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Politics
Policy, power, and the news of the day.
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Ukrainian drone strikes force Russia to suspend shipping in Sea of Azov
Vital maritime corridor closes after 90 vessels – including shadow fleet oil tankers – are attacked in under a week Russia has been forced to suspend shipping in the Sea of Azov after 90 vessels were targeted by Ukrainian drones in less than a week. Ukraine’s drone forces chief, Robert Brovdi, said on Sunday that his units had hit 10 tankers and four ferries overnight, as well as a major oil refinery in the city of Syzran. There were multiple strikes on electricity sub-stations in occupied Crimea, he added. Continue reading...
Man arrested after 24-year-old woman killed in stabbing in west London
Man in 20s also found with stab injuries after incident over which 44-year-old is being held on suspicion of murder A man has been arrested after a 24-year-old woman was killed and a man in his 20s was injured in a stabbing in west London, police have said. Officers found the woman with stab injuries after being called to a property on Uxbridge Road in Hayes on Sunday morning. The man in his 20s was found outside the property with stab injuries, with police awaiting an update on his condition. Continue reading...
Britain’s biggest community solar farm forced to shut over grid overload fears
Timing of Devon switchoff ‘could not be worse’, says board, as members face an estimated £2m in lost revenue Britain’s biggest community solar project has been forced to shut for the duration of its first summer by the government’s energy system operator to avoid overloading the local grid with renewable energy. The north Devon solar farm was ordered to shut weeks before record high temperatures across Europe led to power supply warnings, due to concerns that the large amount of rooftop solar in the area could destabilise the power grid by triggering a “thermal overload”. Continue reading...
US politicians and foreign leaders pay tribute to Lindsey Graham
Trump says Graham was ‘a true American patriot’ while Zelenskyy says he’s ‘deeply saddened’ by death Washington woke up to the unexpected death of Republican senator Lindsey Graham , 71, who changed the course of modern history with his hawkish Iran platform and key role in establishing the stridently conservative US supreme court. Donald Trump was one of the first to pay tribute to the controversial South Carolina lawmaker, a close ally despite past differences, in a social media post. “Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known, is dead!” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform. “He was always working, and was a true American Patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed!!! DETAILS AND ARRANGEMENTS TO FOLLOW. So sad!” Continue reading...
Flash flooding in Missouri leaves one person dead as 200 campers are rescued
Woman dies after her home is swept away as heavy rainfall batters parts of state, forcing rescues and evacuations A woman was found dead in Missouri on Saturday after heavy rainfall battered parts of the state the previous day, forcing numerous emergency rescues and evacuations, including at a summer camp with more than 200 children. The body of Faith Gregory, who went missing in Missouri’s Crawford county after her home was swept away from its foundation, was found by volunteers late Saturday morning. Her body was discovered about 1.8 miles (3km) downstream from her residence in Huzzah creek, according to the county sheriff’s office. Continue reading...
Green MP Hannah Spencer aims to pass law on maximum workplace temperatures
Byelection winner says heatwaves are causing ‘absolute chaos’ and workers need protection from unsafe conditions Hannah Spencer is to introduce a bill in parliament that would pave the way for a maximum workplace temperature in the UK, as the country grapples with increasingly frequent heatwaves. If passed, the legislation will create an independent body to recommend maximum safe workplace temperatures and set out how those recommendations should be implemented. Continue reading...
‘We plant belonging’: how nature charities and asylum seekers work together in UK countryside
Environmental and refugee groups have joined forces to benefit lives and wildlife in Wales and elsewhere Shielding his eyes from the blinding midday sun, Abdullah, a Sudanese asylum seeker, gazes out at the expanse of green in Tŷ Mawr country park in north Wales. “This place is so beautiful,” he says. “It feels a very long way from the Home Office.” Continue reading...
Platner’s collapse doesn’t mean we should reject outsiders in politics | Bhaskar Sunkara
We don’t need fewer amateurs running for office. We need far more of them, recruited seriously Graham Platner is out of the Maine Senate race , burdened by controversies that include a troubling rape accusation , which he denies. His departure is no doubt a good thing that will make it easier for Democrats to win back the Senate. But progressives should pay attention to the discussion around Platner. His collapse is being turned into something larger, supposed proof that people from outside politics have no business being in it. Continue reading...
Zohran Mamdani riding high despite New York Post’s daily demonization
The media-savvy mayor’s popularity has only grown as the Murdoch-owned tabloid has thrown everything at him The rightwing New York Post has attacked Zohran Mamdani as a communist, a hater of the police, an antisemite, a driver-away-of-billionaires, and as someone who isn’t very good at bench press. But six months into his mayoralty, Mamdani has so far succeeded where most of his predecessors have failed: he has bested the city’s most powerful tabloid. Continue reading...
France and UK to increase staffing at border controls in effort to stave off travel chaos
Disruption at Channel crossings expected to rise amid new fingerprinting and facial recognition checks France and the UK have agreed to increase staffing at border controls in response to warnings of travel chaos caused by new fingerprinting and facial recognition checks. Disruption at Channel crossings is expected to rise sharply next weekend at the start of the summer holiday season, with MPs warning of “utter chaos and miles of tailbacks” unless the EU’s entry/exit system (EES) is fixed or checks are suspended. Continue reading...
Lindsey Graham dies aged 71 after sudden illness, his office says – live
Graham’s abrupt death will send shock waves through Washington and the Republican party Lindsey Graham, a longtime US senator and key ally of Donald Trump, has died from a sudden illness, his office said on Sunday. He had just turned 71. Graham’s abrupt death will send shock waves through Washington and the Republican party. He had served in the Senate since 2003, representing South Carolina, and was running for re-election in November. Continue reading...
New anti-racism standard will force Australian universities to use definitions of antisemitism and Islamophobia
Higher education chiefs, academics and students to give evidence this week at royal commission Australian universities will be required to adopt definitions on antisemitism, Islamophobia and racism towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from next year, under a legally enforceable standard designed to stamp out discrimination on campuses. Details of the anti-racism standard will be published on Monday as university bosses, students and academics prepare to appear at the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion. Continue reading...
‘Huge wave’ of carbon storage projects causes alarm in small-town USA as oil firms eye billions in subsidies
Dozens of projects are in development across US despite concerns over environmental and health risks The plan to bury carbon under remote Indiana farmland is supposed to be a slam dunk for the climate, according to its supporters – all generously funded by US tax dollars. But as far as Melissa Harrison and some other residents of Clymers, Indiana, are concerned, it just might be the end of their town. “This is our place,” she says. Generations of her family are buried in the cemetery, and she is raising her five grandchildren in one of several dozen white-clapboard homes among corn fields and industrial plants serving the farming industry. Continue reading...
Outcry after Atlanta tosses unhoused people’s belongings near World Cup spot
City official says staffers were performing ‘routine park maintenance’ where 15 people have gathered for months City employees in Atlanta, Georgia, recently threw away tents, medication, identification and other belongings of unhoused people at a public park without warning. This led activists and a local official to point to an apparent violation of procedures created after a city employee ran over a tent with a front loader last year, killing a man. The sweep through the park occurred less than a mile from a popular spot for World Cup watch parties, drawing into focus ongoing tension over the issue of what happens to the city’s several thousand unhoused people during the month-long event. Continue reading...
UK must cap political donations to stop the rich buying influence | Heather Stewart
If Starmer won’t act then his successor should – by restricting the power of a small group of mega-donors Just as Nigel Farage kicks off a summer of “arguing with a bin” , as Rachel Reeves called it, Labour’s bill to clean up politics returns to the House of Commons this week. As more questions emerge about the financing of Reform and Farage’s mega-donor chums – through the brilliant reporting of Guardian colleagues – MPs should seize the opportunity to toughen it up. Continue reading...
Nigel Farage is just one strand in the tangle of rightwing politicians and crypto investors | John Harris
These financiers want to remodel the UK into a form that suits them – one that could threaten to erode the barriers between crime and business This coming Tuesday, the government’s representation of the people bill comes back to the House of Commons for its third reading. It bundles up a multitude of measures, including an extension of the franchise to 16- and 17-year-olds and welcome changes to voter registration. But thanks to the continuing furore around Nigel Farage and his extremely wealthy friends – such as the Thailand-based crypto-investor Christopher Harborne , who gave Farage a £5m “lottery win” personal gift and has donated in excess of £22m to Reform UK – the aspects of the legislation that have suddenly become its headline measures are focused on big-money donations. The government has already implemented a moratorium – but only a moratorium – on political donations in cryptocurrencies , the encrypted digital assets that, to quote the Electoral Commission , “present particular challenges and risks in meeting electoral law requirements in identifying donors and ensuring they are permissible”. There is a new annual £100,000 limit on donations from British citizens living abroad. Other legislative moves will now take the form of amendments to the bill: they include new checks on whether companies making donations are above board by measuring their profit as well as their revenues, and a requirement for parliamentary candidates to declare any donation above £2,230 (although “personal gifts” will continue to be exempt). John Harris is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Experts warn of ways screwworm could spread in the US and new difficulties in keeping it at bay
Scientists worry that current eradication efforts won’t be able to contain parasitic infestation pushing into US When conservationists set up cameras in remote regions of Central American forests, they wanted to monitor illegal cattle movement, which can lead to deforestation . But in recent months, they discovered another alarming development: wildlife rapidly infected with the new world screwworm. It’s a warning sign of how the fly could spread in the US – and it signals new difficulties in pushing it back south, a process that will probably take years, experts say. Continue reading...
How to plan for an election that leaders are trying to subvert
The White House is working to change electoral rules in its favor. Protectors of democracy must have a counterplan The second Trump administration is systematically eroding the institutional foundations of competitive elections without formally abolishing them. They have a plan to achieve what scholars of democratic backsliding call “electoral subversion”: changing electoral rules in their favor. Protectors of democracy must have a counter-plan of their own. The White House’s approach to electoral subversion has multiple fronts . The administration has rewarded those who used violence to disrupt the last transfer of power, disabled the federal agencies charged with protecting election integrity , moved to extend executive control over voter registration, and threatened to withhold terrorism prevention funding from states who do not change their voting rules. Continue reading...
‘Nothing to suggest’ Ann Widdecombe death politically motivated, say police
Officers say they are not looking for anyone else after arrest of man, 28, on suspicion of murdering ex-Tory politician Detectives investigating the death of Ann Widdecombe have said there is “nothing to suggest it was politically motivated”. A 28-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of the murder of the former Conservative MP at an address in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. Police said they were not looking for anyone else in connection with Widdecombe’s death. Continue reading...
ESPN analyst Matt Miller faces financial investigation amid car crash recovery
Miller takes indefinite leave after arm amputation and questions of possible financial improprieties An on-air analyst for a top US sports broadcaster says he is pulling back from his role indefinitely as he heals from a car crash in Missouri that forced him to undergo a life-saving amputation – and while he reportedly faces a law enforcement investigation into possible financial improprieties connected to what he billed as side charity work. Matt Miller’s announcement on Friday that he was taking indefinite leave from ESPN provided only the latest twist in an unusual case that has drawn significant attention from both media as well as the substantial number of American football fanatics who follow his area of expertise: the process by which NFL teams select, or draft, collegiate prospects. Continue reading...
New LS Lowry exhibition aims to demolish ‘naive and uncultured’ myth
Gallery director says collection of 140 paintings will offer a more balanced view of Manchester painter’s work A new exhibition of work by LS Lowry will “bust a few myths” about the Mancunian artist, who the show’s co-curator says is still wrongly derided for being “naive and uncultured”. LS Lowry: the Theatre of Life features 140 paintings by the artist, who captured working-class life in the industrial north-west of England during the early and mid 20th century. Continue reading...
Stephen Miller is outraged over birthright citizenship. His arguments are nonsense | Sidney Blumenthal
Trump’s immigration architect calls the supreme court’s decision ‘outrageous’ as he pushes for policy rooted in genetics, not law Neither of the supreme court majority opinions in Trump v Barbara , the 5-4 decision upholding the constitutionality of birthright citizenship, mention the true architect of the case. Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14160, which would deny citizenship to children born on American soil if their parents are undocumented immigrants or on temporary visas, is extensively noted, but not the man responsible for it . The omission of Stephen Miller is like Dracula without Dracula. The vampire identified is chief justice Roger B Taney, author of the Dred Scott decision of 1857, though his notorious statement at the heart of his ruling went uncited: that the framers believed that Black people “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect”, that they were excluded from the Declaration of Independence’s principle that “all men are created equal” because of racial inferiority “too clear for dispute,” and that rendered them no different from “an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic.” Continue reading...
Israel’s war in Gaza dominates US midterm races as Democrats split
Tensions between progressive and moderate camps of Democratic party on display in key Senate race in Michigan The Israel-Gaza war created gaping divisions in the Democratic party and contributed to a resounding loss in a critical presidential election year in 2024. Two years later, the issue continues to dominate races across the country, as progressives try to seize on Israel’s falling popularity and a broad anti-war sentiment ahead of November’s midterms. A recent debate among two Democrats vying for one of the most competitive US Senate seats in the country openly displayed the tension between progressive and moderate camps of the party. Continue reading...
Tommy Robinson’s Musk-funded Russia trip spurs call to defend UK democracy
Ed Davey voices concern about the Musk family foundation taking the far-right activist on a visit to Moscow The UK must do more to defend its democracy after it emerged that Elon Musk’s family foundation had taken the far-right activist Tommy Robinson to Russia, Ed Davey has said. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was brought to Russia by the Musks, the billionaire tech mogul’s father told the Guardian . Continue reading...