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Politics
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EU accused of dragging its feet over ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements
Foreign ministers will discuss options on Monday but decision on imports is not expected for months The EU has been accused of dragging its feet over upholding international law, on the eve of a long-awaited debate about banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements. EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday will discuss a possible ban on imports from the settlements, against an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza , where a UN inquiry found Israel to be committing a genocide , and surging state-backed violence in the occupied West Bank , which has killed at least 235 children . Continue reading...
A revolution in ruins: fury amid the rubble of a housing project in quake-hit Venezuela
Discontent with Trump-backed government mounts as Chávez heirs struggle to respond to disaster for which they seem ill-prepared Even before two powerful earthquakes reduced the OPPE 25 government housing project to an anarchy of shattered concrete and broken lives, the foundations of Hugo Chávez’s populist “Bolivarian” revolution were shaking in what was once a hotbed of support. Gabriel González remembers his elation when, in 2013, he received the keys to his freshly completed apartment in one of the 12-floor tower blocks El Comandante had ordered to be built in an affluent corner of the resort town of Caraballeda. Continue reading...
US allies apprehensive after capricious Trump changes tune at Nato summit
Sudden shift may be linked to affinity for Erdoğan but what might be consequences of erratic behavior towards alliance? Donald Trump’s relationship with Washington’s Nato allies is nobody’s idea of a happy marriage. But the US president’s volatile performance at the western military alliance’s annual summit in Ankara this week seemed extreme, even by Trumpian standards. As commentators sought toexplain what happened, their usually capacious stock of Trump-fitting cliches was at risk of exhaustion. Continue reading...
Toronto shooting: two dead and three injured as police search for active shooter
Police in the city in Canada urge public to stay away from Salsa on St Clair festival area Police in Toronto were searching for an active shooter on Saturday night after finding five people with gunshot wounds, two of whom were pronounced dead. Officers were called to the Salsa on St Clair festival, an area at St Clair Avenue West near Arlington Avenue that is lined with shops and restaurants, at 8.12pm over reports of a shooting with multiple injuries. Continue reading...
Man charged with murder after remains believed to be missing woman found in Queensland bushland
Toowoomba woman Jana Armstrong was last seen several days ago Police have charged a man with murder after remains believed to be a woman missing for several days were found in bushland. As of Sunday morning, the remains were yet to be formally identified but Queensland police investigators believe they are those of Jana Armstrong. Continue reading...
Wallabies’ pop-gun revival under Joe Schmidt blown apart as France unload heavy artillery | Daniel Gallan
Plucky defeats decorated with patches of excellence will not cut it for Australia with a home World Cup now looming large The camera found Joe Schmidt shortly after France had completed a 22-point swing. Australia’s coach had seen a 21-12 half-time lead obliterated in 16 brutal minutes. Schmidt, one of rugby’s sharpest minds, looked short of answers. The trouble was that the questions confronting him had obvious answers but almost impossible solutions. Why had Australia’s discipline deteriorated? Because they were under pressure. Why had their tackle intensity and ruck speed fallen away? Because France had introduced fresh power from the bench. Why had the Wallabies gone from a nine-point half-time lead to a 13-point deficit in barely a quarter of an hour? Because one team had more large, skilful, Test-quality rugby players than the other. Continue reading...
US and Iran exchange strikes as Tehran again says strait of Hormuz is closed
Tehran says vessel using unapproved route in strait was struck, drawing strikes from US forces to ‘degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners’ Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Sunday it had closed the strait of Hormuz after a vessel travelled on an unapproved route and was struck, warning that any retaliation over the incident would be met with a “severe response”. “A vessel that had jeopardised maritime security by switching off its systems was struck and brought to a halt,” the navy of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement, without giving any details about the ship. Continue reading...
Guggenheim museum in New York City tests positive for legionnaires’ disease
Famed art museum, one of 31 buildings to test positive, has already completed remediation, health department says New York City’s famed Solomon R Guggenheim Museum was among a number of Manhattan buildings that recently tested positive for the bacteria that causes legionnaires’ disease. The city health department on Friday released a list of 31 buildings on the Upper East Side that have been ordered to clean and disinfect their cooling towers as the city deals with the latest outbreak of the disease , which is a serious form of pneumonia. Continue reading...
Australia news live: man charged with murder after discovery of remains believed to be missing Queensland woman
Jana Armstrong was reported missing from Newtown after she was last seen on 7 July. Follow the day’s news live Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has failed to guarantee the party will cost all of its policies ahead of the election after the Coalition claimed the rightwing party’s agenda would destroy the budget and drive up interest rates. The opposition leader, Angus Taylor , last week used a major speech to argue Hanson’s platform would cost more than $1tn over a decade, force the Reserve Bank to lift rates and even risk a sovereign debt crisis. We will do it to the best of our ability. I’m not going to give a sort of guarantee like that, Andrew, because that means I have the resources to do it. And if I get the promise that we’re going to have the resources to do it, it certainly makes it a lot easier. We’ll have to. Continue reading...
Man dies after falling from Eleventh Night bonfire in east Belfast
Warren Lyttle, who was in his 40s, died from his injuries after incident on the Braniel estate on Friday A man in his 40s has died after falling from an Eleventh Night bonfire in Belfast, police said. The incident occurred in the Braniel estate in the east of the city on Friday night. Continue reading...
AI companies want to water down Australia’s copyright laws. Artists are outraged, Labor is split
Anthony Albanese will deliver a landmark speech on AI this week as MPs are torn between attracting datacentre investment and protecting the rights of creatives Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast When Anna Funder stood before a pack of journalists at Parliament House earlier this month, she presented herself not just as a writer but also a “victim of crime”. The Stasiland author was using the analogy to illustrate how technology companies have flagrantly “hoovered up” her literary works for their own profit. Continue reading...
One Nation is capitalising on Australians’ economic pessimism like never before. Is a ‘stagflation impulse’ to blame?
By tying housing costs to immigration, Pauline Hanson promises a simple solution to a multilayered problem Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast In the three decades since Pauline Hanson entered federal politics, Australia has experienced numerous bouts of voter frustration with the mainstream parties. But it is only lately that the negative sentiment towards the majors has propelled One Nation to unprecedented polling numbers and delivered Hanson higher net approval ratings than the prime minister and opposition leader. Continue reading...
Heatwave conditions in England and Wales to continue into next week, says Met Office
Temperatures will stay above 30C on Sunday, with warnings of wildfires and heat health alerts in some areas The scorching heatwave conditions experienced by much of England and Wales will last until at least next week, the Met Office has said. Temperatures in parts of England and Wales will continue to exceed 30C on Sunday and into next week, the forecaster said. Continue reading...
Trump rushed Kennedy Center renovations for Fifa peace prize ceremony, whistleblowers say
Letter from Democratic senator outlines more no-bid contracts and second botched reflecting pool redo The US senator Sheldon Whitehouse has sent a letter to the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts detailing allegations from whistleblowers that some renovations were “rushed” and federal contracting laws “were ignored” to get the center ready for events, including for Donald Trump to receive the Fifa “peace prize” during the World Cup draw he hosted there in December. “I have received allegations that the Kennedy Center has conducted rushed renovation and maintenance work with disregard to its commitments to Congress and the federal contracting standards the Center has long applied to its own procurements,” the Rhode Island Democrat wrote in the letter dated Thursday. Continue reading...
US congressman says he was detained by armed Israeli settlers in occupied West Bank
Ro Khanna said settlers were armed with US-made weapons and Israel Defense Forces refused to intervene The US congressman Ro Khanna says armed Israeli settlers detained him during a visit to the Israel -occupied West Bank recently, describing the experience as a first-hand view of the realities faced by Palestinians living under occupation. In an interview with Reuters on Thursday from a Palestinian village, the progressive US House Democrat from California said his detention happened the previous day while his delegation visited an area of the southern West Bank that has experienced repeated attacks by Israeli settlers. Continue reading...
In-form Haeran Ryu shoots LPGA major-record 60 to lead Evian Championship
Historic 11-under 60 sets LPGA major mark South Korean opens three-shot final-round lead Ryu chasing second major in three weeks Haeran Ryu set the scoring record for LPGA majors on Saturday with an 11-under 60, giving the South Korean player a three-shot lead in the Evian Championship as she goes for a second straight major. Two weeks after winning her first major at the Women’s PGA Championship, Ryu birdied four of her last five holes at Evian Golf Resort. She had a chance at tying the LPGA scoring record of 59 but settled for a lengthy two-putt birdie putt on the closing hole. Continue reading...
Family pleads for answers in death of young Black man in Mississippi
Body of Nolan Wells, 18, found after he traveled to Horn Island over Fourth of July weekend with three white friends A mother on Friday pleaded for anyone to come forward with information about what happened to her son, Nolan Wells , a young Black man whose body was found on an island off the coast of Mississippi after he traveled there over the Fourth of July weekend with three white friends. “We just want to know what happened and why our baby didn’t come home,” Christine Wonsley, choking back tears, said at a news conference about her son. Continue reading...
Elon Musk’s family foundation took Tommy Robinson to Russia, says Musk’s father
Errol Musk says far-right activist is ‘a fine young man’ and held meetings with Russian business figures Elon Musk’s family foundation took Tommy Robinson to Russia, according to the billionaire X owner’s father, who was with the British far-right activist in Moscow as he encouraged anti-migration protests in Britain. Robinson – whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – appeared last month in Moscow , from where he issued calls for supporters to take to the streets after a knife attack in Belfast. He shared video of himself in a luxury Moscow hotel with the older Musk, whose son has been a vocal supporter of Robinson. Continue reading...
Hunter Biden wins $1.7m in suit over Iran bribery claim by ex-CEO of Overstock.com
Biden sued Patrick Byrne for defamation over claim that he sought bribe to lobby his father to free $8bn in Iran assets A federal judge on Friday awarded Hunter Biden $1.7m in punitive damages in a defamation lawsuit he filed against former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne. Biden sued Byrne – a Donald Trump ally who denied the results of the 2020 election and funded efforts to overturn them – in 2023, accusing Byrne of lying in an interview that Biden had previously sought a bribe from Iran’s government in the fall of 2021. Continue reading...
Trump administration subpoenas New York Times journalists over new Air Force One reporting
Outlet said journalists subpoenaed to testify before grand jury after story detailed security concerns with Qatar-gifted plane The Trump administration has issued subpoenas to several New York Times journalists after the newspaper reported on security concerns with the president’s new plane, according to the outlet . The Times said its journalists were subpoenaed on Friday by the US justice department to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan five days later, marking the latest effort by the Trump administration to compel testimony from journalists under the threat of penalty. Agents delivered some of the subpoenas to the Times reporters at their homes, the paper added. Continue reading...
‘A slap in the face’: small farmers say Trump is turning his back on them
The president wooed farmers in his campaign, but now the USDA is yanking funding, citing ‘DEI’ and wasteful spending It’s just an eighth of an acre, but for Lawrencia Rogers, the plot where she grows broccolini, lettuce and beans on land once tilled by poorhouse residents in eastern Iowa is the closest she has come to living her dream. Iowa is one of the most agriculturally productive states in the country, but getting into farming is not easy, particularly for people like Rogers who have no family connections to the business. It’s nonetheless been a lifelong passion for the 33-year-old Iowan: at age six, she planted a rosebush that’s still alive today, and managed to grow cantaloupe on a strip of dirt and chain-link fence next to the driveway of her grandmother’s house. Continue reading...
Is the US trying to make scientists’ work so difficult that they simply give up? | Daniel Malinsky
New Trump administration rules would undermine longstanding research practices. It’s death by a thousand cuts A politician who aims to gradually privatize and ultimately destroy an institution funded by tax dollars – say, a public school system or public transportation network – may choose to do so by strategically disinvesting resources from that institution until it becomes barely functional, leading users to look elsewhere to meet their needs. Eventually, the user-base of the public system gets so low or frustrated that it seems reasonable to scrap the thing entirely, or re-direct public funds to private companies as contractors to provide the needed “service”. We’ve seen this strategy play out many times in states and city councils across America. It appears that the endgame of the Trump administration’s attacks on science and the research funding ecosystem is similar: grant freezes and administrative disarray at federal funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), new layers of project review by political appointees hunting for forbidden keywords such as “disparity” and “marginalized”, and proposed new restrictions to make international collaboration difficult or impossible all point towards a world where it’s just too onerous to do federally-funded scientific research. Is the goal to make scientists simply give up on the endeavor? Daniel Malinsky is an assistant professor of biostatistics in the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University Continue reading...
Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro reportedly involved in physical altercation at NBA Summer League
Adebayo and Herro involved in altercation Young unfazed by scrutiny over Wizards deal NBPA vows fight against second apron Former Miami Heat teammates Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro had a brief verbal and physical altercation at a practice facility for the NBA’s Summer League in Las Vegas on Friday, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Adebayo struck Herro at least once during the encounter, said the person, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because neither player nor their teams revealed any details publicly. Continue reading...
Ann Widdecombe may have been killed 24 hours before her body was found
Devon police working on assumption the former politician was attacked on Wednesday afternoon Ann Widdecombe: obituary Ann Widdecombe may have been dead at her home for 24 hours before her body was discovered, police believe. In an update on Saturday afternoon, officers said they were working on the assumption that the 78-year-old former politician was attacked at about 12.30pm on Wednesday. Continue reading...