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Politics
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Newborn baby found dead in portable bathroom at Michigan music festival
Organizers of the four-day Electric Forest festival are appealing for attendees to come forward with information A newborn baby was found dead in a portable bathroom at a Michigan dance music festival on Sunday, and organizers are now appealing for festivalgoers to come forward with information. “It causes us so much pain to have to share this difficult news with you,” Electric Forest festival organizers wrote online on Sunday night. Saying the organizers were “heartbroken”, the statement added: “Michigan state police continues to investigate this tragic event, if you can assist in any way.” Continue reading...
One person killed and one injured in shooting at California World Cup ‘fan zone’
San Jose police say Sunday incident in area that has been hosting watch parties ‘is being investigated as a homicide’ One person was killed and another seriously injured on Sunday night in a shooting at a popular entertainment spot in San Jose , California , that has been hosting a World Cup “fan zone” as well as screening matches, police said. There were no World Cup games being screened at the time of the shooting, with the only match of the day in the tournament finishing at about 2pm local time. Continue reading...
Weather tracker: north-west US hit by snow ahead of eastern heatwave
Western states experience unseasonally low temperatures but New York and Washington DC could reach 40C by the end of the week Unseasonal snow has fallen in some parts of the US, while other parts of the country brace for a heatwave this week. A strong cold front spread into the western US from the northern Pacific over the weekend, bringing an abrupt change in conditions to a region that had been experiencing high summer temperatures amid drought. Temperatures from the Canadian border to California have widely been 5-10C below the norm since Friday, and more than 10C below in some parts farther north. The pattern is expected to remain for much of the coming week. Continue reading...
Once, cyber-attacks required great skill. AI is changing that | Bruce Schneier
Modern AI systems are, in effect, a universal adviser to help people do harmful things. We’ll need to harness AI for defense, too Earlier this week, national security agencies from the Five Eyes – that’s the rich, English-language-speaking countries club – jointly released a statement warning of the increasing cyber risks of AI models: in particular, their ability to autonomously hack into systems and networks. The statement was more measured than some of the breathless headlines about it, and the advice they gave is pretty much the standard advice everyone gives – albeit with newfound urgency. Internet risks are nothing new, and cyber-attacks – both large and small – have been a significant issue since long before the current crop of generative AI models. Bruce Schneier is a security technologist who teaches at the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University and University of Toronto’s Munk School Continue reading...
Trump administration targets California coastal agency in escalation of energy production fight
US commerce department accuses state of ‘environmental terrorism’ and plans to evaluate its coastal agency The Trump administration plans to evaluate the performance of the California Coastal Commission, in the latest escalation of a dispute between the state’s Democratic leaders and the federal government over energy production. Per federal law, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) is required to conduct reviews of federally approved coastal management programs, which take into consideration “the extent to which the State of California has implemented and enforced the program approved by the [commerce] Secretary”. Continue reading...
Tiny Antarctic sea creature could be key to treating melanoma, researchers say
Underwater expedition by Florida-based team supports possible therapeutic use of bacterial toxins from sea squirts Researchers at a Florida university say bacterial toxins produced by tiny marine organisms they have studied in Antarctica could become an effective treatment for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. A team from the University of South Florida (USF) recently returned from a six-week expedition to one of the world’s remotest regions in which they collected samples of ascidians, invertebrates known as sea squirts that thrive in the icy waters. Continue reading...
EU introduces €3 customs charge on small parcels to curb cheap Chinese imports
Parcels of goods worth under €150 will no longer enjoy ‘de minimis’ exemption, exploited by platforms such as Temu and Shein Business live – latest updates The European Commission has said it hopes to prevent the “desertification” of Europe’s high streets, as it prepares to introduce a customs tax on small parcels in an attempt to curb cheap Chinese imports. Consumers have been able to buy up to €150 (£129) worth of goods, including fast fashion, cosmetics and toys, without any customs charges as part of a “de minimis” exemption, a tariff break meaning “too small to matter”. Continue reading...
First Thing: Mamdani says socialist allies offer ‘national message’ to US
New York City mayor says Democratic candidates he endorsed speak to people struggling to make ends meet. Plus the best pictures from weekend Pride events across the US Good morning. New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, said on Sunday that he and a slew of Democratic socialist allies who prevailed in recent primary elections were carrying a “national message” to struggling working Americans hungry for a new kind of politics “coast to coast”. His endorsed candidates won Democratic nominations in three races for New York congressional seats, as well as for five state legislature positions in Albany. He said that collectively they were carrying a “New Deal understanding” of Democratic politics to Congress and on to the “national stage”. It spoke, he said, to Americans feeling exhaustion at struggling to make ends meet “every single day”. Mamdani remarked: “We don’t have to nationalize that message. That is a national message – it’s a national crisis.” How did other members of the Democratic party react? Fifteen self-labelled “moderate” Democrats in the US House signed an open letter that, though it did not mention Mamdani or his endorsed allies, was clearly targeted at them. “We are capitalist, not socialist,” they said. “We are mainstream, not extreme. We are proud, not ashamed, of America.” Who is affected by the supreme court decision? Thursday’s ruling is set to affect an estimated 350,000 Haitian and 6,000 Syrian immigrants who now face detention or deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers as protections end. The US first provided temporary protected status (TPS) to Haitians after a devastating earthquake in 2010, and to Syrians after their country descended into civil war in 2012. Continue reading...
Trump officials to slash public input on fossil fuel drilling on federal lands
Plan to limit scrutiny of polluters and shift financial risks to taxpayers is attack on democracy, advocates say The Trump administration is attempting to shrink public comment periods for fossil fuel leasing on federal land while shifting the financial risks of cleanup to taxpayers and allowing for more planet-warming emissions. It’s part of a broader effort to dismantle public input processes and save polluting companies money, advocates say. “By ignoring public comment [requirements] while propping up companies,” said Alexa Dietrich, research director at the science advocacy organization Union of Concerned Scientists, “they’re really attacking democracy in a very clear way.” Continue reading...
Comcast to spin off NBCUniversal and Sky into separate media business
Entertainment arm split from mobile and broadband in move that raises questions over future of Sky News Business live – latest updates Comcast is to spin off its media operation, which includes the Hollywood film studio, TV and theme park business NBCUniversal and Sky, into a separately publicly listed company. The move comes eight years after the US group, which said the separation will take a year to complete, acquired Sky’s European operations for £31bn. Continue reading...
‘It definitely trickles down’: Muslims in Texas suffer effects of Republicans’ hate speech
Muslims say anti-Islamic rhetoric making everyday life difficult – and threats and harassment not uncommon Following a brutal Republican primary runoff in which Islamophobia took center stage , anti-Muslim hatred continues spilling into public life in Texas. Texans say that the hate speech shared by elected officials is increasingly echoed by people in their everyday interactions, including discussions about education or interactions at a store, in a park, at university and at elementary school. In one case, students at the University of Houston were praying when a man approached them and burned a Qur’an. In other cases, people have been verbally attacked for wearing traditional garments. Continue reading...
Locked up in America: new reports hit at costs of incarcerating women
Research shows that reducing sentences for women could save tax dollars with virtually no increase in violent crime Two new reports raise questions about the economic tradeoffs of incarcerating women – a prison population that has grown more than 600% in the United States since 1980. Imprisoning women costs as much as 75% more than incarcerating men, but some of those costs could be offset by halving the amount of time women spend in prison with minimal impacts to public safety, according to new reports from the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan thinktank. Continue reading...
Luigi Mangione to appear in federal court amid uncertainty over state case
Mangione, accused of killing health executive Brian Thompson, has pleaded not guilty in state and federal cases Luigi Mangione is scheduled to appear at Manhattan federal court on Monday morning in relation to the murder of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson . Mangione stands accused of the 4 December 2024 killing of Thompson on a New York City street. He faces murder and weapons charges in his state-level case, and stalking counts in the federal proceedings. Continue reading...
Donald Trump hijacked America’s 250 and turned it into a ‘theatre of the absurd’
Trump, laying siege to freedoms and truth itself, is twisting America’s milestone birthday into a joyless occasion Americans: how do you feel about the country’s future after 250 years of independence? Tell us: were you born on 4 July? This is the room where it happened. The assembly room at Independence Hall in Philadelphia where, 250 years ago this week, a group of sweating, treasonous men broke from the most powerful empire since ancient Rome. Amid a summer of trial and error, delegates including John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson ratified a flawed but aspirational document to declare their independence from the British crown. The date was 4 July 1776 – but it took nearly a month for all 56 delegates of the Second Continental Congress to formally sign on. “ I don’t blame them,” Maggie Burkett, a park ranger, told a group of about 40 tourists as they gazed at green baize tables adorned with books, letters, pipes and candles one recent afternoon. “These words on this page are treason, just as much as burning the king’s coats of arms was. By signing this document, you are literally risking your life. The 56 men who signed this document were brave. In my opinion, they were heroes. ” Continue reading...
Cambridgeshire police face questions over decision to hand sexual assault case to US military
Jacob Wulfson, who strangled woman he met online, was allowed to be tried at airbase court martial instead of facing UK justice Bizarre questions and an all-male ‘jury’: woman strangled by US pilot in Britain tells of airbase trial Explainer: how the US bypasses British courts A police force in England is facing mounting questions over its decision to allow the US military to prosecute the case of a woman who was strangled by an American fighter pilot in his apartment in Cambridge city centre. Cambridgeshire police has acknowledged that in the days after the assault in 2023, it allowed the US military to take “investigative primacy” in the case, despite the fact the crime took place within the force’s territory and when the pilot was off duty. Continue reading...
Supreme court nears the end of its term with cases about Donald Trump’s power to be decided – US politics live
Court expected to hand down decisions on several outstanding cases, wrapping up term that has focussed on Trump’s expansive claims of presidential power Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. The supreme court is expected to hand down decisions later today on several outstanding cases, before wrapping up a term that has focused on Donald Trump’s expansive claims of presidential power. Joe Biden has said Donald Trump has diminished America’s standing in the world “more than any president in history”. The former president delivered remarks highly critical of his successor, while giving the keynote address at a gala in Hanover, Maryland, hosted by the state’s Democratic party, which is hoping to help wrest control of Congress away from Trump and his Republican allies during November’s midterm elections. A new round of escalating strikes between Iran and the US has continued, further undermining the fragile interim peace agreement between the two countries, and prompting Trump to threaten violence that would ensure Iran “will no longer exist”. On Sunday, Tehran launched drone and missile attacks against Bahrain and Kuwait after new US strikes on sites in southern Iran, and threatened a “complete halt” to negotiations to end the war. Migrants in the US on temporary protected status should seek permanent residence or leave, Markwayne Mullin, the Homeland Security secretary, said in the wake of last week’s supreme court decision that stripped humanitarian protections from hundreds of thousands of immigrants. An opaque White House office staffed largely by veterans of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) has quietly rebuilt some of the federal government’s most sensitive websites – for passport applications, voter registration, prescription-drug pricing and children’s savings – in ways critics say appear to violate federal law. Continue reading...
UK state threats bill could pull British journalists into terror prosecutions – experts
Two independent reviewers of terrorism legislation call for safeguards for NGOs and journalists before bill becomes law this week British foreign correspondents could be at risk of prosecution if they use sources within state-backed groups in countries such as Iran under national security legislation being rushed through parliament this week. David Anderson, the UK’s former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, has warned that unless the bill is amended it could accidentally pull journalists working in danger-zone countries into prosecutions for terrorism. Continue reading...
Five Americans die every hour from toxic vehicle emissions, study finds
Research suggests 41,800 premature US deaths in 2024 were attributable to road pollution Roughly five Americans die every hour due to exposure to toxic road vehicle pollution , a new study has found. It’s the latest warning showing fossil-fueled transit is a major driver of mortality. Continue reading...
Done Quixote? Film archivists on quest to finish Orson Welles passion project
Team hope 30 of hours of footage held by three countries will be enough to bring to life film-maker’s vision More than 70 years after he shot the first few frames, Orson Welles’s ambitious project to put Don Quixote on the big screen may finally be completed thanks to a consortium of European film archivists. Oja Kodar, the American film-maker’s partner and collaborator, has given her blessing to the project led by archives in France, Spain and Italy, along with the Munich film museum, to produce a coherent film out of 30 hours of footage scattered among them. Continue reading...
The US supreme court just put the lives of 1.3 million immigrants in danger| Heba Gowayed
The court’s TPS decision is devastating for those whose countries of origin are deemed unsafe. Congress must act On Thursday, the US supreme court authorized the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS), facilitating the largest single assault on immigrants in contemporary United States history. While the case concerned the 350,000 Haitian and 6,000 Syrian holders of this status, the decision could expose more than 1.3 million people to potential deportation to countries that the United States has recognized as unsafe. Heba Gowayed is an associate professor of sociology at Cuny Hunter College and Cuny Graduate Center and author of the book Refuge: How the State Shapes Human Potential Continue reading...
Ex-Alaska mayor and ‘parent of the year’ charged with sexual abuse of minors
Ulric Ulroan charged on 47 criminal counts amid allegations he sexually assaulted teenage girls from 2009-2025 The former mayor of a city in Alaska – who has also coached high school girls basketball and won a parent of the year award – has been criminally charged on allegations that he sexually assaulted several teenage girls over a yearslong period, according to authorities in that state. Ulric Ulroan, 48, first drew scrutiny from Alaska’s bureau of investigation in January, when the agency received a tip that he had purportedly inflicted sexual abuse on a 17-year-old girl in the village of Chevak between 2009 and 2010. The tip prompted an investigation which brought forth more reports of Ulroan having “sexually assaulted and/or abused various teenage girls” between 2009 and 2025 in Chevak as well as the Alaska communities of Anchorage, Mountain Village and Nome, officials said in a news release published on Friday. Continue reading...
Trump renaming fiasco fuels jokes as Maher takes Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain prize
Punchlines on president’s thwarted bid to have building named after him come thick and fast at Washington DC gala Outside the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts , a giant tarpaulin remained in place to conceal Donald Trump’s humiliation. Guests entering the national arts complex on Sunday night could not see the section of its marble facade where Trump’s name was recently erased to comply with a court order. Continue reading...
Venezuela in ‘critical hours’ to find earthquake survivors as more search and rescue teams arrive – latest updates
At least 1,450 are known to have died but the number is expected to rise The president of Venezuela’s National Assembly has warned time is running out to rescue survivors trapped under the rubble. The death toll from the earthquakes has risen to at least 1,450 people, with 3,150 injured and 12,721 others displaced, Jorge Rodríguez said yesterday in a televised address. Continue reading...
Keir Starmer's attempts to placate big tech were a disaster. Andy Burnham must take a stand | Beeban Kidron
Labour came to power promising to tackle Silicon Valley. But from workers’ rights to online privacy it has failed at almost every turn During a recent conversation in the House of Lords, a former senior US government official told me that “democracy was broken”. When I asked why, they pointed to research that showed that governments – regardless of party – represent the interests of the wealthy and not the people who vote for them. Nowhere is this more visible than with the tech lobby, which has effectively thwarted all attempts to hold the sector to account, while at the same time embedding its services into the heart of the state and our personal lives. Beeban Kidron is a crossbench peer and the author of How Big Tech Took Control and How to Fight Back Continue reading...