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Politics
Policy, power, and the news of the day.
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Ukrainian diver arrested in Croatia over Nord Stream pipeline bombings
Berlin to seek suspect’s extradition for 2022 explosions that damaged gas pipelines to Russia A Ukrainian man has been arrested in Croatia as part of an investigation into the 2022 bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Germany and Russia. Undersea explosions in September 2022, just months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, damaged three of the four pipelines built to carry Russian fossil gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea. Continue reading...
Calls for urgent law change as UK’s largest water reuse system cannot be switched on
Recycling system in Cambridgeshire that could save thousands of litres a day is deemed not in line with rules The largest water reuse system in the UK, which could save thousands of litres of water a day for people living in one of the driest regions of the country, is not allowed to be switched on because of drinking water regulations. As water supplies in England reach critical levels, the Guardian can reveal that a model water recycling system within an urban housing development in Cambridgeshire has not been switched on since it was made ready in 2021. Continue reading...
Firefighters sound alarm as US faces critical staffing shortage: ‘We don’t have enough people’
Firefighters describe being pushed to limit by a brutal wildfire season, with key leadership roles going unfilled The US has faced a critical shortage of firefighters at the US Forest Service (USFS) this summer as thousands of fires erupted across the country. Despite officials’ claims that the firefighting workforce was stronger than ever, the agency has failed to keep pace with escalating conditions and the catastrophic fires fueled by them, according to nine firefighters who spoke to the Guardian anonymously, because they are barred from disclosing the information to the public. Continue reading...
The fight to protect a trans landmark in California from ICE’s biggest contractor
Compton’s Cafe is one of the earliest examples of LGBTQ+ resistance. Today, a prison company occupies the site One of the earliest documented examples of LGBTQ+ resistance against police happened on a hot summer night 60 years ago this month. It started not with the throwing of a brick, as it did in New York City’s 1969 Stonewall riots, but with the throwing of a coffee cup inside Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco. When police attempted to raid Compton’s – a hub for the drag performers, trans people and sex workers in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood – hundreds of people in the community fought back. A drag queen threw a coffee mug at a police officer; others threw dishes and chairs outside. It was the culmination of years of police harassment, arrests and violence against the community and the beginning of the city’s trans movement. Continue reading...
Florida governor suspends former close ally over child sexual abuse charges
Michael Caruso, once praised by Ron DeSantis, removed from Palm Beach county civic official roles after arrest Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has suspended a former close ally and senior civic official who was arrested on felony child sexual abuse charges. Michael Caruso, who was removed as clerk of court and comptroller for Palm Beach county on Tuesday, was a vocal supporter of a law signed by DeSantis in 2023 that allowed the death penalty for anybody convicted of the sexual battery of a child under 12. Continue reading...
Adviser to far-right Latin American leaders arrested for allegedly plotting to kill girlfriend
Fernando Cerimedo, 42, arrested on suspicion of ordering shooting of Bolivian lawyer Nadia Beller A senior adviser to many of Latin America’s new wave of far-right leaders has been arrested for allegedly masterminding the attempted murder of his girlfriend. The businessman and political consultant Fernando Cerimedo, 42, had been working as an adviser to the Bolivian president, Rodrigo Paz Pereira, and was one of the main strategists behind Javier Milei’s campaign in Argentina’s 2023 presidential election. Continue reading...
Lewes derailment: images show track defect before incident on hottest day
Network Rail and Southern owner GTR apologise after investigators reveal picture of possible heat-buckled track Rail operators have apologised after a report into last Thursday’s train derailment in East Sussex found a “track geometry irregularity” on the approach to the site where the train derailed on the hottest day of the year so far. An interim report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) said CCTV images showed the fault existed before the incident occurred near Lewes, injuring 30 people. Continue reading...
More than 20 tons of squid spilled on to Rhode Island highway during traffic accident
Sunday incident created ‘significant traffic disruptions’ and a foul odor as crews worked to clear cephalopod remains More than 20 tons of squid spilled on to a Rhode Island highway during a traffic accident, creating hours of delays for motorists and a foul stench as crews worked in baking sunshine to scrape up the remains of the fast-decaying cephalopods. The incident occurred Sunday morning in Narragansett when the driver of a tractor-trailer transporting the squid failed to make a turn, and the vehicle fell on to its side, the town’s police department said in a statement, reported by ABC News . Continue reading...
Hawaii crews work to restore power to thousands after Lala outages
Storm also caused destructive flooding and damage to homes and infrastructure with one woman dead Tropical storm Lala wreaks ‘devastation’ to some areas of Hawaii’s Big Island Crews in Hawaii are working to restore power to thousands of residents after the outer bands of Hurricane Lala battered the islands over the weekend, causing destructive flooding and killing one person. On the hard-hit Big Island , crews were working to clear and restore roads, but some communities on the southern end of the island remained isolated as they were cut off from communication. Continue reading...
Trump is full speed ahead in making money off being the US president | Margaret Sullivan
Some restraint on Trump’s excesses might be accomplished if November’s midterm elections give Democrats more power Donald Trump is essentially unrestrained when it comes to enriching himself during his second term, with no sign of stopping. If anything, he’s ramping things up. The numbers so far are astonishing. He amassed $2.2bn in 2025 revenues, the Guardian and other news outlets have reported . Continue reading...
First Thing: Trump in Canada tariff backdown after ‘substantial progress’ made on trade deal
US president cancelled planned tariff imposition just hours before it was to come into force. Plus, why are people so obsessed with television vampires? Good morning. Donald Trump has paused his threatened punitive tariff on Canada just hours before it was due to come into effect. After Trump’s announcement, the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, said “substantial progress” had been made towards a trade deal, but more work was needed. Tuesday’s 11th-hour backdown comes after a contentious year for the two countries, with the longstanding alliance strained by tit-for-tat tariffs and online broadsides in which Trump has mused about wanting to turn Canada into a US state. How much trade do the two countries do? Historically, Canada and the US have been strong trading partners. In 2024, trade between the countries was estimated to be roughly $909bn, according to the office of the US trade representative. What else happened in Florida’s elections? Byron Donalds, a congressman backed by Trump, won the Republican nomination for governor in the race to succeed Ron DeSantis. Donalds trounced three reasonably prominent Republican rivals, including Jay Collins, DeSantis’s handpicked lieutenant governor. If he wins the November election, as he is expected to do in the conservative stronghold, Donalds would become the first Black governor in any southern US state. Continue reading...
Former Fauci adviser pleads guilty to conspiracy to conceal Covid-19 records
David Morens confessed to concealing government documents linked to grant research funding A former adviser to infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiring to evade public records laws and conceal government documents related to grant research funding and the Covid-19 pandemic . David Morens, who had worked under Fauci as a senior official at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during the pandemic, entered his plea , to a conspiracy charge during a hearing in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland. Continue reading...
Chinese carmaker Chery to set up UK research centre
Manufacturer, which makes Jaecoo and Omoda brands, will open facility in Bedfordshire in autumn The Chinese carmaker behind the irreverently nicknamed “Temu Range Rover” is plotting further UK expansion with a major research and development centre in England. Chery, which makes the Jaecoo and Omoda car brands, said the launch of a new R&D site was “the next step in our long-term plan” for Britain as it also moves towards manufacturing its cars in the UK. Continue reading...
Andy Burnham warns of dangers of open-water swimming after ‘terrible family tragedy’ in Sussex
A mother, father and their teenage daughter died after getting into difficulty in water off Shoreham-by-Sea, and a younger girl remains in hospital Andy Burnham has warned of the dangers of open-water swimming as he called the deaths of a mother, father and their teenage daughter who got into difficulty in water off Sussex “a terrible family tragedy”. The prime minister expressed his sympathies to their loved ones as a young girl from the same family remained in a critical condition in hospital. Continue reading...
ICC decries latest US sanctions as ‘flagrant attack’ on court’s independence
Trump administration put sanctions on the international criminal court’s president and a senior trial lawyer The international criminal court on Wednesday condemned the latest US sanctions targeting senior ICC staff, including its president, as a “flagrant attack” on the global tribunal’s independence and vowed to continue seeking justice for atrocities around the world. The state department announced Tuesday that it had hit ICC president Tomoko Akane, a Japanese national, and ICC senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye, who is from Senegal, with sanctions that freeze any assets they have in US jurisdictions or come into contact with the US financial system. Continue reading...
Forecast energy price cap rise in Britain could push UK fuel bills up 4% this winter
Expected quarterly rise highest in three years and likely to wipe out Burnham’s VAT cut on electricity bills Household energy bills across Great Britain are expected to climb to a three-year high this winter as the impact of the Middle East war wipes out Andy Burnham’s tax cut on electricity bills. The government’s cap on energy prices is on track to rise by 4% from this October to the equivalent of £1,729 a year through the last three months of 2026, which could hit struggling households especially hard this winter, according to analysis by the energy consultancy Cornwall Insight. Continue reading...
Republican senator Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola advance in Alaska Senate primary
Result tees up marquee race in US midterm elections, which could decide if Republicans or Democrats control Senate Incumbent Dan S Sullivan, the US senator, advanced in Alaska ’s nonpartisan primary race for his seat on Tuesday alongside Mary Peltola, a former Democratic congresswoman. With the top four candidates moving forward from Alaska’s open primaries to the general election, the Associated Press reported that Sullivan and Peltola, had qualified for the November’s general election . Continue reading...
France’s assisted dying law comes into effect
Law establishes right to assisted dying for patients with conditions causing unbearable pain that are assessed to be incurable Legislation granting incurably ill adults the right to assisted dying has been formally adopted in France after the text was approved by the country’s highest constitutional authority and published in the official journal. The law, known as a law on “end of life” or “aid in dying” rather than “assisted dying” or “euthanasia”, means France joins the small group of countries including the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada to have legalised the practice. Continue reading...
Dog food recalled after reports of pets losing their sight
Move by Years, which provides personalised meals in subscription-based service, follows recipe change A dog food brand has recalled all of its fresh meals after reports that a recipe change may have caused some animals to develop an eye condition that, if left untreated, can lead to sight loss. The brand Years said owners should stop feeding its fresh meals to their dogs “immediately” and also told them not to feed the meals to any other animal, or to donate or sell them. Continue reading...
Medical researcher who touted Covid ‘cure’ and was hailed by Dr Oz under fire over ethics
New findings further call into question scientific judgment of current health leaders in the Trump administration A French researcher whose work was praised by Donald Trump and Dr Mehmet Oz during the Covid-19 pandemic published hundreds of papers with “substantial” ethical and legal concerns, according to a new analysis. An international team of scientists found concerns in 853 articles published by the Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée Infection, or the IHU, hundreds more than previously flagged by past investigations into work at the large research hospital. Of those, institute founder Didier Raoult was listed as co-author on 758 of them, according to one of the researchers behind the new analysis. Continue reading...
By disparaging 2020 protests as ‘Woke 1’, liberals are following the rightwing’s lead
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s co-opting of conservative language to discuss a movement against state-sanctioned killings of Black people is damning August has brought us a referendum on “Woke 1” – a term that reductively brands 2020’s social justice movement – as prominent liberal voices reflect on that time period with disappointing hindsight. During a recent appearance on ABC’s This Week, when asked about 2020-era demands to abolish prisons and police, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the US congresswoman from New York, abandoned her previous support of the “defund the police” movement, and instead joked: “Woke 1 was crazyyyyy.” Ocasio-Cortez, a democratic socialist, implied that the still-resounding calls for municipalities to reduce police budgets and to divert aid to poor communities were worth advocating for during the 2020 uprising, but are now “crazyyyyy”. In 2020, she noted that “a lot of people cannot fathom what an abolitionist America looks like. Tell them it looks like a suburb. Affluent white communities already live in a world where they choose to fund youth, health, housing more than they fund police.” But she has since backtracked on that idea. Continue reading...
Grand slams unite to establish player council in attempt to diffuse prize money row
Move could be confirmed along with $100m US Open pot Slams have been in dispute with players for 18 months The grand slam tennis tournaments have agreed to establish a formal Player Advisory Council in a joint move aimed at diffusing the ongoing row over prize money. The Guardian has learned that an agreement on the joint venture has been reached and could be confirmed on Wednesday as part of US Tennis Association’s announcement of this year’s US Open prize money, which sources involved expect to top $100m (£74m) for the first time. Continue reading...
Is Bulgarian prime minister Rumen Radev sizing up the EU’s Orbán-shaped hole?
Rightwing populist’s inconsistent positions on Europe and Russia suggest he is testing how far he can push partners and electorate One evening nine years ago in the Bulgarian town of Balgari, a Brazilian tourist approached the casually dressed, middle-aged man surrounded by bodyguards, bystanders and photographers. “ Why are you important? ” she asked. “I’m not so important,” he replied. She repeated the question and he admitted: “I’m the president.” Now, in 2026, the rightwing populist Rumen Radev is no longer the president, but the prime minister – the more powerful of the two positions – after his Progressive Bulgaria party secured an overwhelming majority in April’s election. While many in Europe breathed a sigh of relief that month at the demise of Viktor Orbán in Hungary, others wondered if Radev would become the EU’s next disruptor-in-chief. Continue reading...
Revealed: FCC chair Brendan Carr’s close ties to White House and rightwing media
Internal documents obtained by Guardian show White House meetings, scheduled calls with top Trump officials and communications with Fox News producers Continue reading...