Top mountaineer Nirmal Purja confirmed dead after 11 hit by avalanche in Pakistan

• The article explores whether a potential breakthrough in Gaza could serve as a catalyst for a historic diplomatic agreement between the United States and Iran. • It argues that the interconnected nature of Middle Eastern conflicts means that a durable reduction in violence in Gaza would shift strategic calculations for key regional players, including Tehran, Riyadh, and Cairo.

• The U.S. and Israel are planning joint military strikes targeting energy sites in Iran, with bombing operations potentially continuing throughout the weekend. • These plans were discussed during a cabinet meeting at Camp David, where President Trump reportedly ordered fresh strikes to force the Islamic Republic to surrender.

• Hamas has conditioned the implementation of a new U.S.-brokered Gaza peace framework on Israel first fulfilling commitments from a previous agreement reached in Sharm el Sheikh last year. • To proceed, Hamas demands that Israel end military operations, withdraw forces to October positions, and increase the flow of humanitarian aid and commercial goods into the territory.

Max Blumenthal says he was singled out at airport after Trump ally Laura Loomer targeted him in online postsWhen reporter Max Blumenthal went to a cafe in Tehran one night a few weeks ago to upload videos from his reporting on the funeral of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, he began seeing social media posts from Trump ally Laura Loomer targeting him, including one that suggested he should be “taken off the plane by US Marshalls when he lands back in the US … [and] detained”.“I began to prepare myself for being harassed on my return,” Blumenthal said. Continue reading...

Police also released notes received from presumed abductors of mother of Today anchor Savannah GuthrieThe family of Nancy Guthrie issued a new appeal on Saturday for information on the whereabouts of their missing grandmother, six months after she disappeared from her home in Tucson, Arizona, and a day after local investigators released two purported ransom notes.“Six months ago, someone took her out of her bed in the dead of night. We have lived every moment, every breath, and every heartbeat in agony and despair ever since,” a post on Instagram said. Continue reading...

After declaring ‘anti-weaponization’ fund ‘dead’, Trump reverses and says he’ll revive it despite Senate oppositionThe US Senate judiciary committee has scheduled a meeting early next week to consider Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general, as Donald Trump promised to revive the controversial $1.8bn “anti-weaponization” fund.The meeting, set for Tuesday, comes as Blanche’s confirmation ​has stalled over a dispute between the president and outgoing Republican senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, who are seeking written confirmation that the justice department would not establish the proposed fund. Continue reading...

Texts reveal that singer and Celeste Rivas Hernandez had been in touch stretching back to when she was 11 years oldThe rising pop singer D4vd and 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez were in the throes of a clandestine relationship months before her mangled and decomposing body turned up last September stuffed in an impounded car registered to the musician.D4vd, born David Anthony Burke, is set to stand trial for murder, child sexual abuse and mutilation of human remains in connection to the teenager’s death. Continue reading...

Nationwide actions seek to counter view that talking about climate crisis distracts from affordability messagingThis summer, torrential rains have washed away Texas neighborhoods, dangerous heat has blanketed swaths of the country, and smoke from Canadian wildfires has choked communities as far south as Florida.Research makes clear that global warming is making extreme weather events more frequent and severe. Yet the climate crisis has largely disappeared from the political agenda, with many Democrats who once described it as an existential threat now shying away from talking about it. Continue reading...

Britons move away from trend of grey paving and pristine lawns in an embrace of colour, with lavender a top choiceIf you manage to spot a garden in bloom this summer, beyond the strips of bleached and torched grass, there may be one colour you see more than any other: purple, the horticultural hue of the season.Plants such as lavender, salvias and catmint are in vogue, according to the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), which conducted extensive research into the colours Britons best love to see in their gardens. Continue reading...

Hartman residents asked for declaration after infighting exacerbated water crisis and all town leaders resignedA small town in south-eastern Colorado was recently declared abandoned after all of its local public leaders resigned amid a drinking water supply crisis.The office of Colorado’s secretary of state, Jena Griswold, announced the fate of Hartman on 29 July, a little more than a month after being advised in writing that the town “had lacked chlorine in its water for [more than] one month and the water was not potable and ‘smells horrible’”, according to public documents. Continue reading...

Some in Dover say their town is being exploited by content creators and politicians, but others claim there is a genuine problemIf you believe rightwing influencers and politicians, Dover and the wider Kent coast has been the site of an “invasion” for years now. And, for an online audience of millions, they and their camera crews have been the vanguard in the nation’s defence.Indeed, if you believe all you see on the algorithms of amateur Channel watchers, the shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, braved a hail of French gunfire as he took to the water in a fishing boat this week; an attempt by the French authorities, he suggested, to deter him in his mission of highlighting the small boats crisis. Continue reading...