Sources say justice department officials worried records were being held unlawfully at the former president’s Florida estate

Officials at the DHS’s office of inspector general said their attempts to inform Congress in April were thwartedTop career officials at the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) office of the inspector general (OIG) tried to alert Congress in April that Secret Service texts from the time of the January 6 Capitol attack had been erased, but their efforts were nixed by its leadership, documents show.The officials inside the inspector general’s office – the chief watchdog for the Secret Service – prepared a memo that detailed how the Secret Service was resisting the oversight body’s review into January 6, and delayed informing it about the lost texts. Continue reading...

Oversight committee details chilling threats against election officials and says continued misinformation threatens democracyA sweeping US House oversight committee report has warned that lies and misinformation around the 2020 American presidential election present an “ongoing threat to representative democracy” and pose a grave physical danger to election officials.The 21-page report called for emergency funding to address increased security costs related to 2022 contests and warned that there was a much-heightened risk that conspiracy theorists could gain power over elections in the future. Continue reading...

The Right Stuff, an invite-only app, promises to be a ‘no pronouns necessary’ space for people with ‘similar passions’A new dating app catering exclusively to American conservatives will soon be entering the market in the US.The launch of The Right Stuff, an invite-only dating app, was announced by Ryann McEnany, the younger sister of Kayleigh McEnany, a former White House press secretary under the Donald Trump administration. Continue reading...

Surging job numbers and the Senate passage of the climate bill means Republicans may not win the decisive victory they craveFor months, Democrats’ prospects in the November midterm elections have looked dire. The party, hamstrung by Joe Biden’s plunging popularity rates, has faced an electorate dealing with soaring grocery bills and gas prices, mounting housing crises and recession fears, as well as anger over the overturning of Roe v Wade by the supreme court.This seeming dissatisfaction with Democrats, evidenced in various polls, came amid an already unfavorable historical context. Since the second world war, the political party in power in America has lost seats in nearly every midterm election, the New York Times noted. Continue reading...

Umbrella was blown away from its anchoring by the wind and hit Tammy Perreault while she was at a Garden City beachA beachgoer was killed on Wednesday after a loose beach umbrella impaled her in the chest, authorities said.The umbrella was blown from its anchoring by the wind around 12.40pm and hit Tammy Perreault while she was at a Garden City beach in South Carolina, the Horry county chief deputy coroner Tamara Willard told news outlets. Continue reading...

Commissioner Lina Khan aims to prohibit harmful commercial surveillance and lax data securityThe US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has said it is considering adopting new rules to prohibit harmful commercial surveillance and lax data security, saying American consumers are often unknowingly giving up personal information ranging from their menstrual cycles to how they pray.“Firms now collect personal data on individuals on a massive scale and in a stunning array of contexts,” said the FTC commissioner, Lina Khan, on Thursday. Continue reading...

A legally binding security guarantee from our allies, replacing the failed Budapest memorandum, would make a huge difference

Parents said they told she ‘wouldn’t be able to go to school there any more because of our lifestyle choices’A Louisiana five-year-old was allegedly forced out of her kindergarten class at a religious school because her parents are a same-sex couple.Emily and Jennie Parker said they were informed by school officials at the Bible Baptist Academy in DeQuincy, Louisiana, during a meeting with the school’s director and a pastor that their same-sex relationship did not follow the teachings of the school and that they would need to find a new school for their daughter, Zoey. Continue reading...

Pressure is mounting on Republican candidates, while Democrats finally appear to be hitting their strideRepublican candidates for Senate, House and governorships in the upcoming midterms have been filling the airwaves with baseless assertions that the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago reveals the politicization of the justice department and undermines the rule of law.Republicans ranging from third-ranking House Republican Elise Stefanik to House minority leader Kevin McCarthy are brimming with outrage and accusation. Continue reading...

Cause of the blast, the second house explosion in the area in just over five years, has not been determinedThree people were killed and 39 homes damaged on Wednesday when a house exploded in the southern Indiana city of Evansville, authorities said.David Anson, chief deputy coroner for Vanderburgh county, told the Associated Press that the identities of the people who died would not be released until the next of kin has been notified. Continue reading...

Former president declines to answer questions two days after the FBI raided his Florida home seeking classified documents. Plus, how the culture wars came for drag queensGood morning.Donald Trump declined to answer questions under oath yesterday in New York state’s civil investigation into his business dealings, pleading the fifth two days after the FBI raided his Florida home in a separate criminal case, seeking classified documents taken from the White House.Did Trump say anything about the case? According to the New York Times, Trump accused the attorney general of having “openly campaigned on a policy of destroying me”. Beyond that, from 9.30am to about 3pm, the former president had repeated the words “same answer” to every question about “valuations and golf clubs and all that stuff”, his lawyer said.What do most Americans think about abortion rights? According to a survey conducted between 27 June and 4 July by the Pew Research center, a majority of the public disapproves of the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe: 57% of adults disapprove of the court’s decision. Continue reading...

French freediver Arnaud Jerald has broken the deepest dive world record with bi-fins, descending to a depth of 120 metres. Jerald completed the dive in three minutes and 34 seconds.It is the seventh time the Frenchman has broken the world record in his career and the second time in the last week. Jerald, 26, was competing in the Vertical Blue, an annual competition that takes place in the Bahamas Continue reading...

Rory McIlroy has welcomed the 'common sense' decision of a federal judge to rule against three LIV Golf players who had sought a temporary restraining order to allow them to contest the FedEx Cup playoffs. Speaking at a pre-tournament press conference, McIlroy said: 'From my vantage point, common sense prevailed and I thought it was the right decision.'

Smoke and flames swirled in a tornado-like pattern as hot winds met a wildfire in southern California.The fire near Quail Lake in Gorman closed portions of Route 138 northwest of Los Angeles.The LA county fire department tweeted that crews were making good progress on the fire and that no structures were threatened

Planners say congestion pricing will slash traffic in the area – and offer a much-needed $15bn boost to public transitCould a moonshot policy finally rid the nation’s most congested city of its incessant, noisy, polluting traffic? Soon, over a million drivers a day could be forced to cough up as much as $23 to enter midtown and lower Manhattan – a toll that planners say will raise $15bn to fund New York public transit while cutting vehicles in the area by as much as one-fifth.Among the cars that would be leaving the streets of Manhattan is a white Honda Accord that was parked on East Broadway in the Lower East Side on Wednesday. Continue reading...

The stunning defeat of the Kansas referendum and internal divisions have undercut an all-out assault on reproductive rightsIn the leadup to the US supreme court overturning Roe v Wade and thus scrapping federal abortion protection, Republican lawmakers across the country maintained an uncompromising rallying cry against abortions, vowing to implement a sweeping wave of restrictions in their states.However, since the highest court in the US overturned the ruling, many Republican leaders and officials have become more hesitant – or have even gone silent – over the exact type of bans they promised to enact. Continue reading...

Serena showed Black girls like my daughters that they have to be confident and proud of themselves, because the larger society is not always going to encourage their Black Girl MagicSerena Willams announced her impending retirement from professional tennis in Vogue magazine on Tuesday. As we celebrate her greatness and all that Williams has achieved on the court – the 23 major singles titles, the four Olympic gold medals, the 319 weeks at No 1 in the world rankings – I think it’s important to not skim over all that she had to endure off of it and the inspiration she’s given to Black girls in particular.I remember when my daughters Imani and Baby Sierra were a little younger and I was watching a segment on ESPN’s SportsCenter. They were in the family room with me and not really paying attention until they overheard then-ESPN commentators Jemele Hill and Michael Smith discussing the onslaught of body shaming, slander and general criticism that Serena was being bombarded with. My daughters both stopped what they were doing and began listening intently as it was reported that Serena had been accused of being “too manly”. One tennis coach had said that he didn’t want his players to look like Serena, others were saying that her butt was too big, some were still criticizing the beads that she and her sister Venus wore when they were younger. Other critics said that Serena had the wrong body type for tennis and therefore wasn’t fully realizing her potential on the court. Continue reading...

A wealth of imagery – from Caribbean schoolgirls and disembodied doll parts to the Nicaraguan revolution – features in this celebration of women behind the camera at New York’s Museum of Modern Art Continue reading...

Many of us are drinking less and Zooming more – and when we go out there seems to be less need for a confidence blanket of alcoholOver the past two years, the times I’ve had the most to drink are at (legal) lockdown dinner parties with my tight-knit group of 50-year-old friends. We sat around a table at curry nights and roast dinners, merrily topping up glasses of champagne well into the night. We tried our hand at paella and made sangria. I also made a tiramisu drowned in Baileys once, but that doesn’t feel like it counts.Getting drunk, however, has never been on my weekly or monthly agenda. To be honest, it isn’t on my agenda at all. And it is a trend we are starting to see more and more in people my age: Gen Z, those born from around 1997 to 2010, seem to be drinking less and Zooming more. Continue reading...

Ex-president pleads the fifth two days after the FBI raided his Florida home seeking classified documentsDonald Trump declined to answer questions under oath on Wednesday in New York state’s civil investigation into his business dealings, pleading the fifth two days after the FBI raided his Florida home in a criminal case, seeking classified documents taken from the White House.The former US president’s decision to exercise his fifth-amendment constitutional right against self-incrimination was delivered during a closed-door deposition in Manhattan, where the New York state attorney general, Letitia James, is examining the Trump family real estate empire. Continue reading...

Williams’s career is ending before it would if she were a male player, simply because she must choose between tennis and having more childrenThis was going to be about whether Serena Williams is the greatest sportswoman in history. After all, who was better?Maybe Babe Didrikson, with Olympic gold medals in two separate athletics events and 10 major wins on the LPGA tour; perhaps Larisa Latynina, who won 18 medals over three Olympic Games; or Jackie Joyner-Kersee, with her back-to-back titles in the Olympic heptathlon; or Allyson Felix, who has just retired after winning more medals than any other runner in history. From Williams’s sport there’s Martina Navratilova, with 167 singles titles and another 177 in doubles, or Steffi Graf, who spent 377 weeks at the top of the world rankings. Continue reading...

In lengthy statement, Trump says he refused to answer questions during deposition as part of inquiry into real estate dealings

Kobe Bryant’s widow is seeking compensation for snapshots taken of the NBA star’s body after a crash that also killed her daughterKobe Bryant was one of the most photogenic sports figures in Los Angeles and images of him seen by millions around the world – smiling in victory, grimacing in agony – keep his memory alive.But some photos of him should never be seen, his widow says, and she’s seeking unspecified millions in compensation for snapshots taken of the NBA star’s corpse that were circulated after he was killed in a helicopter crash with their daughter and seven others in 2020. Continue reading...

The pharmacy chain failed to properly investigate suspicious opioid orders, according to federal rulingWalgreens “substantially contributed” to San Francisco’s opioid epidemic by failing to perform due diligence on prescriptions that flooded into the city for 15 years, a federal judge has found.The city won what local media has called a “landmark trial” against Walgreens, with the judge, Charles Breyer, finding that the pharmacy chain had failed to properly investigate suspicious opioid orders, dispensing “large volumes of medically illegitimate opioid prescriptions that were diverted for illicit use”. Continue reading...

Utah-based company Lions Not Sheep was first cited by the FTC in May for replacing ‘Made in China’ tags on their clothingA pro-Donald Trump brand was fined by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for using fake “Made in USA” labels on items that were imported from other countries.The Utah-based apparel company Lions Not Sheep was first cited by the FTC in May for replacing “Made in China” tags on their clothing with bogus “Made in USA” labels. Continue reading...

Hundreds were marooned in the downpour as the climate crisis increases the likelihood of extreme weatherRecent severe rains in Death Valley that flushed debris across roadways, damaged infrastructure and carried away cars are being described by meteorologists and park officials as a once-in 1,000-year event.The arid valley was pelted with roughly an inch and a half of rain on Friday, near the park’s rainfall record for a single day. Continue reading...

President urges regime, which denies involvement, to release Tice, who disappeared in 2012 covering Syrian warJoe Biden has said that the US knows “with certainty” that the Syrian government is holding Austin Tice – an American journalist who has been missing for a decade – and called on Damascus to release him.Ten years after the freelance reporter disappeared while reporting on the Syrian war, Biden said the US government knows “that [Tice] has been held by the Syrian regime”. Continue reading...

Shahram Poursafi, who US says belongs to Revolutionary Guards, offered money to hitman to avenge Suleimani death, DoJ allegesThe US has charged an Iranian man it says is a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with attempting to hire a hitman for $300,000 to kill John Bolton, the former national security adviser in the Trump administration.The Department of Justice said Shahram Poursafi, also known as Mehdi Rezayi, offered the money in November 2021 to an unidentified person in the US to “eliminate” Bolton, apparently to avenge the drone killing of the IRGC commander Qassem Suleimani, in January 2020. Continue reading...

The US president, Joe Biden, has hailed figures showing 'zero' inflation for July, saying the news indicated a healthy economy, but added that 'people are still hurting'. 'I just want to say a number: zero. Today we received news that our economy had 0% inflation in the month of July,' Biden said during a briefing at the White House

Democrats select progressive Becca Balint for Vermont House seat while Trump-backed candidate nominated for Wisconsin governorMinnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a member of the select progressive group in the House of Representative dubbed the Squad, eked out a closer-than-expected Democratic primary victory on Tuesday night against a centrist challenger who questioned the incumbent’s support for the “defund the police” movement.The evening went far smoother for another progressive, Becca Balint, who won the Democratic House primary in Vermont – positioning her to become the first woman representing the state in Congress. Continue reading...

A tweet about what we ‘should have achieved’ by the start of our fourth decade has gone viral. It’s all part of a personal growth industry predicated on making us compare ourselves to othersWhat had you achieved by the time you were 30? I’ve been working out my list: grade 3 clarinet, whatever Brownie badge you got in the 1980s for cooking two sausages in Brown Owl’s kitchen, a dead parent, two baffling infant sons, a degree Rishi Sunak would probably ban, an autoimmune condition and a job I hated.I ask, because once again a man has decided to explain what people should have or have done by 30. It’s a perennial temptation for a certain kind of internet gentleman. OK, it’s not always men, but there is something about this brand of would-be motivational hectoring that is business-bro catnip. Remember the chap who said if we didn’t use lockdown to become entrepreneurs or learn a new skill (as opposed to testing every crisp variety in Tesco Metro), “You didn’t ever lack the time, you lacked the discipline”?A burning fury about some trivial aspect of your neighbourhood (lighting, bollards, men who trim between the paving stones with scissors).Three to five relationships – romantic or platonic – that you feel lasting guilt about.A part of your face or body that you don’t recognise any more. Whose chin is that? What’s that lump on my eyelid? When did my heels take on the texture of barnacles?A miasma of pension dread.An anecdote you cannot stop telling even though you know your interlocutor has heard it before. (Me: this was my grandfather’s knife. My husband: I know, you tell me every time you touch it.)An alternative career you truly believe you would have been happier in.Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Already, the 45th president suffered twin humiliations and a third one looms, as Trump is slated to appear at a court-ordered depositionThis is a bad week for Donald Trump and the Republican party. Already, the 45th president suffered twin humiliations and a third one looms. On Monday, the FBI enforced a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, the center of his universe. One day later, a federal appeals court upheld the right of a House committee to his tax returns. Trump is also slated to appear on Wednesday at a court-ordered deposition conducted by New York’s attorney general.Meanwhile, voters made the Republican party pay for the US supreme court gutting Roe v Wade. In Minnesota’s special congressional election, Democrats came within five points of an upset victory in a district that Trump won by double digits. What happened in the Kansas abortion referendum didn’t just stay there.Lloyd Green served in the Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992 Continue reading...

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said he feels the league needed to keep pushing for a year-long suspension for Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson because of his 'egregious' and 'predatory behaviour' toward women. The league has been seeking an indefinite suspension and fine for Watson, and felt the six-game ban imposed by Sue L Robinson, a former federal judge appointed by the NFL and NFL Players Association as an independent league disciplinary officer, wasn't enough. 'It was predatory behaviour. Those were always things we felt was really important for us to address and in a way that’s responsible,' he said.

Coco Gauff has said Serena Williams inspired her to play tennis after the 23-time grand slam champion's decision to 'evolve away' from the sport. 'I grew up watching her, that's the reason I play tennis ... I saw somebody who looked like me dominating the game and it made me believe I could dominate too,' she said. Bianca Andreescu also commented on Williams' retirement, saying she hopes to continue on her legacy of 'inspiring and motivating other women in sports'.

Search warrant executed by FBI agents suggests investigation comes with potentially far-reaching political ramifications for former president. Plus, America’s toxic algal bloom

Experts say it underscores the importance of encryption and minimizing the amount of user data tech companies can storeIn the wake of the supreme court’s upheaval of Roe v Wade, tech workers and privacy advocates expressed concerns about how the user data tech companies stored could be used against people seeking abortions.When a Facebook staffer posed the dilemma to the chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, asking how the platform would protect the user data of individuals seeking abortion care, Zuckerberg said the company’s ongoing push to encrypt messaging would help protect people from “bad behavior or over-broad requests for information”. Continue reading...

The Houston Astros ace is approaching his fifth decade and barely played in the last two seasons. But he has returned to dominate opposing battersWhen Justin Verlander got José Ramírez to line out to end the sixth inning in last week’s game between the Houston Astros and the Cleveland Guardians, the righty veteran walked off the field having thrown six shutout innings. Barely breaking stride, or a smile, it was yet another stellar outing on the mound.Thursday’s victory wasn’t just another game, though. It gave Verlander his 15th win of the season and lowered his ERA to 1.73, both the best in the majors. For a 39-year-old who appeared in just one game in the previous two seasons – due to an arm injury and then Tommy John surgery to repair the damaged ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow – it was another reminder of just how special a pitcher Verlander is, and how historic a season he’s putting together. Continue reading...

Police have arrested the primary suspect in the killings of four Muslim men in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Police chief Harold Medina said Muhammad Syed, 51, had been formally charged with two homicides, those of Aftab Hussein, 41, and Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27, but he is considered a suspect in all four of the deaths.Deputy Kyle Harstock said Syed was pulled over and detained by officers in Santa Rosa, close to the border with Texas

Trump and other candidates’ fundraising emails foment outrage and urge donations to stop the ‘Radical Left’Republican and rightwing groups have swiftly used the FBI raid on Donald Trump’s winter home at Mar-a-Lago in Florida to raise money from their supporters by bombarding them with fundraising emails and appeals for donations.In public the former US president, his allies and nearly all senior Republicans have expressed deep outrage at the raid, which is linked to Trump apparently keeping classified documents at Mar-a-Lago from his time in the White House. But the same figures have also seen the moment as a clear opportunity to urge supporters to dig deep into their pockets. Continue reading...

Celebrities have reacted by unliking Depp’s social media post, but is public opinion really turning against him?Hear that nervous click-click? It’s the sound of celebrities quietly removing their likes from the victorious Instagram statement Johnny Depp posted after winning his libel case against his ex-wife, Amber Heard, earlier this year. Approximately a gazillion words have been written about the case, so I’m sure I don’t need to recap it. In brief, though, Depp sued Heard for a 2018 op-ed piece in which she said she was a victim of domestic violence but didn’t explicitly name him as the culprit. The televised trial was a sickeningly sordid spectacle – one lawyer described it as the “litigation equivalent of Squid Game”. Heard endured merciless mocking and walked away with her reputation in tatters, while Hollywood largely rallied around Depp.Now, however, it seems that attitudes toward Depp might be souring. Twitter detectives have noticed that more than a dozen celebrities appear to have “unliked” the actor’s Instagram post over the past two months. That list includes Bella Hadid, Halle Bailey, Amanda Knox(!) and a bunch of other people I’ve never heard of but are apparently very famous.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com Continue reading...

Search warrant executed by FBI agents suggests investigation comes with potentially far-reaching political ramifications for former presidentFederal investigators searched Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida on Monday bearing a warrant that broadly sought presidential and classified records that the justice department believed the former president unlawfully retained, according to two sources familiar with the matter.The criminal nature of the search warrant executed by FBI agents, as described by the sources, suggested the investigation surrounding Trump is firmly a criminal probe that comes with potentially far-reaching political and legal ramifications for the former president. Continue reading...