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Politics
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Harvard to pay $53m over theft and sale of human remains from medical school
Cedric Lodge, 58, sentenced in December to eight years in prison for stealing and selling body parts in national scheme Harvard University has agreed to pay a $53m settlement to resolve civil lawsuits stemming from the illegal theft and sale of human remains that had been donated to its medical school for scientific research. A former Harvard medical school morgue manager, Cedric Lodge, 58, was sentenced in December last year to eight years in prison after he had pleaded guilty in May to stealing and selling human body parts in a nationwide scheme. Prosecutors said this had involved the theft and sale of organs, skin, brains and dissected heads from cadavers donated to Harvard from 2018 through at least March 2020. Continue reading...
Second major fire at south London recycling centre in under three months
Fifteen fire engines tackling blaze at Landmann Way in Deptford involving 50 tonnes of household waste Fifteen fire engines and about 100 firefighters are tackling a waste fire in south-east London. London fire brigade said the blaze on Landmann Way in Deptford involves about 50 tonnes of household waste stored at a recycling facility. Continue reading...
Burnham launches ‘national drive’ to get rough sleepers off streets by Christmas
Prime minister urges local leaders to act as homelessness campaigners welcome move but say more needs to be done I won’t abandon anyone to sleep rough on our streets. That’s my £442m promise Andy Burnham has urged local leaders to offer all rough sleepers in England a route off the streets by Christmas, as he pledges another £100m to end street homelessness. Arguing in the Guardian that rough sleeping has become so common it now “feels like part of the scenery”, Burnham promised he would mount a Covid-style campaign to get everyone off the streets this winter. Continue reading...
I won’t abandon anyone to sleep rough on our streets. That’s my £442m promise | Andy Burnham
Today we begin our drive to get everyone in for Christmas. And it will be for local communities up and down the land to decide how best to do it Burnham launches ‘national drive’ to get rough sleepers off streets by Christmas I’ve always thought you can tell something about a country by what it learns to walk past. And, somewhere along the way, we’ve got used to seeing people sleeping rough on our streets. We see people bedded down in doorways and sat outside stations, carrying their lives in rucksacks and with sleeping bags on their backs. And I think most people have the same reaction: this isn’t right; it shouldn’t be happening here. But we’ve lived with it for so long that something that used to shock us now feels like part of the scenery. Andy Burnham is prime minister of the United Kingdom Continue reading...
Three dead after family get into difficulty in water off Shoreham-by-Sea
A man, woman and teenage girl have died, while a younger girl is in a critical condition, say Sussex police A couple and their teenage daughter have died after getting into difficulty in the sea off the West Sussex coast, police said on Tuesday. A man, a woman and a teenage girl died after the incident in Shoreham-by-Sea, the chief superintendent of Sussex police, James Collis, said. Continue reading...
Australia politcs live: NDIS reforms to pass parliament today after 63 amendments get Coalition on side
Bill passed Senate on Wednesday evening and is due back in lower house today. Follow today’s news live Follow our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Krishani Dhanji with the main action. The government’s controversial NDIS bill will pass the lower house today after it went through the Senate last night. The health minister, Mark Butler , said 63 government amendments across both houses were introduced to win the Coalition’s support for the government’s changes, aimed at reining in spending. Continue reading...
ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard dies aged 77
Tributes paid to ‘great friend and collaborator’ who played with band for 56 years and died in hospice care in Texas The ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard has died at the age of 77. A spokesperson for the band confirmed to the Guardian that Beard died on 17 August in hospice care at his ranch in Richmond, Texas. His family were by his side. Continue reading...
Pentagon threatens to cut federal funding to 30 universities over foreign academic partnerships
Harvard, Yale, Stanford and others face directive to review and cut alliances Pentagon deems national security risk Thirty US universities could lose federal funding unless they review and cut foreign academic partnerships the Pentagon considers a national security risk within the next two weeks, under a Pentagon directive aimed largely at ties to Chinese institutions. Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown and Cornell are among the institutions ordered to conduct and report the reviews – and end partnerships deemed problematic – by 31 August, according to a US official who provided the full list to the Guardian. Continue reading...
US woman sentenced to six years in prison over plot to kill treasury secretary
Riley English said she was in the grips of a mental health crisis and abusing drugs, and that she planned to kill Scott Bessent A Massachusetts woman who told police that she brought homemade firebombs to the US Capitol to kill Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, was sentenced on Tuesday to just over six years in prison. Riley English, a 26-year-old transgender woman, said she was in the grips of a mental health crisis and abusing drugs when she drove to Washington in January 2025 and told Capitol police that she was there to kill Bessent on the day of his Senate confirmation. Continue reading...
Man accused of attacking duo at New York synagogue charged with federal hate crimes
Larry Montes, already facing state charges, allegedly attacked 63-year-old woman and security guard on Friday The man accused of attacking a woman and security guard at a New York City synagogue during Shabbat services Friday has been charged with hate crimes in Manhattan federal court, prosecutors said. Larry Montes, who is already facing state-level hate crime charges, allegedly struck a 63-year-old woman as security was trying to boot him from Central Synagogue. He allegedly spat at, and head-butted, a security team member and damaged synagogue property, authorities said. Continue reading...
Minnesota sues Texas to force extradition of ICE agent accused of lying about shooting
Minnesota attorney general sues Texas governor in case of ICE agent charged with wounding a man in Minneapolis Minnesota’s attorney general has sued the governor of Texas to force him to extradite an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent charged with wounding a man and then lying to justify the shooting during the US agency’s controversial crackdown in Minneapolis. Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s attorney general, is asking a federal judge to bar the sheriff in Cameron county, Texas, from releasing ICE agent Christian Castro, and to order Greg Abbott, Texas’s governor, to sign his extradition warrant so that Minnesota officers can take custody. Continue reading...
US man posed as doctor in fraudulent scheme to profit from Ozempic, prosecutors say
Rodney Greer accused of securing unauthorized prescriptions for GLP-1 drugs and selling them to customers An Illinois man allegedly impersonated doctors – and evidently referred to himself online as “$hotboy1” – is facing criminal charges that he secured unauthorized prescriptions for Ozempic and Mounjaro pharmaceutical drugs that facilitate weight loss and are taken by some for cosmetic rather than legitimate medical reasons. Rodney Greer purportedly launched the allege scheme in early 2023, according to court filings from federal prosecutors and a US justice department news release issued on Monday. Continue reading...
Trump administration to rescind rule protecting old growth forests
Almost 45m acres of national forests could be potentially opened to road construction, drilling and logging The Trump administration said on Tuesday it plans to rescind the “roadless rule” that has protected old growth forests in the US for 25 years, potentially opening up almost 45m acres of national forests to road construction, drilling and logging. Conservationists had feared the announcement was coming since last summer after Brooke Rollins, Trump’s secretary of agriculture, targeted a rule brought in by Bill Clinton’s administration, describing it as “overly restrictive” and an “absurd obstacle” to development. Continue reading...
Swedish MP intervenes in ‘damaging’ Brexit row over elderly Britons ordered to leave
Migration minister asked how he intends to stop deportations of people ‘who had lived in Sweden for decades’ The deportation and removal of British citizens from Sweden over Brexit residency rights is damaging relations with the UK amid efforts to reset positive associations with London, a Swedish MP has said. Häkan Svenneling, representative for Vârmland, where a 78-year-old British widow, Joyce Thomas, has been given four weeks to leave Sweden after 21 years of residency, has written to the migration minister, Johan Forssell, asking what he “intends to do to stop the deportations”. Continue reading...
Burnham declares almost £350,000 in donations in months before becoming PM
MPs’ register of interests shows hospitality and trips worth more than £12,000 and contributions from longstanding Labour donors Donors to Andy Burnham gave almost £350,000 over the months before he became Labour leader and prime minister, with major contributors including his former adviser Sacha Lord as well as billionaires David Sainsbury and Gary Lubner. The new MPs’ register of interests also shows Burnham declaring hospitality and trips worth more than £12,000 – many of them relating to Greater Manchester in his former role as mayor but also including £1,500 of Glastonbury tickets in 2025, where he was speaking, and £500 of tickets to Ladies Day at Aintree this year. Continue reading...
San Diego Padres minor-league staffer detained by ICE after arrest in Texas
Family says Venezuelan has pending asylum claim DHS says 34-year-old faces removal proceedings San Diego Padres minor-league catching coordinator Oswaldo Pirela remained in federal immigration custody on Tuesday after being detained at an airport in El Paso, Texas, while returning from a work trip. Pirela’s family said the 34-year-old Venezuelan has a pending asylum claim and has continually renewed his work authorization. The Department of Homeland Security said he does not have legal status and will face removal proceedings. Continue reading...
The Guardian view on global inequality: extreme wealth threatens democracy | Editorial
New York mayor Zohran Mamdani shows Britain’s Andy Burnham that confronting billionaires need not mean the end of cooperation with Donald Trump In November, Californians will vote on a one-off 5% levy on residents worth more than $1bn. The union-backed plan could raise $100bn, more than enough to replace federal healthcare funding stripped away by Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act . About 200 very rich people would pay. But the referendum is becoming a test of whether extreme wealth can buy the political power to defeat a popular redistributive policy. Google co-founder Sergey Brin has already spent $100m backing opposition to the tax – a fraction of the $13bn bill he could face. Other billionaires are joining him. Whether voters can impose costs on the super-rich once their fortunes are big enough to shape the political process is now an open question. That alone should trouble any democracy. It’s a long way from Mr Brin’s west coast lair of Mountain View to Andy Burnham’s Makerfield constituency. But the prime minister should heed the call from prominent progressive academics – led by the Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz – urging Britain to join a new global push to tackle inequality. Prof Stiglitz wants help creating a new UN International Panel on Inequality (IPI). This stems from the G20’s first-ever inequality report , which warned that the yawning gap between rich and poor was a human-made crisis corroding democracy and social cohesion while blocking efforts to tackle the climate emergency. Continue reading...
US to sanction the president and a prosecutor of international criminal court
Marco Rubio announced measures against Tomoko Akane and Abdoulaye Seye, who was investigating Israel’s war crimes in Gaza The US will sanction the president of the international criminal court (ICC) and a prosecutor tasked with investigating crimes committed by Israel during its war on Gaza. The new sanctions designations were unveiled by Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, who called the Hague-based ICC a “corrupt and fatally politicized supranational court that has maliciously abused its authority and exceeded its mandate”, in a statement. Continue reading...
Teenager dies after falling in abandoned high-rise tower in New Orleans
Jacque St Ann, 17, and his friends broke into Plaza Tower and he fell as they were descending an interior staircase A high school student recently fell to his death after entering an abandoned high-rise tower in downtown New Orleans with his friends – in an apparent case of urban exploration highlighting the dangers of unaddressed city blight. New Orleans police said Jacque St Ann, 17, and his friends, of the nearby community of Belle Chasse, Louisiana, traveled into the city and broke into the fenced-off, 45-story Plaza Tower in the central business district, which has stood derelict for years. Continue reading...
Florida to carry out its 13th execution this year in US’s busiest death chamber
US supreme court declined to halt execution of William Frances Silvia, and state has two executions next month A Florida man convicted of fatally shooting his estranged wife and wounding his mother-in-law is set to be executed on Tuesday, continuing the state’s aggressive use of the death penalty in Republican governor Ron DeSantis ’s final term. William Frances Silvia, 61, would be the 13th prisoner put to death this year in Florida, which has two more executions scheduled in September and has carried out more than half the US’s 22 executions so far in 2026. Continue reading...
Tupac Shakur murder trial: gang leader in court accused of orchestrating 1996 killing of rap star
Duane Davis is only man ever charged in relation to drive-by shooting of Shakur in Las Vegas What we know about Tupac Shakur’s death and what to expect from murder trial If you’re catching up now on what’s happened so far in th Tupac Shakur murder trial in Las Vegas, here is video of key evidence presented to the Las Vegas jury yesterday: The court heard brief testimony from Thomas Kern , who was a crime scene analyst for the Las Vegas police department in 1996, who was present at the autopsy of Tupac Shakur, and is authenticating evidence from the autopsy. Kern did not face any cross-examination. Continue reading...
Penn State students accused of running cocaine trafficking ring at fraternity houses
Delta Upsilon and Sigma Chi were off campus, with Delta Upsilon placed on interim probation More than a dozen Penn State University students ran a cocaine trafficking ring that cut and packaged the potent drug mainly at two fraternity houses, authorities said on Monday. The Pennsylvania attorney general, Dave Sunday, announced charges on Monday against 14 people linked to the purported operation, saying it involved “primarily college students and two fraternities”. The drugs were “distributed mainly to Penn State … students”, Sunday’s office contended in statements that caused waves far beyond the research university’s campus community. Continue reading...
Death and alleged torture of man in detention sparks protests in Syria
Picture showing White Helmets volunteer unconscious and with bruises on his body went viral Syrians have protested over the death of a man who was arrested and allegedly beaten by security forces, sparking widespread anger at a practice thought to have ended under the regime of Bashar al-Assad. A crowd gathered in the city of Aleppo, demanding accountability for the security forces who carried out the alleged torture, with participants holding signs and slogans such as: “Do not repeat the same oppression that we revolted against.” Protests were also planned to take place in front of Syria’s parliament in Damascus on Tuesday, as well. Continue reading...
Russia threatens UK over supplying drones to Ukraine — The Latest
Russia has threatened the UK with ‘consequences’ after reports that British drones were used by Ukraine to strike targets on Russia’s mainland for the first time. The Ministry of Defence has rebuffed these threats, saying the UK is ‘committed to providing equipment Ukraine needs to defend itself against Putin’s illegal invasion’. Annie Kelly speaks to senior international correspondent Luke Harding – watch on YouTube Luke’s new book Betrayal: Trump, Putin and the New Age of Conquest will be published next week Continue reading...