As Labor faces pressure to respond boldly to oil shock, it needs to find more unconventional levers to pull

• The article examines whether a potential military failure in Iran would fundamentally change U.S. strategic approaches to warfare and foreign intervention. • It notes a historical trend where veterans and voters punished previous administrations for the high costs of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Investigators believe Vikings and Hells Angels members involved in violence that preceded death of Brecon manA man was killed in what is believed to have been a violent brawl between rival motorcycle gangs in the south Wales valleys, police have said.Anthony “Tony” Jones, 56, of Brecon, died of his injuries in hospital after the violence in Pontnewynydd, near Pontypool, last Thursday evening, which reportedly involved knives and hammers. Continue reading...

Labour chair says Reform deputy leader is trying to harass journalists over reporting on his financial affairsUK politics live – latest updatesRichard Tice has been accused by Labour’s Bridget Phillipson of mounting a “deeply chilling attempt to silence the free press” after he sent a legal threat to the Guardian over its reporting on his financial affairs.Lawyers for Tice, the deputy leader of Reform UK, singled out a Guardian correspondent for her journalism about a series of Tice’s financial transactions that were referred to the National Crime Agency. Continue reading...

Falling water levels linked to weather system are expected to limit number of slots to transit shipping laneBusiness live – latest updatesCommercial ships travelling through the Panama Canal are facing a rise in costs amid disruption triggered by the Iran war and falling water levels linked to this year’s intense El Niño weather system.Highlighting the fragility of global trade, a container ship reportedly paid about $4m (£3m) to jump a queue of vessels waiting to pass through the vital maritime choke point. Continue reading...

Vice-chancellor Deborah Prentice says she recognises the ‘difficult case’ has damaged the universityCambridge University’s leadership has bowed to internal pressure for an independent investigation into its appointment of Jason Arday as professor, with its vice-chancellor admitting the affair had damaged the institution.Prof Deborah Prentice said she recognised the “anger and anxiety around this damaging and difficult case”, but described it as an aberration that should not be used to cast aspersions on the abilities of its staff of colour. Continue reading...

As London restaurants say wild birds are smaller and fewer this year, experts say countryside should not be ‘playground for bloodsports’Every year on 12 August, fans of traditional British cuisine flock to plush restaurants in Mayfair to dine on grouse served with bread sauce and game chips.But those hoping to find the small wild birds, sourced from the UK’s moorlands, may be disappointed. Wildfires have been raging on moors across the UK, burning habitats and incinerating wildlife after record-breaking heat has turned the landscape into a tinderbox. Continue reading...

Sadiq Khan has indicated the technology will be deployed on London’s Oxford Street despite human rights concernsThe Metropolitan police are understood to be planning to use live facial recognition (LFR) technology on Britain’s busiest shopping street.In June the Met said it would introduce the technology in London’s West End by Christmas and into a further six areas next year. Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, has indicated that the newly pedestrianised Oxford Street will be included. Continue reading...

Democrats demand congressional briefing after passenger-laden Air Force One sent on decoy flight despite security scare. Plus, the 11 biggest wellness trends of 2026 so farGood morning.Democrats have called for a congressional briefing after a charade in which Donald Trump was secretly spirited into a different plane than the one the public and press believed he was travelling on.How did the plot to smuggle Trump off the plane unfold? In this video, the Guardian breaks down the footage from that day, showing how the president reportedly boarded the old Air Force One 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 before flight.Where have progressives enjoyed electoral success this week? Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, won her Democratic primary for US Senate in a race centered on immigration enforcement. Flanagan, who beat the congresswoman Angie Craig, recently told the Guardian: “So often I think Democrats are like: ‘What do we think we can win?’ Instead of: ‘What are the fights that we should be picking?’”What happened in South Carolina’s abbreviated special Republican primary? Darline Graham, appointed to complete the Senate term of her late brother, Lindsey, will face the congressman Ralph Norman in a runoff on 25 August. The winner will face the Democratic nominee Annie Andrews in November’;s midterms. Continue reading...

Plans for hyperscale datacenter in Palm Beach county prompt concerns over water and electricity demandsAbout 16 miles (26km) south-west of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Largo estate, near the northern edge of the Florida Everglades, developers have proposed a hyperscale datacenter on a 202-acre (82-hectare) parcel of land surrounded by water. Local environmentalists warn that the proposed 600MW datacenter in western Palm Beach county could damage the wetlands, which the federal government and the state of Florida have spent a combined $6bn to restore after decades of drainage and development.One concern is that the datacenter could exacerbate an existing issue of toxic bacterial blooms in a water system which has already been stressed by drought, fertilizer runoff and warm water temperatures. In recent summers, the bright blooms of blue-green algae have covered nearly half of Lake Okeechobee, which feeds into the Everglades. Continue reading...

Marni von Wilpert helped draft Protecting the Right to Organize act, and now wants work toward implementing itLegislation that would modernize federal labor law began with a handful of lawyers meeting, of all places, in an ice-cream shop.“We wrote for hours what we would do to amend the National Labor Relations Act,” said Marni von Wilpert, a member of the San Diego city council who was then an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Bringing together “our collective experience as labor lawyers over the years, really trying to unrig the rules so that working people could have a fair shot”. Continue reading...

South African scientist’s breakthrough research shows soil fungus could be used in fight against devastating crop pestHearing about fields full of dead caterpillars enveloped in a mysterious white substance intrigued the South African scientist Letodi Luki Mathulwe. Something was killing off the African armyworm – one of the most devastating pests for farmers in east and southern Africa.The white substance was a naturally occurring fungus and it was wiping out the caterpillar, which gained its name from its march-like advance through fields of crops. Continue reading...

Serial sex offender sentenced for murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo and Sheryl Wilkins, and raping another woman in 2025Simon Levy, the sexual predator left free by police errors to murder two women, will never leave prison after being sentenced to a whole-life tariff.Levy was convicted on Friday of murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo in March 2025 and Sheryl Wilkins five months later. He was also convicted of attacking and raping another woman, 35, in January 2025, who survived and gave damning testimony against him. Continue reading...