympic golds and won the NWSL championship twice with the Portland Thorns. Continue reading...
Messages released by fired DoJ lawyer show officials were aware they might have to ignore judicial ordersErez Reuveni, a former justice department attorney who was dismissed from his post, has provided text messages to the Senate judiciary committee supporting his whistleblower complaint involving Emil Bove, a top department official who is currently being considered for a seat on the federal bench.Reuveni's initial complaint, filed last month, included the explosive allegation that Bove had told justice department lawyers that they would need to consider telling the courts fuck you' and ignore any such court order" blocking efforts to remove immigrants to El Salvador. Continue reading...
Ben Askren, a former Olympic wrestler, had been hospitalized in Wisconsin with a severe case of pneumoniaFormer Olympic wrestler and MMA star Ben Askren, who has been hospitalized in Wisconsin after a severe case of pneumonia, said in a post on social media Wednesday that he had undergone a double lung transplant and is in recovery.Askren said during the Instagram video that he recalls very little of what happened over a month-long stretch from late May through the first two days of July. His wife, Amy, had said in a series of social media posts that Askren was put on a ventilator in June and placed on the donor list for a lung transplant on 24 June. Continue reading...
Rising number of flood victims is starting to plateau, a bleak sign that rescuers have made little progress in past 24 hoursThe rising number of victims from the devastating central Texas floods is beginning to plateau, with at least 120 people found dead in the state - a bleak sign that rescuers have made little progress to find victims amid wreckage in the past 24 hours.On Thursday morning, local officials in Kerr county, which was hit the hardest by the 4 July flash flood, announced that 96 people had died, the same number reported on Wednesday evening. Continue reading...
Alberto Rojas of San Bernardino made the call as fear grips community after detentions on two properties in dioceseAlberto Rojas, the San Bernardino bishop who leads more than 1.5 million Catholics in southern California, has formally excused parishioners from their weekly obligation to attend mass following immigration detentions on two parish properties in the diocese.The dispensation is a move usually reserved for extenuating circumstances, such as the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. But Rojas says it is necessary because of the fear of being apprehended and possibly deported that has gripped communities, including Catholic churches. Continue reading...
Agency vows to fix deficiencies' after Pennsylvania incident in which sniper fired several shots, killing one manSix Secret Service agents have been suspended without pay after the assassination attempt against Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally last July.The suspensions range from 10 to 42 days, with a loss of both salary and benefits during the absence, the agency's deputy director, Matt Quinn, told CBS News. Continue reading...
There's a cynical logic behind Netanyahu's publicity stunt: he is exploiting Trump's need for flattery to prolong Israel's brutal war on GazaBenjamin Netanyahu nominates Donald Trump for Nobel peace prize"- that headline seems to have been pulled straight out of the satirical news outlet the Onion. But it's 100% real news: the Israeli prime minister who has been indicted by the international criminal court for alleged war crimes in Gaza has proposed the US president, his largest weapons supplier and strongest political backer, as a candidate for the world's top peacemaking prize.It's absurd, akin to nominating one's drug dealer for the Nobel prize in medicine. But there's a cynical logic behind Netanyahu's publicity stunt: he is exploiting Trump's need for flattery to prolong Israel's brutal war on Gaza and to continue attacking other countries in the Middle East, including Iran, Lebanon and Yemen. Before Netanyahu showed up for dinner at the White House on Monday with a copy of his Nobel nomination letter, Trump was eager to announce a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas this week. Continue reading...
Some offices continue to treat patients as provision in Trump's policy bill was recently blocked by a court orderAt least two regional Planned Parenthood affiliates have notices on their websites telling patients that, thanks to a provision in Republicans' new tax-and-spending bill that defunds" the reproductive healthcare giant, they can no longer accept Medicaid.However, this provision - which abortion rights supporters have called a backdoor abortion ban" - was recently blocked by a court order. Other Planned Parenthood affiliates are continuing to treat patients who use Medicaid to pay for treatment. Continue reading...
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