Senate Republicans pass bill authorizing $70bn for immigration enforcement in vote-a-rama – US politics live

• China and Indonesia have agreed to deepen military cooperation and expand strategic ties in technology, energy, and minerals to strengthen bilateral relations amid Asian geopolitical competition. • The Dutch public broadcaster Avrotros has withdrawn from the 2027 Eurovision Song Contest, citing concerns that the event's independent and neutral character has been compromised.

Jasmeet Wadhwa, who fled Taliban persecution in Afghanistan, lost his life in AprilA British family is pleading with French authorities to release the body of a relative that officials have held for five months after he died in the Channel in April.Jasmeet Wadhwa, 32, died while attempting to reach the UK on a dinghy on 1 April with his mother, Harbans Kaur Wadhwa, after they fled Taliban persecution in Afghanistan in January of this year. Continue reading...

Donkey named HeeHaw was shot and killed as authorities reportedly looked on property in search of a missing personA police officer in the US state of Georgia was placed on leave after a family’s pet baby donkey was shot and killed during an early-morning search on their property.The animal’s owner, Hannah Israel, said officers were at her pasture without notification or permission at about 12.45am on Sunday, reportedly looking for a missing person when they encountered the small male donkey named HeeHaw. Continue reading...

Trump’s Operation Economic Outcast is expected to push many Iranians into deeper poverty as food inflation soarsFor many Iranians, the new US sanctions campaign, called Operation Economic Outcast, seems superfluous given the grim economic situation in their country.Iranians are facing runaway food inflation, closed petrol stations and a seemingly never-ending depreciation of the nation’s currency caused by a lack of foreign exchange reserves. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Dr Will Tullett says better understanding of scents can improve wellbeing and perception of the worldChildren need a better education in sniffing aromas, a leading historian of smells has said, noting it may improve their wellbeing and help them understand the world around them.Dr Will Tullett, of the University of York, said pollution had been found to impair people’s olfactory abilities, while many objects and substances today – from margarines to car interiors and even our own homes – were stripped of their original smells and “reodourised” with synthetic scents. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Labour MPs believe SMC has become ineffective and its work ‘should be a core function of government’Ministers are considering a shake-up of the government’s social mobility watchdog that could range from giving it more teeth to abolishing it outright.The move comes amid concerns that the Social Mobility Commission (SMC) – originally conceived under Gordon Brown’s government in 2010 – has become ineffective. Continue reading...

Clacton, funding, internal divisions – party prepares for annual conference next week after a season of misstepsSenior Reform UK figures like to boast that the summer time – and parliament’s longest recess – is when the party makes hay.Supposedly, it’s when Nigel Farage and co can muscle in on the news cycle with provocative statements and new policies, painting “establishment” opponents as workshy layabouts. Continue reading...

Andy Burnham urged to seek consensus over response to extreme heat and forthcoming ‘super El Niño’Andy Burnham should call a cross-party meeting to discuss the UK’s response to worsening extreme weather, including the forthcoming ‘super El Niño’, the Liberal Democrats have said.The prime minister chaired a Cobra emergency meeting on the drought earlier this month but there has been little from the government on the wider threats posed by five successive heatwaves since May and expected global issues with food shortages and inflation. Continue reading...

Exclusive: How a court case over an unoccupied office block could end a widely used tax avoidance schemeFrom the outside, the seven-storey building at 2 America Square looks like any other office block in the heart of London’s financial district.Located about half a mile from Tower Bridge, one might expect it to be a hive of commercial activity, teeming with employees holding important meetings. However, much of the property is home not to staff vying for their next bonus, but to stacks of nondescript black boxes arranged in neat lines. Continue reading...

National park officials say body of a man, 46, was recovered and about 15 others remain missing or unaccounted forThe Grand Canyon area braced for more rain and thunderstorms on Monday after a flash flood that left one person dead and about 15 others missing or unaccounted for – with scores of visitors evacuated and the only water pipeline for tourists and residents destroyed.Emergency water restrictions that began on Monday prevented tourists from staying overnight at lodges and hotels within the park. Year-round residents were asked to conserve water. Continue reading...

Guidance says states must implement ‘comprehensive measures’ to address legacy of racial discriminationA UN committee has said countries are legally obliged to consider reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and take other ⁠measures to address the enduring ⁠legacy of racial ​discrimination.Guidance published on Monday by the committee on the elimination of racial discrimination (CERD) said the obligations arose from ⁠a legally binding 1965 convention on racial discrimination, not from the legal standards that existed when the slave trade took place. Continue reading...

War on Gaza and violence in West Bank is playing out in the streets of Toledo, Ohio, where the Arab American community has flourishedFrom his office outside Toledo, Ohio, Thamin Tim Ridi opens his phone to livestream the scene outside the besieged house of his brother, Loui, thousands of miles away in the occupied West Bank.This month, with his property at risk of being destroyed by Israeli settlers, Loui traveled from Ohio to his ancestral home in Qusra, south of Nablus, where his mother and other family members have been living in constant fear of attack. Continue reading...