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Politics
Policy, power, and the news of the day.
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‘Super El Niño’ could bring wet winter and flooding to western US, climate scientists warn
Weather system tied to warming sea surface expected to intensify in fall and winter, persisting until early spring 2027 El Niño , a recurring climate phenomenon marked by above-average sea surface temperatures, when changes in wind patterns allow warmer water to spread across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, could spell a wet winter for portions of the western and south-eastern US, climate models show. Coastal areas may be at elevated risk of flooding, experts warn. Climate scientists predict this year’s “super” El Niño, a label assigned when sea surface temperatures climb by at least 2C , will be the strongest of the century. The weather system is expected to intensify in the fall and winter, persisting until early spring 2027, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa). Continue reading...
OpenAI to pause some work on AI model Astra due to security concerns
Agent found to be able to find and exploit vulnerabilities without human intervention, and to carry out cyber-attacks OpenAI will pause some work on an artificial intelligence model because of security concerns, the company stated Friday, following a series of incidents in which AI agents have escaped containment. The company had evaluated the agent, Astra, and found “significant advancements in agentic coding and cybersecurity”, which had moved to a “critical” threshold where it can find and exploit vulnerabilities without human intervention, or devise and execute cyber-attacks when given only a “high level desired goal”. Continue reading...
One of UK’s best fossil collections sold overseas in ‘loss to the nation’
Exclusive: Lack of funds left British museums unable pay eight-figure sum for collection, which went to Abu Dhabi institution One of the most important collections of UK Jurassic fossils ever compiled has been sold to a museum in Abu Dhabi, the Guardian can reveal, in what British experts have described as a loss for the nation. The collection, which was amassed by a private fossil collector, consisted of 318 specimens, including ichthyosaurs, fish and crustaceans among other creatures, some of which could be new species. Continue reading...
Hunter Biden talks about how his father’s cancer has spread and is causing him pain
Joe Biden’s prostate cancer is reportedly ‘debilitating’, even as ex-president continues to speak out on public issues Former US president Joe Biden ’s prostate cancer has spread to other parts of his body and is causing him pain, even as he continues to speak out on public issues, his son Hunter said in an interview. In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC broadcast late on Friday, Hunter Biden grew emotional as he discussed his father’s condition, describing it as very sad to watch. Continue reading...
Where in the UK will get the best view of the solar eclipse?
When, where and how to get the optimal view of the first solar eclipse to be visible across the country this century For the first time this century, people across the UK will be able to see an almost total solar eclipse in the evening sky on Wednesday. A solar eclipse occurs when the moon moves between the sun and the Earth, blocking the sun’s light either partially or fully. This year, people in the UK and Ireland will see 90-96% of the sun covered by the moon for the first time since 1999 – and it’s their last chance until 2081. Continue reading...
Nicola Sturgeon ‘has not spoken to’ estranged husband, Peter Murrell, since he was jailed
Scotland’s former first minister says she will not visit Murrell in prison, where he is serving five-year sentence for embezzling SNP funds Nicola Surgeon has said she will not visit her estranged husband, Peter Murrell, in prison, has stopped speaking to him and views herself as a “mug” for worrying about his wellbeing and mental health earlier this year. During a podcast recording at the Edinburgh festival fringe, Scotland’s former first minister said Murrell had lied to her until the day he pleaded guilty to embezzling more than £400,000 from the Scottish National party. Continue reading...
Jorge Messi, father and agent of Argentina great, dies aged 68
Messi family report death at medical clinic in Rosario Inter Miami are due to play Monterrey on Saturday night Lionel Messi’s father and agent, Jorge, has died aged 68 at a medical clinic in the Argentinian city of Rosario after a long illness, the family have announced. Jorge Messi spent his final months alternating between a medical centre in Rosario and his home, accompanied by his wife, Celia, and his children Rodrigo, Matías and María Sol. Lionel Messi spent time with his father after the World Cup before rejoining his club, Inter Miami, for whom he returned to action a week ago. Inter Miami are due to play Monterrey on Saturday at home in the 2026 Leagues Cup, but the MLS club have yet to announce whether he will feature. Continue reading...
New York authorities warn about gold bar scam targeting seniors
State’s attorney general says scammers have made off with more than $100m in past two years Scammers in New York have been using gold bars to steal money from victims, primarily seniors, and made off with more than $100m over the past two years, the state’s attorney general announced on Friday. The scheme starts with victims receiving a fake pop-up message that states their computer or financial account has been compromised, the press release stated. The message includes a phone number to call, and when they do, the scammers convince the victims to provide remote access to their computers, which allows them to access their financial information or online bank accounts. Continue reading...
Unmasked: the doctor who helps put prisoners to death
Dr Mark Fowler assisted in the failed execution of a Tennessee prisoner. Physicians are meant to heal patients - why is he working in the death chamber? Mark Fowler, a physician with 25 years’ experience, stepped beneath the bright lights and approached the middle-aged man lying on a gurney. Around him, people in medical gowns prepared needles and sterile tubing. It had all the appearances of a hospital setting. Continue reading...
Who’s winning New York City’s war on rats: rodents or trash bins?
City on track to record fewest reported rat sightings since pandemic as Mamdani’s ‘containerization’ program brings bins to boroughs Is New York finally winning its war on rats? Or are New Yorkers’ vermin neighbors merely adapting to changing circumstances and, at least in some neighborhoods, staying out of sight? With an estimated one rat for every three people, New York’s long-running rat war is in a period of uneasy detente. Continue reading...
Lion saved as cub from Ukraine war and brought to US battles rare fungal disease
Four-year-old Taras, who now resides at a Minnesota sanctuary, was diagnosed with an often fatal infection A lion that escaped the war in Ukraine after being found as a four-month-old cub inside a duffel bag at Odesa railway station is facing an even greater battle for survival in his new home in Minnesota from a rare and often fatal fungal disease. Taras, his two sisters Lesya and Stefania, and an unrelated, slightly older cub from Kyiv named Prada, were brought to the US in November 2022 by the Wildcat Sanctuary , a secluded private reserve near Sandstone, Minnesota, that arranged their rescue with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). Continue reading...
Skye Blakely and Claire Pease share lead at US gymnastics championships
Blakely and Pease score 55.6 points in Phoenix Bullock third as defending champion Rivera sits fourth Women’s all-around competition concludes Sunday The University of Florida’s Skye Blakely and 17-year-old Honolulu native Claire Pease are tied for the all-around lead after the first day of women’s competition at the US gymnastics championships on Friday in Phoenix. Each earned 55.6 points. Continue reading...
Senate passes funding bill to prevent shutdown through US midterms
Bill must still be approved by House but would keep government running at current funding levels The US Senate on Friday passed a government funding bill that will prevent a shutdown through the midterm elections, though it still must be approved by the House of Representatives. The continuing resolution (CR) passed by a 90-6 vote will keep the government running at its current funding levels until 11 December, more than a month past the midterms in which Democrats are hoping to regain control of Congress and block Donald Trump’s legislative agenda for the final two years of his presidency. Continue reading...
Super-rich complain but experts welcome Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax
New York mayor’s policy set to generate revenue and address housing crisis despite outcry in some quarters New York City’s introduction of a pied-à-terre tax has provided fodder for Zohran Mamdani’s critics, who accuse the democratic socialist mayor of attacking the rich – even as others welcome it as a much-needed effort to tax the wealthy in a city known for its yawning inequality and cost-of-living crisis. The tax, aimed at closing the city’s budget gap, covers people who own but do not live full-time in a house worth more than $5m or a condominium or cooperative unit worth at least $1m. Continue reading...
Rest assured, the new CDC director thinks ‘abortion surveillance’ is essential | Arwa Mahdawi
An exchange between Dr Erica Schwartz and Senator Josh Hawley during her confirmation hearing is alarming Robert F Kennedy Jr’s new cooking show isn’t the only big news out of the public health world this week. On Wednesday, Dr Erica Schwartz was confirmed by the US Senate as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), making her the first Black woman to hold the position. This is the first time in almost a year that the agency has had a permanent leader; the previous director, Susan Monarez, only lasted 29 days before she was ousted for butting heads with RFK about US vaccine policies. Translation: she was a little too keen on following accepted science for the Trump administration. So is Schwartz an RFK-approved vaccine skeptic who thinks you can cure cancer by praying to trees? Surprisingly: no. Schwartz, who served as deputy surgeon general during Trump’s first term, actually has government experience and a public health background. During her confirmation hearing in July, she walked a careful tightrope when asked about her stance towards vaccines. Schwartz said she “will never betray the science” but also dodged questions about how she would handle pressure from Kennedy. Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Arron Banks ‘hired private detective’ to look into journalist who investigated Reform UK
Asked whether he targeted reporter who investigated party finances, Brexit campaigner says: ‘When you live by the sword, you die by the sword’ The prominent Reform UK member and Brexit campaigner Arron Banks is said to have set private investigators on a Sunday Times journalist after he broke a series of stories about Nigel Farage. Banks is alleged to have paid for the services of investigators to examine Gabriel Pogrund, editor of the paper’s Insight investigations team. Continue reading...
The ornithological artist drawing 1,000 birds by hand – all for an app that wants you off your phone
The mission of the Flock app is quietly subversive: to encourage users to ditch their screens and explore the wonderful world of birding On a brilliantly bright afternoon in his gallery and studio in Bolinas, a small town on the northern California coast, Keith Hansen was putting the finishing touches on a watercolor of an almost improbably flamboyant painted bunting. With an ultra-fine sable brush, he made a few intricate additions to the cobalt blue plumage on the bunting’s head, and, satisfied with his work, slipped the watercolor into a stout binder that every few days welcomes a new addition. Continue reading...
Baywatch honors teenage lifeguard hero who saved boy in viral video
Ryder Williams, 16, presented with distinctive red jacket by star of TV rescuer reboot, Stephen Amell As life imitates art and vice versa, the star of the Baywatch reboot recently presented one of the distinctive red jackets seen on the beach rescuer drama to the teenage lifeguard who went viral for saving a boy off the California coast on camera. Stephen Amell, who was cast as the main protagonist for the first season of the new Baywatch scheduled to premiere in early 2027, presented the garment worn by lifeguards on the fictional show and its prequel franchise to 16-year-old Ryder Williams in a video posted on social media by the production on Friday just after midnight eastern time. Continue reading...
Parenting is hard. Should we let AI do it for us? | Dave Schilling
Tech companies offer eye-movement trackers, personalized podcasts and ‘optimized nap predictions’. Who actually needs this? What job in our world is less lucrative than being a parent? A Hollywood internship? Volunteering at a soup kitchen? Professional writer? Parenting is the only job you have to pay money to do. Lots of money . Lodging, clothes, food, school, Pokémon cards – it really adds up. And it’s getting worse. According to the tech industry, I have to strap my drooling offspring to a computer in order to ensure the baby’s survival. Parents are being offered life-altering advancements in artificial intelligence that purport to make this taxing endeavor a tiny bit easier. OpenAI is suggesting its latest products can make child-rearing more efficient: its boss, Sam Altman, suggests generating a podcast about your kid’s life that you can listen to in the morning on the way to school. How entertaining would a podcast “that talks about one kid’s soccer game that afternoon, one kid’s upcoming birthday, some news, etc” actually be? “Jimmy needs to work on his dribbling.” Great. I think he knows already. He’s not going to be the next Messi, so how about we switch back to music? Continue reading...
The Bond effect? How MI6 fascinates spy watchers around the world
Britain’s spooks take quiet satisfaction from survey ranking Secret Intelligence Service Europe’s top espionage agency MI6 has the swagger of James Bond; its French equivalent, DGSE, the complexities of the television drama Le Bureau. The film and TV shows may be fictional, but a survey run by a French magazine that placed the British spy agency above the French as No 1 across all of Europe this week is not. L’Express , a news weekly, conducted a Eurovision-style poll of 60 current and former spies from across the continent, plus the CIA and Israel’s Mossad. Each was asked to rank their top five foreign intelligence agencies, in secret, naturally enough. MI6 was first with 251 points ahead of DGSE on 169, with other agencies trailing behind. Continue reading...
President Xi nevers wastes a good crisis. As Iran, Ukraine and Palestine distract the world, he tightens his grip | Simon Tisdall
Ever the strategist, the Chinese leader is taking the offensive, both abroad and at home. That’s bad news for global order, and minorities in his country Imagine what would happen if a British prime minister in London told the Scots they could not have their own parliament, national football team or fly the saltire. Or if the Welsh were told their language and poetry were banned and must no longer be taught in schools. The ensuing uproar would probably destroy the United Kingdom. Yet that’s exactly what Xi Jinping, China’s communist emperor, is telling the roughly 125 million members of the 55 ethnic and religious minorities who together comprise about 9% of the country’s (majority Han Chinese) population. Xi claims his sinicisation policy, embodied in a new “ethnic unity” law, will boost national identity and integration and, by expanding compulsory use of the Mandarin language, improve life and work prospects. Minorities should “hug tightly like pomegranate seeds” to build a strong, united China, he says. But Tibetans, Mongolians, Uyghurs and others who value their separate language and customs fiercely object to what they see as forced assimilation into a conformist, intolerant monoculture dominated by the Communist party’s tunnel vision. For them, it’s ethnic cleansing by another name. Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator Continue reading...
Nazi shipwrecks emerge from the depths as Europe’s Danube dries ups
Unexploded ordnance and a military motorcycle also recovered owing to record heat and drought conditions Record-low water levels in the Danube have exposed remnants of Europe’s Nazi past, with dozens of second world war warships emerging from the riverbed during an intense drought. In the middle of the river on the Serbian and Romanian border, a broken-up hull was visible on a sandbank that is normally underwater. Other vessels were partly submerged, some still believed to be laden with weapons. Continue reading...
Blanche ‘honored’ after Senate confirms him as US attorney general in narrow vote – US politics live
Donald Trump’s former defense lawyer confirmed by 50 votes to 49 early on Saturday morning, with senators deferring action on president’s voting bill until after recess Todd Blanche faced heavy criticism for the department’s sloppy rollout of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, which redacted information that should not have been redacted and left unredacted the names of victims that should have been kept private. During his confirmation hearing, Blanche refused to personally meet with Epstein victims, then agreed to do so. The survivors said they received few answers from Blanche during the meeting. Mr Blanche is not perfect, and he will tell you this, but the choice is not between perfection and Mr Blanche. It is between Mr Blanche and another acting attorney general who may not run the department effectively under President Trump and who indeed may not be as good as Mr Blanche. Continue reading...
High divers take the plunge in Paris for a new test of reclaimed Seine’s water
European Aquatics Championships taking place in city Threat to water quality tested two years after Games Paris is staging its first high-diving competition in the Seine, with athletes launching themselves from a 20-metre platform in front of the Eiffel Tower – a spectacular new test of the city’s effort to reclaim its river for sport. The event on the Pont de Bir-Hakeim has also exposed the fragility of that ambition. Organisers suspended training on Thursday when traces of hydrocarbons were detected upstream. By Friday, the French Swimming Federation said the affected area had been treated, allowing athletes to return to the water and the event to proceed as planned. High diving concludes on Saturday with the final two rounds and medal events, while the broader European Aquatics Championships run through to 16 August. Continue reading...