First Thing: US indicts former Cuban president Raúl Castro as it seeks to oust regime

• 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.

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...

Reforms comply with wishlist of intelligence services which say Germany lags behind allies and enemiesThe German government has approved a draft law aimed at lifting many of the restraints on its spy agencies imposed during the postwar period as the country reels from two attacks in a month that have exposed serious security gaps.The controversial changes, which must still pass parliament, largely comply with a wishlist pulled together by the foreign and domestic intelligence services, which have long complained Germany lags behind its allies and enemies. Continue reading...

Calls for speed limiters or mandated helmet use after research into injuries at three paediatric trauma centres The number of children involved in crashes on e-scooters has soared in recent years, with some as young as nine involved in collisions, research has found.Researchers carried out a review of injuries among the under-16s at three specialist paediatric trauma centres – Alder Hey in Liverpool, and Sheffield and Royal Manchester children’s hospitals – between January 2019 and December 2024. Continue reading...

Operation under way to rescue dozens missing after boat overturned by waves at world’s largest manmade lakeAt least 15 people have died and 27 are missing after an overcrowded ferry capsized on Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe.The boat had a capacity of 90 people, but was carrying 114 adult passengers, five crew members and an unknown number of children, Zimbabwe’s civil protection unit (CPU) said, citing ticket sales. Continue reading...

With wing spans up to 3ft, the shy cownose ray species typically arrive in Long Island waters in the warmer monthsDrone footage of dozens of stingrays in the ocean off New York has captivated beachgoers and marine enthusiasts, offering a rare bird’s-eye view of a species that scientists say has visited the area for decades.The footage was captured las`t Friday off the coast of Southampton on the Long Island peninsula by Joanna Steidle, a Hamptons-based professional drone pilot known for her aerial ocean shots. It shows cownose rays gliding through the water en masse near the surface. Continue reading...

Iran lost top leaders in the war and US ‘humiliation ... a form of revenge’, say experts, after administration’s flight ruseSince the joint US-Israeli strikes in February that killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and scores of other senior Iranian officials on the first day of the war, a revenge plot to kill Donald Trump should not have appeared far-fetched.But the US administration’s elaborate ruse to spirit Trump off of Air Force One in Turkey last month indicates a credibility to the Iranian threat that has surprised many in Washington – including the Trump aides and journalists left on the jet that may have remained the target of an Iranian missile strike. Continue reading...

Geopolitics and cost of living crisis have cost Europe’s largest travel company €60m so farHolidaymakers are waiting until the last minute to book their trips because of the continuing uncertainty caused by the war in Iran and the cost of living crisis, according to Tui, Europe’s largest travel company, which said the war had cost it €60m (£51m) so far.In the weeks after the outbreak of war at the end of February, Tui recorded a temporary drop-off in customers wanting to travel to Cyprus or Turkey, in what the company called a “volatile market”. Continue reading...