Trump vows to push $1.8bn slush fund as Senate committee set to reconsider AG nomination

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...

World-renowned climber had been leading expedition on Broad Peak when avalanche struckA world-renowned Nepali mountaineer and former UK Special Forces member has died after being among 11 climbers caught in a deadly avalanche on Pakistan’s Broad Peak.Nirmal Purja was killed leading an expedition of 10 other people on the world’s 12th-highest mountain when an avalanche struck at around noon on Thursday. 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...

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...

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...

Pedro Sánchez hits out at ‘polarising and unlawful reaction’ over mass crossing into Spanish enclave in north AfricaEurope live – latest updatesSpain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has called for an urgent meeting of EU interior ministers after what he called some member states’ “selfish, polarising and unlawful reaction” to this week’s mass border crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in north Africa.More than 50,000 people crossed into the enclave from Morocco on Thursday and Friday, with at least 67 people dying in the attempt. Some drowned, while others were crushed as they attempted to cross a breakwater barrier. Continue reading...

At least 21 injured and more than 250 evacuated in strongest quake to hit southern Italian region in 40 yearsAt least 21 people have been injured after a 4.7-magnitude earthquake rocked a region near Naples, in southern Italy.The quake, which occurred at 7.46pm on Friday night, caused power outages, disrupted public transport and damaged buildings and a pier in Campi Flegrei, the site of Europe’s largest volcanic crater. Continue reading...

Tarona Taafaki makes history in women’s 75kg categoryAll boxers eliminated in semis receive bronze medalsA boxer has made history for ⁠Tuvalu by winning the tiny Pacific island nation’s first Commonwealth ⁠Games medal without winning a single fight.Twenty-year-old Tarona Taafaki, ⁠one of five entrants in the women’s 75kg category, received a bye to the semi-finals where she lost on an unanimous points decision to India’s Lovlina Borgohain on Friday. At Commonwealth Games, all boxers eliminated in the semis receive bronze medals. Continue reading...