China Publicly Breaks with Iran Over Strait of Hormuz Crisis, Calls for Ceasefire

• 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.

Incident marks second familicide in midwest in two weeks, with the children who died ranging in age from three to nineA father killed his four young children and their mother before turning the gun on himself, said authorities in Wichita, Kansas – marking the second incident of familicide in the midwest in two weeks.The Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Winfield police department said a man identified as 53-year-old Ronald Williams Sr called police at 8.50am on Tuesday to say he had killed his entire family and was about to take his own life. Continue reading...

Eclipse to be witnessed by tens of millions across western Europe as enthusiasts gather along path of totalityNicola Davis and Oliver HolmesA wide band of north and central Spain, plus a sliver of Portugal and parts of Greenland and Iceland will experience a rare total eclipse. Continue reading...

Winds of more than 80mph, severe flooding and tornadoes swept through Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and KentuckyPowerful storms swept across ⁠the midwest on Tuesday, leaving three dead and more than 800,000 without power in four states as winds gusts of more than 80mph (130km/h) tore down trees and power lines.⁠In Indiana, a four-year-old child died after a tree fell on his ⁠home in Geneva Township and a person died in a suspected weather-related house explosion in Portage, a city about 30 miles south-east of Chicago. Continue reading...

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...

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...

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...

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...