section
Politics
Policy, power, and the news of the day.
5108 stories archived
USS Abraham Lincoln to visit port in Thailand after more than 250 days at sea
Thai navy says ‘routine’ visit’ will allow personnel to rest and recuperate amid reports of poor conditions onboard The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier is set to make a temporary stop in Thailand next week as it heads back to the United States, Thai navy officials said, after spending more than 250 consecutive days at sea supporting US operations against Iran amid recent reports of poor living conditions and low morale onboard the vessel. The Lincoln left the Middle East several days ago after being relieved by the USS George Washington , and is now heading home to San Diego. A Thai navy official told Reuters this week that the carrier was expected to make a brief port visit in Thailand next week for the crew to rest and recuperate before continuing their journey home. Continue reading...
One Nation’s immigration policy is clear as mud – but that ambiguity could be a secret weapon for Pauline Hanson
The party’s key figures are either unable or unwilling to neatly articulate their migration targets, contradicting one another – and themselves Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast One Nation has experienced a swell in popular support in the past year, and has primarily done so off the back of tough talk on immigration – a policy area almost synonymous with its leader, Pauline Hanson. But a series of blunders this week show a party unable, or unwilling, to clearly articulate what it would actually do about immigration levels. Continue reading...
One of east coast’s largest datacenters accused of ‘violating federal law’
Thermal drone footage shows a Microsoft-backed AI datacenter powering its operations with dozens of unpermitted generators The largest planned AI datacenter in New Jersey is being accused of violating federal law after a visual investigation found the site running dozens of unpermitted gas-powered generators. Thermal drone footage captured by the non-profit newsroom Floodlight last week showed the partly completed DataOne facility in Vineland was operating at least 45 of the site’s 62 generators at the time. Continue reading...
Andy Burnham’s autumn of pain– podcast
It’s been a month since Andy Burnham became prime minister. And while polls have shown a ‘Burnham bounce’, the coming months will force the new PM into making some tough – and potentially unpopular – decisions that will reveal how serious he is about delivering the changes he believes the country needs. Kiran Stacey and Peter Walker look at the choices facing Burnham Please keep sending your comments and questions to Pippa and Kiran at politicsweeklyuk@theguardian.com . Listen back to Kiran’s interview with Bridget Phillipson here And, read Kiran’s article about possible changes to Insolvency Law here Continue reading...
Unlike needy Keir, trash-talking Andy speaks a language Trump understands | John Crace
Burnham has nothing to hide as he prepares to meet president he once called poisonous. It may actually win him more respect It makes a pleasant change. Not so long ago, Keir Starmer was falling over himself in his efforts to keep things sweet with Donald Trump. Offering the US president a second state visit within minutes of meeting him. Everyone knows you should never put out on the first date: it only makes the other person think you’re a pushover. Sure enough, The Donald banked the marching bands and the Windsor silver service, made polite conversation for three days and then went back to trash-talking him. Yet still, Starmer just sat there and took it. As if one word of criticism would be too much. Wittering on about the “special relationship” as if Trump gave a moment’s thought to the UK before he did anything. The rest of us wouldn’t have put money on the US president even being able to locate Britain on a map. It was only latterly, when The Donald chose to bomb Iran, that the penny finally dropped for Keir. And even then he looked pained by the apparent betrayal, as he resisted the calls of Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage to join in the war. Continue reading...
Homes damaged as storms follow heatwaves in England and Wales
Forty flood alerts issued by Environment Agency across Midlands, Yorkshire and south-east of England Dozens of homes have been damaged by flood water as the Met Office issued warnings for thunderstorms and heavy rain after most of England and the whole of Wales was declared in drought. The Met Office said thundery showers across England and Wales could cause 75mm of rain in just 12 hours in some areas after a summer that saw five heatwaves hit the UK. Continue reading...
‘Grand slams are the engine to make a living’: Mackenzie McDonald on why players still compete when injured
American talks life on the professional circuit and those making sacrifices for a pay cheque, often compromising physical and mental welfare For the American tennis veteran Mackenzie McDonald the players’ ongoing push for greater prize money and welfare contributions from the grand slam tournaments could result in the difference between simply putting food on the table and making a decent living. After 10 years on the ATP Tour the 31-year-old is not pleading poverty but knows from personal experience that life on the professional circuit can be a hand-to-mouth existence, with players’ physical and mental welfare often compromised due to their desperation to get back on court. Continue reading...
Ratko Mladić, the ‘Butcher of Bosnia’, dies aged 84
Bosnian Serb commander responsible for Srebrenica massacre dies in prison while serving life sentence for genocide Ratko Mladić, the infamous Serbian general who was serving a life sentence for genocide committed during the Bosnian war, has died in prison in the Hague, a UN official and his lawyer confirmed. Mladić, 84, had been one of the main architects of the policy of ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian war. He was convicted of genocide for orchestrating the 1995 killing of at least 8,000 Muslims in the UN-designated “safe area” Srebrenica, the worst massacre in Europe since the second world war. Continue reading...
ICE agent charged with Minnesota shooting released from jail in Texas
Judge rules Christian Castro, accused of shooting man and lying about it, cannot be held pending extradition request An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer charged with shooting a man and lying about it during the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis was released from a Texas jail on Thursday, after a judge refused to order his return to Minnesota. Christian Castro was released at the break of dawn from a detention center in Brownsville. He motioned his hand toward a few camera operators and a reporter crowding around him and quickly got into an SUV that drove off. Continue reading...
West Point’s only climate scientist fired after continuing to teach human causes of climate change
Adam Kalkstein compared administration’s order to ‘trying to teach the law’ without mentioning ‘the constitution’ The only climate scientist teaching at West Point, the US army’s military academy, was fired after he resisted an order to stop teaching about the human causes of the climate emergency, a lawsuit claims. Dr Adam Kalkstein, a civilian professor of geography at the New York institution, was terminated after the spring semester this year, six months after a testy meeting with Brig Gen Shane Reeves, then dean of West Point’s academic board, the court filing said. Continue reading...
Bots and bargains: Zara owner launches cut-price Lefties in UK to rival Primark
First robot-assisted outlet opens in Liverpool to take on Shein and supermarkets in clothing, shoes and homewares Business live – latest updates The owner of Zara is taking on Primark, Shein and the supermarkets with the launch of its cut-price chain Lefties in Britain, backed by an army of robots. The Spanish fashion brand opened its first UK store in Liverpool on Thursday, a few weeks after quietly launching its UK website. Continue reading...
AI can detect heart disease in women using mammograms, study suggests
Experts say findings mean breast screenings for cancer could also flag cardiovascular problems in women Doctors have discovered a way to use routine mammograms that screen for breast cancer to spot heart disease, the world’s leading – and frequently underdiagnosed – cause of death in women. Researchers analysed the scans using artificial intelligence and were able to successfully identify women with coronary heart disease, high blood pressure or who had suffered a stroke. Continue reading...
Hiker reunited with backpack 60 years after he fell into a glacier in Austria
Bag, camera and pipe belonging to 86-year-old are latest relics uncovered as glaciers melt due to global heating An 86-year-old mountaineer has been reunited with his backpack and climbing equipment after they emerged from a melting glacier in Austria – more than 60 years after he was forced to leave them there. Items including an ice axe, camera and a pipe dating from the 1950s or 1960s were discovered on the Sulztalferner glacier in Austria’s Tyrol region, at an altitude of 2,955 metres (9,700ft) above sea level, by a hiker in July. Continue reading...
Thieves steal bronze age treasure in ‘very well planned’ four-minute museum heist in Spain
Gold collection known as Treasure of Villena, worth at least €1.7m, is latest target of criminal raid Thieves in Spain have raided the Treasure of Villena – a stunning collection of bronze age gold artefacts that has been described as the most important prehistoric trove in Europe – in the latest high-profile smash-and-grab heist on the continent. The raid on Thursday morning of the 66 mostly gold objects in the Spanish town of Villena lasted just minutes, officials said. Continue reading...
Broadcaster Jenni Murray died days after north London car crash, inquest hears
Coroner told BBC veteran was dazzled by headlights and sustained rib and sternum fractures in collision, which led to bronchopneumonia The broadcaster Jenni Murray died days after being involved in a car crash which happened when she was dazzled by headlights, a coroner has heard. Murray, 75, was best known as the voice of BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, hosting the programme for three decades and becoming the longest-serving presenter in its history. Continue reading...
UK airports operator hit by cyber-attack and customer data accessed
Company that runs Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands airports says passenger safety is unaffected Business live – latest updates Three UK airports have been hit by a “cybersecurity incident” in which the data of about 8.7 million customers was accessed, Manchester Airport Group (Mag) has said. The company, which operates Manchester Airport, London Stansted and East Midlands airport, said that “at no point has passenger safety or aviation security been compromised” during the incident and that neither Mag nor the system hacked held customers’ bank or payment details. Continue reading...
Near total lunar eclipse will be seen from North and South America Thursday night
Earth’s shadow will appear to be a reddish ‘blood moon’ due to the way sunlight is scattered by the atmosphere A near total lunar eclipse will be visible across large swathes of North and South America on Thursday night with millions of people expected to be able to see one of nature’s marvels. Lunar eclipses occur when Earth moves between the sun and the moon and its shadow is cast on to the lunar surface. Thursday night’s event will see 96% of the moon darkened by the Earth’s shadow at its peak moment. Continue reading...
A Britain of wildfires and flood risks: be sure, the climate crisis is real, and we will deal with it | Angela Eagle
Reform and the Conservatives are willing to mislead the public, but as environment secretary, I believe we must be honest – and act boldly This long, hot summer has brought our third drought in five years and the driest July in almost two centuries . We’ve seen wildfires burn down homes and now face the risk of flash floods as we move into autumn. It should be a wake-up call for those saying that concerns about the climate crisis are overblown; that we should simply sit back and do nothing; or row back on attempts to restore our natural environment. As the new environment secretary, I won’t let that happen. No one who has experienced this summer in the UK should be in any doubt that our climate is already changing. We know the future holds warmer, wetter winters, hotter, drier summers, and more extreme weather. Angela Eagle is the secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs Continue reading...
RFK Jr lied in Senate confirmation hearings, newly revealed documents indicate
Letters obtained by Guardian and AP contradict testimony that 2019 visit to Samoa had ‘nothing to do with vaccines’ Newly obtained documents indicate that the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, lied during two congressional hearings last year, telling lawmakers who held the key to his confirmation that a 2019 visit to Samoa had “nothing to do with vaccines”. Letters obtained by the Guardian and the Associated Press contradict that testimony. In one he wrote to the Samoan prime minister before the trip , Kennedy explicitly said he wanted to study the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine in the Pacific island nation. In it, he used the words vaccine or vaccination eight times. Continue reading...
We surveyed 6,000 Americans. Here is the winning message for Democrats | Dustin Guastella
It’s about ‘kitchen-table populism’: focusing on Americans’ day-to-day economic struggles This year’s Democratic primaries look and sound a lot more populist than usual. Brian Poindexter , a union iron worker running on a “workers first” message, won a House primary outside Cleveland. Sherrod Brown is mounting a Senate comeback in Ohio on the same “rigged system” message that has allowed him to outshine other Democrats in Ohio. Troy Jackson , a fifth-generation logger who built his career fighting corporate landowners, is the Democratic Senate nominee in Maine. And Josh Turek , a self-described “prairie populist”, is on the Senate ballot in Iowa. In fact, according to research we’ve conducted through the Center for Working-Class Politics (CWCP), more than 70% of 2026 Democratic candidates now rely on populist rhetoric in their campaigns, laying the blame for our broken system on rich elites of one kind or another. Continue reading...
BBC to bring back Top Gear amid speculation about show’s next presenters
Motoring series to return after break since serious injuries to co-host Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff in crash during filming Top Gear, the long-running motoring show which has been off air since its co-host Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff was seriously injured in a crash during filming almost four years ago, is to return to the BBC, the broadcaster confirmed today. After Flintoff’s accident at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey the BBC said the series would be “rested” for the foreseeable future. Continue reading...
Plane headed for remote Alaska town crashes and kills all four passengers on board
Plane was headed for airport in Seldovia from Anchorage, and was submerged in water after the crash A small plane carrying four people crashed into shallow waters next to a remote coastal town in Alaska on Wednesday, killing everyone on board, according to officials. The Piper PA-24 was headed for the airport in the small town of Seldovia after taking off from Anchorage, according to a statement from the Alaska Department of Public Safety. Seldovia’s airport is about 136 miles (219 km) south-west of Anchorage. Continue reading...
Russia warns Britain is ‘playing with fire’ over its support of Ukraine
Kremlin threatens retaliation after Burnham says UK will help Ukraine start producing long-range missiles UK politics live – latest updates Russia has said it could retaliate against the UK for its support of Kyiv by striking military targets inside and outside Ukraine, amid reports that the director of the CIA warned the Kremlin against attacking Nato during a secretive visit this week. Andy Burnham, Britain’s prime minister, said on Monday the UK would allow Kyiv access to classified technology to start its own production of Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles. Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said on Thursday Britain and France were “playing with fire”. Continue reading...
First Thing: Meta agrees to make sweeping changes to apps for teens | Martin Belam
Safety features including usage limits and night-time blocks to be set by default. Plus changes to famous French cheeses Good morning. Meta has agreed to significant changes to its Instagram and Facebook apps in a settlement that ended a landmark lawsuit. The agreement curtails a major trial in California and will require the social media company to pay up to $18bn. Meta agreed to establish safeguards for teenage users, including daily usage limits and blocks on night-time use nationwide in the US. California and 28 other US states sued the $1.36tn (£1tn) company over allegations that Meta deliberately designed addictive products that hooked young people, leading to mental health issues, including anxiety, depression and suicide. As part of the settlement, the company denies wrongdoing. What will be changing in the apps? The biggest alteration is that Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, is now required to make many of its safety limitations the default setting for accounts created by teens, a pivot from its previous opt-in approach to child safety. Nick Robins-Early and Johana Bhuiyan explain more in this piece: six key takeaways from the end of the Meta trial . Will other companies be affected? Meta is putting the agreement forward as a precedent for other social media companies to follow. The company’s chief legal officer, CJ Mahoney, said: “Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industry-wide solution. We therefore call on our industry peers … to implement this new framework.” Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap face thousands more similar US lawsuits brought by families, individuals, school districts and other attorneys general. Are campaigners satisfied with the result? Arturo Béjar, an ex-Facebook employee and whistleblower, said the outcome “is not an all-clear to say the product is safe. The limitations that are in the agreement are the equivalent of saying: ‘Well, you can smoke as many cigarettes as you can in two hours a day’. It doesn’t make the cigarettes any safer.” How did it happen? As this visual guide explains , at 8.37am on Wednesday an enormous section of a glacier in the Himalayas sheared free and crashed on to the valley floor in Nepal’s Langtang national park, about 60km north of the capital Kathmandu, near the mountainous Nepal-Tibet border. Continue reading...