U.S. Marine veteran freed from Russian prison after nearly 4 years

A U.S. Marine veteran from Massachusetts who has been held in Russia for more than four years on disputed charges has been released.

Maine lifeguard "started swimming like hell" when Shark pulled him underwater

A lifeguard said a shark off the coast of Scarborough Beach in Maine grabbed onto his buoy and pulled him 5 feet underwater before he was able to get free.

Why the US government is trying to ban this Chinese dancing robot – video explainer

The Federal Communications Commission on 28 July announced a ban on humanoid robots from China including the popular Unitree G1 model. The Guardian's technology journalist Nick Robins-Early explains the recent popularity of these trending robots and why the US government says they are a risk to the country's national security

Summer 2026 on course to be UK’s hottest on record, says Met Office – latest news

Prediction comes amid warning of ‘extreme heat’ this week with temperatures of 38C possible

The Guardian’s environment editor, Fiona Harvey, has written a useful explainer about the UK public services that are struggling in the extreme weather. You can read it in full here:

There’s only one solution in the end to the drought now declared across most of England and that’s rain, says Hannah Cloke, professor of hydrology at the University of Reading.

An important consequence of drought is that very dry soils can become less able to absorb rainfall when it does arrive. This can increase surface runoff and can even contribute to localised flash flooding, particularly if rain falls intensely over a short period.

The current situation highlights the need to improve long-term resilience to both drought and flood risk as climate variability increases, and shows one more damaging impact of the burning of fossil fuels.

Djed Spence nears Tottenham exit with Inter in talks over £25.6m move

• England defender keen on move to Italian champions

• Udogie and Porro set to be Spurs’ first-choice full-backs

Tottenham are prepared to allow Djed Spence to join Inter, with the England defender expected to cost around €30m (£25.6m).

Spence – who started four games for England at the World Cup, including the semi-final against Argentina – has fallen further down the pecking order at Spurs after the arrival of Andy Robertson from Liverpool. He signed a new four-year contract in north London at the start of last season but is believed to be keen on joining the Italian champions, with Destiny Udogie and Pedro Porro expected to be Roberto De Zerbi’s preferred full-backs this season.

Famed tourist destinations evacuated as wildfire threatens California’s Big Sur

Nearly 500 personnel battle Timber fire in Los Padres national forest as blaze grows to 2,000 acres

Evacuations have been ordered for areas along California’s famous Big Sur coast as a wildfire burns in the nearby steep, rugged mountains.

The Timber fire in Monterey county started on Sunday and grew to 2,000 acres by Tuesday morning, according to Cal Fire, the state’s fire agency. Nearly 500 fire personnel had been assigned to the fire in the Los Padres national forest.

Typhoon Dolphin hits Beijing as city braces for one-third of annual rainfall over 24 hours

Flooding already reported in some districts of Chinese capital and rains are expected to get worse overnight

Typhoon Dolphin hit China’s capital on Tuesday as the storm caused flooding in parts of Beijing’s Shunyi district. Rains are forecast to intensify overnight.

Although the storm has been downgraded to a tropical depression, several districts in Beijing activated the highest level of emergency flood responses as the city braced for one-third of its annual rainfall, which is expected over the next 24 hours.

Powerball jackpot hits $1 billion after no one won $905 million grand prize

No winning tickets were sold for Monday night's $905 million Powerball jackpot, so the estimated grand prize for Wednesday's drawing will be at least $1 billion, Powerball says.

Manus to return as independent company after China forced Meta to unwind $2 billion deal

Last December, Meta said it planned to acquire Manus for $2 billion, its latest effort to shore up its AI strategy.

We’re reading less. And it’s making us stupid

Books have never been trendier, but studies show that as more and more things compete for our frazzled attention spans, we’re reading less and less. This is a problem because reading has a wealth of cognitive benefits that we’re in danger of missing out on.

To find out why declining literacy could affect everything from memory to IQ, Madeleine Finlay speaks to the Guardian’s science editor, Ian Sample. She also hears from Prof Falk Huettig, an experimental psychologist at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and author of The Perks of Being a Bookworm

Trump put a wrecking-ball through the East Wing – and through democratic norms | Francine Prose

Our children should be able to visit our nation’s capital without having to think about Donald Trump and about how much he did to deface it

History has shown us how much dictators and aspiring dictators love building monuments to themselves. They enjoy reminding the world that they can do anything, no matter who is responsible for the physical labor or who will be paying the financial and human cost.

They prefer outsized structures, heroic arches, towers and columns designed to prove that their signature and their esthetic will be with us forever, even after they’re dead, though dictators often seem to believe they are too powerful to die.

Francine Prose is a former president of PEN American Center and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

‘Subsidies for fossil fuels ... are pouring fuel on the fire’: your questions on fossil fuel profits and the climate crisis answered

Reporters Jillian Ambrose and Damian Carrington discussed their story on oil firms’ profits amid the war in Iran and the climate crisis and answered your related questions

PCMcGarry asks: Given the facts that we live on a collection of islands and that tides are predictable, what serious efforts have been made to harness sea power and with what success?

Damian:

The UK is actually home to the world’s most powerful tidal stream turbine, operated by Orbital Marine Power, off Orkney and, the company says now moving into commercial deployment. But the device produces 2MW of power, the same as a small wind turbine. So there is a huge scale up needed to make a difference, and putting electric equipment in moving salty water is tough.

There are big tidal plants in France, South Korea and China, but a large tidal lagoon project for Swansea a decade ago was cancelled by ministers in 2018 who said it was too expensive compared with alternatives such as offshore wind farms and nuclear power.

The climate crisis is causing winter rainfall in the UK to increase, as the Met Office states:

“The winter half-year (October to March) for the most recent decade, 2016–2025, has been 3% wetter than 1991–2020, and 13% wetter than 1961–1990.”

Russia frees ex-US marine four years after sentence disputed by his family

Robert Gilman had been deteriorating rapidly in prison and was said to be in a catatonic state

Russia has freed a former US marine who had been in jail since 2022, after Vladimir Putin granted the ailing American a pardon on humanitarian grounds.

Robert Gilman, 32, an English teacher who briefly served in the US Marines, was travelling by train when he was arrested in the southern Russian city of Voronezh in January 2022 for allegedly kicking a police officer while drunk, according to Russian state media. He was later sentenced to four and a half years in prison, though his family has consistently denied the allegations against him.

Democrats clash again in Minnesota and Wisconsin primaries as big midterm races take shape

In Minnesota, progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and moderate Democratic Rep. Angie Craig are competing for the nomination to succeed the retiring Sen. Tina Smith.

‘Every minute counts’ as rescuers race to find survivors after deadly Colombia earthquake

People being pulled from collapsed buildings day after 7.4 magnitude quake hit, in response experts say contrasts favourably with Venezuela’s

Colombian rescue workers are racing to find survivors after the country’s deadliest earthquake this century killed at least 224 people and left at least 3,000 missing.

In Cali, one of the worst affected cities, firefighters said they had pulled a 35-year-old man from the wreckage of a collapsed building shortly before 4am on Tuesday – nearly 24 hours after the 7.4 magnitude quake rattled western Colombia.

Are humanoid robots ready to scrub your kitchen? Not quite.

Startup companies are now starting to test their humanoid robots for home use, but experts said wider adoption will take years.

Farm linked to cyclosporaisis outbreak went years without FDA inspection

The FDA has long fallen short of legally required inspection targets, and foreign inspections fell further last year amid agency layoffs.

I thought having a second baby would be easier – but, from food to teeth to poos, I’ve forgotten so much | Bim Adewunmi

My mum has been a huge help with the practical stuff. She’s also stirred up memories of my own blissfully bored childhood

I gave birth to a second child a few months ago. I don’t think I will ever get over the fact that this is the way people come into the world. It’s a ridiculous endeavour, from start to finish.

My first pregnancy was almost comically miserable for the first 20 weeks, then glorious for 10 weeks, then scary and stressful for the remainder. And this time? More intense in every way, but with added toddler. Which is to say: no breaks, suck it up, keep on moving.

Can I make my house less dusty? I spent four weeks experimenting to find out

The phrase ‘dust magnet’ isn’t completely metaphorical. Some household surfaces do attract more dust – but changing your home’s climate can make a difference

For years, I’ve complained about an Ikea shelf in my home that seems to attract dust at an impossible speed. Eventually, my frustration gave way to curiosity: what’s actually happening, scientifically? Is there anything I can do about it, besides just continuously dusting?

I’m not imagining things, says Nisa Salim, a materials engineer and associate professor at Swinburne University of Technology. While an object’s placement in the home and airborne particle levels make a difference, some surfaces really are better at collecting dust.

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‘Everything about me is good in his eyes’: the women in China choosing AI boyfriends over human men

In her new documentary Replica, film-maker Chouwa Liang taps into her own experience of finding love with artificial intelligence and makes contact with other women like her

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Qin has never said “I love you” to her parents or friends. She has only ever said those three special words to her AI “boyfriend”, Lu Chen – a brown-haired, red-eyed CEO of a major corporation. For 840 days Qin has been using the Glow app to interact with the handsome string of code as a confidant, fantasy romance and respite from loneliness: the app uses predictive algorithms to provide Qin with soothing conversation, meal suggestions and fleeting self-worth. The software’s pet name for her is Miss Bunny.

“It feels like I’m completely at his mercy … I feel like everything about me is good in his eyes,” says Qin, one of three Chinese women featured in the new documentary Replica – film-maker Chouwa Liang’s follow-up to My AI Boyfriend, her short film that was picked up by the New York Times Op-Docs section in 2023. Replica had its Australian premiere at Sydney film festival in June and plays at the Melbourne international film festival this month.

Football Daily | Liverpool, Jeff Bezos and mission creep off the field at Anfield

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Far be it for Football Daily to make cheap gags [wait, what? – Football Daily Ed] relating to the involvement of Amazon founder and master of the universe Jeff Bezos in a consortium buying around 30% of Liverpool FC. Will new signings arrive via prompt delivery but end up next door at Everton? How will fans rate the packaging? Etc, etc. There’s also the involvement of Eduardo Saverin, the Facebook co-founder poking his head in. Though long ago unfriended by Mark Zuckerberg, Saverin still ranked No 56 on Forbes’s billionaires list. These are seriously rich men, and among the planet’s chino class, to quote Vladimir Putin, “soccer is popular”. The Geopolitics World Cup posh seats were full of those eyeing up deals on a frontier hardly new to investors from the USA USA USA, but where there may be much more gold to strike. See Gianni Infantino’s misreading of the art of the deal as an, ahem, prime example.

Having also boycotted the GWC and also being very concerned about the season to come, I sympathise with Ken Muir (yesterday’s Football Daily letters). But at least Hearts know who their manager is. Due to the absurd, months-long FA ‘investigation’ into the manager who’s clearly admitted culpability for the undisputed facts of Spygate, my club, Southampton, is in a horrid limbo. Surely it could have been done and dusted in a couple of weeks and Saints could have planned accordingly. But perhaps the FA blazers were too busy writing their letter of support to Gianni Infantino to worry about destabilising my football club” – Bob Cushion.

‘It’s 15 years of frustration here at this club,’ says Rangers boss Derek McInnes (yesterday’s Quote of the Day.) Steven Gerrard and the sole object in his managerial trophy cabinet would like a word, Derek” – David Maddock.

Given the surfeit of the recent GWC machinations, the blatherings and canvassing for Gianni to do one (or not) and the less-than-sportsmanlike attitude from members of the Argentina team, can we please have a reprise of the Football Daily’s erstwhile, eventually abortive, attempt to ‘STOP FOOTBALL’? It has to be worth a thought, before VAR, PGMOL and Arsenal’s Dark Arts Department™ get to work on the 2026-27 Premier League shenanigans, surely?” – Budgie Wright.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions. 

Flames shoot out of plane's engine after apparent bird strike

An American Airlines plane bound for North Carolina was forced to return to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, when flames erupted from its left engine due to an apparent bird strike.

Video of Arkansas trooper punching 18-year-old draws calls for investigation

Alisa Hackett, 18, was pulled over for speeding and alcohol possession when she was tackled to the ground and punched.

Newly released video shows Arkansas state trooper punching Black woman during traffic stop

Newly released video of a recent traffic stop in Arkansas shows a state trooper punching an 18-year-old Black woman in the face after forcing her to the ground on the side of a highway. The trooper said the woman was resisting arrest. Warning, the video may be disturbing.

Eli Lilly takes weight-loss pill battle global with first Foundayo approval in Europe

Lilly's Foundayo wins U.K. approval, taking its weight-loss pill battle with Novo Nordisk's Wegovy beyond the U.S. market.

Wall Street just endorsed Jensen Huang's 'big concept' for AI. What now?

The first three-plus years of the AI build-out have been funded by record amounts of equity and debt issued by leading tech companies. Nvidia has a new idea.

Canadian airline cancels flight after child refuses to wear seatbelt

Flight from Victoria to Toronto forced to return to terminal after repeated attempts to secure child in seat failed

A Canadian airline cancelled a flight from Victoria to Toronto after a child refused to wear a seatbelt.

The child was standing in their chair as the 6 August Porter Airlines flight taxied towards the runway, the airline said. Repeated attempts by an accompanying parent and crew to secure the child in their seat failed, so the crew elected to return to the terminal and have the two passengers disembark as “the aircraft could not take off in this unsafe condition”, it added.

Spotify to distinguish AI artists from real people – and stop recommending them

Music streaming platform creates ‘AI persona’ label that will appear on profiles and track listings in crackdown on fake performers

Spotify is to label AI artists and exclude them from algorithm recommendations as part of a crackdown on fake performers.

The world’s largest music streaming platform is creating a label for AI-generated artist identities called “AI personas” that will appear on the artist profile and on track listings on playlists.

European Athletics Championships face backlash over ‘crazy prices’ and empty seats

• Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium half-full on Monday

• Athletes and fans join chorus of concern over prices

Keely Hodgkinson’s coach, and the BBC commentator Steve Cram have led a chorus of concern about high ticket prices causing low ­attendances at the European ­Athletics Championships in Birmingham.

Fans have also criticised the high food prices at the Alexander Stadium, with a barbecue pork roll costing £18.50, a bratwurst hot dog £15, and a bottle of water £3.95.

‘Real mummy’s curse’: health warning over growing trade in mummified human remains

Academic paper says often illicit trade exposes enthusiasts – and postal workers handling items – to serious risks

A growing global trade in mummified human remains has been described by academics as “a real mummy’s curse” that poses a serious health risk to its enthusiasts and the postal services they use.

Research into the secretive buying and selling of centuries-old human body parts including hands, feet and heads found alarming risks from dormant microorganisms and the toxic materials used to preserve the remains.

Feel the burn: why holidays from hell make for blistering fiction

Family fallouts, failing marriages, sunburn, food poisoning ... from Deborah Levy’s hypnotic and disturbing Hot Milk to All In, Claire Powell’s all-inclusive nightmare, Leon Craig looks at the best novels about vile vacations

Every summer, we long for a much-needed break from daily life, dreaming of self-reinvention in some distant paradise. But really, holidays can be absolute hell. Instead of relaxation we encounter heaving crowds, lumpy beds, the caprices of our loved ones and the grim truth that we can escape neither their worst failings nor our own, however far we travel.

Small wonder, then, that the disaster holiday has become a booming subgenre in fiction. For most of us, the levels of luxury promised by hit TV series The White Lotus are pure fantasy, yet we’re all vulnerable to the expensive promises we’ve been sold. Two of the smartest offerings in fiction this summer come from Claire Powell’s All In and Chloë Ashby’s Family Friends. In the former, a struggling couple whose marriage is on the rocks go on an all-inclusive Spanish weekend break, paid for by a rich brother. Poignant and extremely funny, the frictions that ensue are all too believable.

3 tubers in Michigan, including a child, rescued after days without food or water

Three tubers who got lost along Michigan's Muskegon River were rescued last week. They were missing for three days in the woods and didn't have food or water. Meg Oliver reports.

5 takeaways from Zuckerberg's essay on his vision for superintelligence

In a 6,500-word post, the Meta CEO argues that superintelligence should be shared "with as many people and businesses as possible."

Nvidia unveils first open-source AI model since CEO Jensen Huang entered the chat

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is free for companies to download, use and modify without getting permission or paying Nvidia. 

Never Had a Chance review – a slice of gritty British Asian life with a side of drug dealing and addiction

Two likely lads in their 20s deal with problematic lives that dramatically intersect in this persuasive London drama

This gritty crime drama unfolds entirely within the Punjabi community in London’s Hounslow district, a plausible demographic situation in which white people are so peripheral to the story that they are little more than extras. In fact watching this well-crafted, if somewhat melodramatic, debut for director Jazz Bhalla makes one wonder why there aren’t more films made in the UK with entirely British Asian casts. Here, it doesn’t makes the film better or worse, but it certainly feels realistic and true to its milieu.

The story revolves around two best friends in their 20s, Ravi (Amar Chaggar) and Jay (Jayant Singh), likely lads who spend a lot of time hanging out, getting high or drunk and ending nearly every sentence with the word “bro”. On the face of it, Jay seems like the one with a more stable situation at home, living with his middle-class parents; while Ravi, who has a criminal record due to a drug bust, lives in a bedsit and is estranged from his mother ever since his father died and she remarried, much to the chagrin of his bossy older sister (Parvinder Shergill). But Ravi manages to get a job working for a building supply merchant, which compels him to start waking up at dawn and considering the downside of always being hung over. Plus, he might be in with a chance with pretty fast-food vendor Sukhi (Tina Sharma), an ambitious young woman keen to get away from her alcoholic father and drug-dealing brother.

Zelenskyy warns Putin is preparing for escalation by bringing in North Korean military equipment

His comments come shortly after deadly Russian attacks on cities across Ukraine overnight.

Lifeguard recalls escaping shark's grasp as officials warn of attacks closer to shore

A lifeguard says a shark dragged him about 5 feet underwater off the coast of Scarborough Beach in Maine before he was able to escape and emerge unharmed. The attack comes as officials along the East Coast say there are more sharks closer to shore in areas where they don't usually go. Tom Hanson reports.

Wind turbines, wildfires and extreme weather: photos of the day – Tuesday

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

At least 200 major wildfires burn across U.S. and Canada

Hot and dry conditions are fueling at least 200 major wildfires in the western U.S. and Canada. Meanwhile, images show the scale of destruction in Spokane, Washington, from the fires there last week. Ian Lee reports.

Omar says federal agent was posted outside monthly meeting in Minneapolis suburb

Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar says a Homeland Security Investigations agent was outside her monthly town hall meeting in Richfield, Minnesota, on Thursday.

Driver who broke the sound barrier to attempt another land speed record in Utah

British driver Andy Green will try to beat his own record, set 20 years ago, with a hydrogen-powered car

The first – and only – person to break the sound barrier in a car hits the track in Utah this week with new wheels and his eye on another record.

Twenty years ago, British driver Andy Green set the land speed record for a diesel-powered car, reaching 350.092mph (563.4km/h) at Utah’s famous Bonneville Salt Flats. Green will return to the lunarlike landscape on Tuesday and try to beat that mark, this time with a hydrogen-powered car.

Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly offered to Manchester United as left-back solution

• Chelsea also made aware of 19-year-old’s availability

• Newcastle’s Lewis Hall remains prime United target

Myles Lewis-Skelly has been offered to Manchester United as a potential left-back option, with Arsenal wishing to recoup some of the £75m paid to Newcastle for Bruno Guimarães.

Chelsea, it is understood, have also been made aware of the 19-year-old’s availability. Lewis-Skelly won the Premier League under Mikel Arteta last term, but whether the west London club will make a move for him is unclear.

‘I feel motherly towards them’: the nature reserve manager sharing her office with a wasp nest

Eilish Rothney’s first instinct was to get rid of the wasps entering her converted shipping container in Norfolk. Now she enjoys their constant hum

When wasps began streaming through a rusted gap in her office door one June morning, Eilish Rothney’s first instinct was the same most people would have: get rid of them. The reserve manager for the Trinity Broads, part of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, had discovered a wasp colony taking up residence in her office, a converted shipping container.

“They just built the nest inside my door,” she says. “My first thought was: ‘Oh no, I have to get rid of that now.’ But then I realised: ‘Wait, why? Why do I have to do that?’”

How to jazz up a fruit salad | Kitchen aide

Our panel says fresh is best, petals are pretty and booze can be beneficial – plus other upgrades for this retro summer classic

How can I make fruit salads more interesting?
Claire, via email
There’s a fine line between a boring and brilliant fruit salad, and it comes down to treating it like you would any other salad. “It’s about layering, it’s about texture, it’s about contrast, it’s about colour,” says Gurdeep Loyal, author of Flavour Heroes. That’s not to say it’s the time to be a maximalist, mind. “If you go for six fruits, then you get into the tinned fruit cocktail territory, so be discerning and use a magic triad instead,” he adds, “although don’t feel the need to use a playground mix of colours.” Sometimes it’s nice to have, say, three red things, so keep it in the family with a mix of strawberries, raspberries and a hybrid berry, like tayberries. That said, Loyal is of the strong opinion that “any fruit salad in the world” will greatly benefit from the addition of passion fruit.

Using nice, ripe fruit is a given, but it’s worth considering how you cut it, too : “A persimmon sliced on a mandoline, for example, is a really lovely thing.” Then, season with salt. “It’s the one thing people don’t do enough,” Loyal adds, although a pinch of brown sugar wouldn’t go amiss, either. And it’s hard to deny the transformative power of spices: “Cinnamon works incredibly well with berries; cardamom with tropical fruit; or try more savoury spices like cumin with mango or pineapple.” It would be a mistake to just stick to the spice rack, though: “Grating ginger on strawberries or mango (with a pinch of cinnamon and some lime, of course) will bring heat, as will freshly grated turmeric.”

Got a culinary dilemma? Email [email protected]

1 year in, National Guard became a part of D.C. life. And, deadly quake hits Colombia

Today marks one year since the National Guard was deployed to the nation's capital. Here's what has happened since. And, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake leaves more than 100 people dead in Colombia.

The US tried to stop cartel money-laundering. It devastated mom-and-pop businesses instead

Small businesses pay hidden toll after money-transfer rule change to curb illicit activities near the US-Mexico border

Last April, the Trump administration rolled out its latest tool in the fight against Mexican cartels: an aggressive crackdown on money transfers near the US-Mexico border.

The administration said that, in an effort to stop money laundering and other illicit activity, it would now require any business providing financial services in the region to report cash transactions over $200. Previously, the amount had been $10,000.

‘Living fossil’: the blue-blood arthropod that has changed little in 445m years

Tenacious and confounding, the horseshoe crab pre-dates dinosaurs and has copper-based blood vital to vaccine safety

They pre-date dinosaurs, eat food using their legs and contain blue blood that we use to keep us healthy. Horseshoe crabs are the supreme, if offbeat, survivors of the invertebrate world.

Often called “living fossils” for visually obvious reasons – horseshoe crabs resemble a sort of prehistoric helmet (their Japanese name translates as “helmet crab”) – these animals have barely changed appearance along a lineage that stretches back 445m years.

It’s invertebrate of the year again! From 3-12 August, every day we will profile one of the thousands of amazing invertebrates that our readers have nominated. And then, when you’ve heard about all of them, we’ll open the voting so you can choose your favourites. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with thoughts and ideas: email us at [email protected] with Invertebrate in the subject line.

Do you have to be hot at work? Eight people on how looks influence their jobs

Due to the rise of GLP-1s and cosmetic surgeries, professionals who weren’t usually subject to high beauty standards are facing new pressures

In 1975, John T Molly’s book Dress for Success became a national bestseller. It promised the American workforce “scientific” proof that certain clothes could “increase your income” and “boost your status”. It offered searing advice like: “Sweaters give out nothing but negative impulses … they say ‘lower middle class’ and ‘loser.’”

For those with office jobs, the workplace has long been a place where fashion counts. Molly’s book gave rise to ideas like power dressing and the adage about “dressing for the job you want, not the one you have”. But a new casual office culture, spurred by San Francisco tech companies where hoodies are the norm, plus the work-from-home revolution, was supposed to ameliorate some of those pressures.

Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon picks raise questions over Trump family business ties

Two advisers have links to a venture fund co-investing in US defense companies that benefit from federal spending

Pete Hegseth’s appointments to a key Pentagon advisory body include two men with ties to the venture capital fund where Donald Trump Jr is a partner, which has lucrative investments in military and space technology.

Defense Policy Board appointee Marc Andreessen’s firm, Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley’s largest venture capital firms and known by the name “a16z”, co-invests alongside the Trump partnership 1789 Capital in three defense contractors. Fellow DPB appointee Blake Masters also sits on the boards of three ventures tied to 1789 Capital.

Hotel prices in Europe jump before total solar eclipse

Rooms in Icelandic capital Reykjavík cost double usual rate and Spain also enjoying strong bookings

• Europe’s total solar eclipse: the best place to see it

Hotel prices have surged in key European cities as hundreds of thousands of tourists flock to see the first total eclipse visible from the continent this century.

Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík, has seen one of the biggest jumps in hotel room prices, being one of the few accessible locations to see the full eclipse before evening on Wednesday.

Syrian court sentences Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia for war crimes

Verdict relates to atrocities committed during the country’s 14-year civil war in which about 500,000 people died

A Syrian court has sentenced the country’s former president Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher to death in absentia for crimes against humanity and war crimes during the 14-year civil war, in which about half a million people died.

The two men fled to Moscow after being ousted by a lightning rebel offensive in December 2024 which toppled the dictatorial regime in just 11 days.

David Squires on … the masochistic life of a Football League fan

Our cartoonist welcomes the EFL back, with returning characters and a look at what it’s like as an exiled supporter

• Buy a cartoon | Some of David’s favourite works

• And his latest book, Chaos in the Box: get it now

The secret economics inside the new Planet Money board game

From Nobel Prize-winning research to the Laffer Curve, Scabby the Rat, Veblen's peacock, and more — the economic ideas and inside jokes hiding throughout Planet Money's new board game.

Former Syrian President Assad sentenced to death in absentia

A Syrian court sentenced Assad along with his brother to death in absentia for crimes against humanity and war crimes during Syria's 14-year conflict that left about half a million people dead.

Hotel giant says ‘growing middle class’ boosted hotel demand despite Middle East hit

IHG reported higher first-half profit as U.S. demand accelerated and Middle East disruption weighed on travel.

Experts are warning: our AI arms race is putting humanity at risk | Stuart Russell

A recent letter signed by 1,367 researchers and engineers at frontier AI labs – mainly OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Deepmind – points to a dangerous moment

It is fashionable in certain circles to dismiss the catastrophic risks of AI. One often hears that “the real experts” who work on the technology every day are really not concerned at all; that only “doomers” and “luddites” espouse a “fringe” view from a “position of ignorance”; that all talk of potential catastrophe is just “science fiction”.

Fortunately, an open letter has been published that lets us hear from the real experts who work on the technology every day, in their own words. And are they worried? Very.

Trump’s vaccine order is about feelings, not facts | Robert B Shpiner

There’s no evidence that vaccines cause autism, or that we should separate MMR shots. This order is dangerous

“This is based on what I feel.” That was the president last September, explaining why he wanted the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine broken into three separate shots. On Monday, he signed an executive order instructing exactly that.

Four decades in intensive care have taught me what a feeling costs once it becomes national policy. Children will be hospitalized who did not need to be. Some of them will die. No one can name those the vaccine has saved, because prevented harm is invisible by definition, and that invisibility is what makes preventive medicine easy to dismantle and hard to defend.

The return of the caspian tiger: how a species feared extinct has come back to Kazakhstan

The wild capture and release of a female big cat into a nature reserve is the first step towards reintroducing a population that hasn’t been seen for 70 years

On 31 July, “Umit” – which means hope in Kazakh – was released into a nature reserve on the edge of Lake Balkhash after more than a decade of careful planning to return the caspian tiger to the region. With this release, Kazakhstan became the first country to restore its tiger range after they had been thought extinct, with the last reliable sighting in the country recorded more than 70 years ago.

Umit – a wild-caught female tiger transported from the Russian far east – will be joined by more big cats in the coming years, with plans to establish a self-sustaining population of about 50. A wild-caught male flown from Russia is still being monitored by authorities and will be released when he is judged fit to survive alone. Two wild tiger cubs are also being reared on the reserve in special enclosures, with as little human contact as possible, and are likely to be released into the marshlands next year, to feast on boar, deer and kulans, a type of wild donkey.

A midwife crosses 'maternity deserts' to make a difference for Black moms and babies

New research from the March of Dimes says more than half of U.S. counties have no labor and delivery hospitals. One Black midwife tries to make a difference for moms in Alabama. 

‘A horrible nightmare’: the shocking story of the eBay harassment scandal

Jaw-dropping documentary Whatever It Takes details an aggressive stalking campaign targeted towards a couple whose reporting criticized the tech company

When Massachusetts husband-and-wife team Ina and David Steiner launched their reporting careers covering Silicon Valley at the turn of the century, the tech beat was still cozy enough to feel personal. The startups were still emerging from garages, and the journalists covering them were often filing stories from their own kitchen tables. Ebay was still a young online auction company founded on the principle that “people are basically good.”

As digital retail took off, the Steiners launched an e-zine called EcommerceBytes, catering to a growing community of small business owners who were increasingly using platforms like eBay to sell their wares. “We talked about this being an opportunity for just average people, disabled people, elderly people to make extra income,” says David of a community that has grown alongside EcommerceBytes, which now has more than 600,000 readers. “We were really excited about that.”

‘I’m giving people a happy space’: the man clearing gardens for free – and letting light into strangers’ lives

When he saw a messy yard being criticised on social media, Stephen Jalland grabbed his trimmer and decided to help. An overgrown garden, he discovered, often hides an overwhelmed owner

Anita Thursby had been dreading the gas engineer coming to service her boiler. They would have needed to enter her kitchen, where the window looked into the jungle of swirling, 2-metre-high brambles that made up her back garden, and her shame had spiralled. “I would have been horrified,” she says. For the same reason, the 54-year-old had stopped inviting friends over to her house and had been living in fear of a complaint from her housing association.

Maintaining the garden had slipped from her grasp, becoming a source of constant worry, yet pride had stopped her asking for help – and tight finances from paying for it. Family barbecues had become a distant memory, even though she longed to have her 83-year-old mother round to sit in the sun; weeks ago, she bought a grill in Tesco with little hope of ever using it.

The last lap at Lloyd Center: how America is losing its mall ice rinks

The Portland rink where Tonya Harding first skated was an affordable community institution for six decades. Its closure echoes the disappearance of mall ice across the US

When the Lloyd Center shopping mall first opened its doors in 1960, it boasted a unique feature: an ice rink. In the nearly seven decades since, that ice rink – first outdoor, then enclosed by a glass ceiling that sheltered mall-goers from the elements – became a cultural epicenter for Portlanders.

Children accompanying parents on errands spotted peers gliding across the ice and begged for lessons. Shoppers, taking a break from the stores, watched idly from the three levels that looked out over the ice. At Christmas, a giant tree adorned the middle of the rink, making Lloyd Center an essential part of the holiday season.

The school year begins in LA with one big change: limited screen time

As educators in the nation's second-largest district prepare for the new limits on classroom screen time, some teachers say it will be a difficult adjustment.

In Minnesota and Wisconsin, competitive primaries will again test power of progressive candidates

A week after the Michigan primary, tests of progressive power will play out in the Midwest, raising questions of whether far left candidates can win come November or if the GOP can pick up moderates.

Nvidia links with Wall Street firms for $500bn AI financing deal

Apollo, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and KKR among those working with chipmaker to fund infrastructure

• Business live – latest updates

Nvidia ⁠has struck a deal with six large Wall Street firms to raise ⁠more than $500bn (£370bn) to fund the datacentres, chip factories and power stations needed to fuel the artificial intelligence boom.

The Nvidia chief executive, Jensen Huang, said on X that it marked “a major milestone for Nvidia and the AI industry”, as he posted a photo of himself smiling and giving a thumbs up alongside finance bosses involved in the deal, including the head of Goldman Sachs, David Solomon.

Morning news brief

Voters in six states head to the polls Tuesday for high-profile primaries, Trump signals his strategy with Iran is shifting, 7.4 magnitude earthquake kills at least 111 people in Colombia.

Does Sophie Cunningham benefit from white privilege? Of course she does | Etan Thomas

One of the player’s WNBA rivals said the Fever guard is treated differently from her Black peers. There’s plenty of evidence to back that statement up

White privilege. An accusation that triggers multitudes of white people in America as if you had insulted their mother. Mention racism, and people may debate you. Mention discrimination, and people may even listen. But say the words “white privilege”, and suddenly defenses go up, outrage erupts, and people start explaining why privilege couldn’t possibly have anything to do with what everyone just witnessed with their own eyes.

Which brings us to DiJonai Carrington and Sophie Cunningham.

Delivery drivers to be paid minimum $31.30 an hour across Australia in ‘world-leading’ decision

Fair Work Commission issues a new minimum standards order for gig workers to come into effect 17 August

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Delivery drivers in Australia will be paid a minimum rate of $31.30 (US $22.05/£16.35) an hour and insured for injuries on the job under a landmark agreement approved by the industrial umpire that could set a precedent in other countries.

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) on Tuesday issued a new minimum standards order for gig workers who perform on-demand delivery of food, drinks, or groceries, and the operators of the digital platforms who engage their services.

Gangs using Airbnb-type rentals as drug stash houses, top Belgian official says

Flexible short-term bookings used to store and pack drugs and stash weapons and cash, says Ine Van Wymersch

Airbnb-type short-term rentals are being used as stash houses by criminal gangs for money, drugs, weapons and people, Belgium’s lead official in charge of countering drugs has said.

The booming e-commerce sector is helping “enormously” to facilitate organised crime, Belgium’s national drug commissioner, Ine Van Wymersch, said.

As conflict in the Middle East intensifies, India’s relationship with Israel deepens

An Amnesty International report reveals that the country is now a key part of Israel’s weapons supply chain. Plus, Assam floods, student anger spreads and a song to put in rotation

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Hello, and welcome back to This Is India.

For this week’s newsletter, I’m looking at India’s evolving relationship with Israel, and how it has deepened as conflict swept across the Middle East. Why is it that India has formed an even closer bond with a country that has faced mounting international isolation and backlash over a military campaign in Gaza that has left the territory in ruins and killed more than 70,000 Palestinians, – many of whom were children?

Trump reportedly hid in catering container to board secret flight in Turkey amid Iran threat

Elaborate ruse was used to transport president to military flight from Air Force One in July

Donald Trump departed on a secret military flight from Turkey to Britain last month when the White House said he was flying aboard ⁠Air Force One, in an extraordinary ruse – prompted by an Iranian assassination threat – that involved hiding the president in an airport catering container, according to reporting from the Washington Post and the New York Times.

The operation took place when Trump was in Ankara for a Nato summit with world leaders, according to the Post. The president reportedly boarded the old Air Force One jumbo jet in view of television cameras, and then was secretly shuttled minutes later to a smaller plane via an airport catering truck typically used to load meals and other supplies preflight, a US official told the Post.

Kelly Slater, 54, rolls back years with near-perfect surf in monster Tahiti swell

• American scores 19.06 to beat Medina at Tahiti Pro

• Eleven-time world champion tames Teahupo’o barrels

Even at the grand old age of 54, the evergreen Kelly Slater’s mastery of surfing appears to know no bounds. Having been handed a wildcard for the Tahiti Pro, the American delivered yet another masterclass as he tamed Teahupo’o, one of the world’s heaviest waves, to knock out Gabriel Medina with a near-perfect heat score.

Slater, who is still regarded as one of the best barrel riders in the world, has won the notoriously treacherous event five times before. In pumping conditions on Tuesday that produced eight-to-10ft swell, the veteran rolled back the years with an imperious display as two deep barrels scored 9.73 and 9.33 for a heat total of 19.06 to blow his Brazilian opponent out of the water.

Turkey's parliament approves a pardon-like bill for thousands of PKK militants

Turkey's parliament approved legislation that would introduce a conditional pardon for thousands of Kurdish militants in a bid to advance the government's peace initiative with their insurgent group.

Consumer confidence at near two-year high as World Cup and UK holidaying lift summer spending

Barclays says survey shows people feel more secure in jobs and have more leeway to spend on non-essentials

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Consumer confidence hit its highest level in almost two years in July, according to research that indicated the closing stages of the men’s football World Cup and more people holidaying in the UK raised summer spending.

A truce in the Middle East conflict in June and the arrival of a new prime minister in No 10 also gave a lift to consumers after a long period of heightened uncertainty.

‘Drops take seconds but change a life for ever’: the women saving India’s remotest people from polio

Shameema and Tanzeela must trek for miles in summer heat to vaccinate children in Kashmir’s highlands as part of a vast national programme

Before sunrise, Shameema slips on her worn rubber sandals and checks the insulated box – the ice packs inside must maintain the crucial cold chain at between 2C and 8C (35.6-46.4F). She hoists the container on one shoulder and steps out into the dark.

Tanzeela follows with her own pack, after quickly retying the laces of her canvas shoes. Both women live in Pulwama, a district where summer temperatures climb to 37C. Their destination lies higher, out of the valley where asphalt turns to dirt track and then to a barely distinguishable footpath along the floor of the mountain pine forests.

A bit on the nose! The world’s longest-running photography exhibition – in pictures

Now on its 167th edition, the Royal Photographic Society’s annual show features moving explorations of kinks, visual disorders … and long-snouted clowns

Game of Thrones, Shakespearean? What fools these mortals be!

The Mad King may bring more dynastic disputes and dotty despots to the RSC – but a ‘mayhap’ or a riddling aphorism does not a Shakespeare play make

As a latecomer to Game of Thrones, I am struck by how many people tell me it is “very Shakespearean”. It is as if they need to justify its heady escapism and heavy reliance on bonking and brutality. But its debt to the Bard – apart from the rivalry between the houses of Lannister and Stark – rests mainly on the casting. Watching the first 11 episodes, I noticed four Lears past and to come (Julian Glover, David Bradley, Oliver Ford-Davies and Roger Allam), a Macbeth (Sean Bean), a Hamlet and Henry V (Iain Glen) and a Cassius (Michelle Fairley) among many others.

Because it is presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company and staged by Dominic Cooke, who memorably directed The Hollow Crown on television, we shall doubtless hear the same arguments about Game of Thrones: The Mad King at Stratford. But, although there are frequent nods to Shakespeare, they totally lack the resonance of the original. Our first sight of Michael Shaeffer’s King Aerys with a white beard, a leafy crown and no shoes almost screams “Lear on the heath”. But where Lear gradually declines into insanity (“O fool I shall go mad”) and comes out the other side, Shaeffer’s Aerys is a dotty despot from start to finish. The use of tournaments to settle dynastic disputes also reminds us of the opening of Richard II – but where that event is aborted and ultimately causes the king’s downfall, here the image of embattled jousters is endlessly repeated.

Hundreds in London flats left without regular running water since last year

Supply in nine blocks in Tower Hamlets affected with some residents suspecting nearby building developments

• They cannot even flush their toilets: life in east London blocks where taps often run dry

Hundreds of residents in blocks of flats in east London have been left without regular running water for more than seven months after development in the area may have left it without an adequate supply.

Taps have been running dry in nine blocks in Tower Hamlets, where residents have been forced to use bottled water while their landlord, the housing association Poplar Harca, delayed works to solve the problem.

José Pizarro’s recipe for peach and moscatel granita

Something light, cooling and refreshing to finish a big summer meal

For me, the best desserts are often the simplest. In Spain, we often finish a meal with something light, something that refreshes rather than fills you up. This is exactly that. It has a lovely texture that sits somewhere between a drink and something you eat, and is perfect at the end of a long meal. It feels relaxed but still special, the kind of thing you enjoy on a warm day, when all you want is something fresh and uplifting.

The great silence: why haven’t we found any aliens yet?

Given the size and age of the universe, it should be full of species with technology far more advanced than our own. So where are they?

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During a visit to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1950, Enrico Fermi, one of the architects of the Manhattan Project, was having lunch with other physicists when the conversation turned to flying saucers. At one point during the discussion, Fermi blurted out: “Where is everybody?” – or, as another participant remembered it, “Don’t you ever wonder where everybody is?” If aliens exist, in other words, why have we never encountered them?

The episode has become famous, marking the moment when extraterrestrial life went from a theme for philosophical speculation to a serious scientific problem. For centuries, people had wondered whether life exists on the moon or Mars, but they accepted that we would never know for certain, since making contact with another planet was impossible. By the 1950s, those limits no longer seemed so fixed. In addition to space flight, researchers were developing tools to detect the radio signals that reach us from stars many light years away. These developments were still in their infancy, but it was already clear that humanity was no longer bound to Earth the way it always had been.

‘We are still here’: a day in the life of 12 Afghan women

In the five years since the Taliban’s return to power, the walls have been closing in on the women and girls of Afghanistan.

As the regime has tightened its grip, it has banned girls from education after the age of 12, ejected many women from the workplace and created legal frameworks for child marriage and husbands beating their wives. Taliban rule has ushered in a new era of women being whipped for minor infractions and constant inspections by ‘vice and morality’ officials, with men compelled to become enforcers in their own homes. Even the borders of the online world have been creeping inward, with a new spate of smartphone bans and internet restrictions.

Marking the grim anniversary, a dozen women and girls have, at great risk to their safety, documented their lives for the world to see

Herat province
Every day, I wake up to the silence of dawn. I feel as though I am still holding my weapon. I lie on my bed for a few moments, taking deep breaths. With every awakening, I make a promise to myself: if my husband manages to return home safely today, I will thank God even more.

The myth of Anthony Bourdain: how the bad boy chef became a hero to boozehounds and bullies

The author of Kitchen Confidential has inspired a new movie, Tony, about his days as a dishwasher. But do today’s chefs still admire his self-sabotaging rock’n’roll spirit – or have they outgrown it?

The trope of the Angry Young Man was not born in a kitchen, but Anthony Bourdain’s particular myth-making created what might be the prototype for fin de (20th) siècle masculinity. As the director of Tony, the new biopic of Bourdain focusing on his first job, has said, the film is about “a magical world where nothing can go wrong and a young man who’s angry about it”.

Bourdain arrived in that job, as a dishwasher in a restaurant in Provincetown, Massachusetts, aged 19. He was hellbent on a life of formless, self-sabotaging rebellion, and found his tribe. But when he published his book Kitchen Confidential in 2000, a quarter of a century later, he set the ethos of that kitchen tribe in stone, and attracted an ever-replenishing pool of chefs who, if they weren’t already just like him, were prepared to die trying.

At a temple in Thailand, parents mourn a 12-year-old mass shooting victim, and a father pleads for forgiveness

Hundreds gathered in Nonthaburi province to remember Naphat Chaimar, the youngest victim of last week’s school mass shooting, including the shooter’s father

When the mother and father of the youngest victim of last week’s school mass shooting arrived at the temple north of Bangkok, teary-eyed parents came up to quietly offer condolences before the prayers began in front of the 12-year-old girl’s casket.

Then, in a moment, the tone changed.

Trump signs order on vaccination recommendations

President Trump signed an executive order on childhood vaccine schedules Monday.

Captain of boat that capsized in New York facing federal charges after mom, infant die

Manuel Hernandez, the boat's 46-year-old captain, was arrested on reckless endangerment charges and also charged in federal court with two counts of misconduct and neglect.

Man who allegedly arranged Tupac Shakur's 1996 killing is on trial in Las Vegas

The man who prosecutors say orchestrated the 1996 killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur, Duane "Keffe D" Davis, is on trial almost 30 years after the drive-by shooting in Las Vegas.

WNBA faces new controversy after Sky's DiJonai Carrington ejected over foul on Sophie Cunningham

WNBA star Sophie Cunningham, already at the center of a fight over transgender participation, took a flagrant foul from an opposing player who was ejected from the game. Jan Crawford has more details.

Chuck Grassley's beloved vacuum, Beth, has retired

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley has been posting little snapshots of his "old reliable" vacuum. But after nearly 50 years of service in the family, she has retired. Tony Dokoupil has the story.

Taylor Farms recalls jalapeño items at Walmart, Target over salmonella risk

The recalled products with jalapeño were distributed at national retailers, including Walmart, Target and Trader Joe's, in 26 states.

Jackie, a beloved bald eagle from Big Bear, dies after attack by 2 other eagles

Jackie, of the beloved bald eagle duo Jackie and Shadow, watched by millions on the Big Bear live feed, has died.

Taylor Farms recalls jalapeño products potentially contaminated with salmonella

Taylor Farms, the company linked to this summer's lettuce-related parasite outbreak, is now recalling jalapeño pepper products after new concerns about salmonella. Tom Hanson reports.

Wildfires ravage the West: Details and the forecast

Hot and dry conditions out west fueled at least 200 major wildfires across the U.S. and Canada. Jonathan Vigliotti reports from Spokane, Washington, and Paul Deanno has the forecast.

Amanda Knox in Cartwheel review – rookie standup acquitted of murder tells her story

Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh
Performer cleared of death of her roommate in Italy uses new motherhood as framework for her defiant comedy show

‘Welcome to the most controversial show on the fringe!” Some audiences will diagnose self-regard in that intro by rookie standup Amanda Knox. For others, as for Knox herself, it merely acknowledges the continuing efforts to silence her. But then, Knox is “the human version of the blue/gold dress”, a canvas on to which we all project guilty, innocent – or weird. Her innocence now proved, it’s the last of these charges she takes on in this fringe outing, retelling her oft-told tale through the lens of new motherhood.

Is it a disgrace that she’s telling it at all – and profiting from it, some would say (although they’ve presumably never taken a show to the Edinburgh fringe)? Classifying Cartwheel as comedy may be a misstep; it risks looking insensitive and inaccurately describes the show. But, judging by the evidence, Knox would be damned whatever she did. Now at least she can tell her story in her own way, articulating a growing anger at her treatment and a determination to raise her daughter, not to be silenced and scared but “to be the exact girl I was punished for being”.

At Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh, until 17 August

All our Edinburgh festival reviews

Trump Media posts $238 million second-quarter loss as crypto declines

TMTG said it has signed more than 10 customer agreements for Truth API, the service offering faster access to President Donald Trump's posts.

8/10: CBS Evening News

Trump called for fewer vaccines in a new executive order; a catastrophic earthquake hit Colombia.

Trump extends limited waiver of shipping law to keep oil flowing in U.S. amid Iran war

The Jones Act waiver extension comes after the Trump administration's latest signs of a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz failed to materialize.

Trump says he spoke recently to Fed Chairman Warsh, denies regular calls

The president said he had recently been in touch with the Fed chairman, but denied regular contact amid concerns about central bank independence.

8/10: The Takeout with Major Garrett

Trump signs executive order updating childhood vaccine recommendations; primary day for five states on Tuesday.

Trump signs executive order calling for fewer childhood vaccines, falsely linking shots to autism

The order builds on the Trump administration's efforts to reshape the childhood shot schedule under HHS Secretary RFK Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic.