Anger

• De wetgevende macht heeft het enige Democratische congresdistrict van de staat met een Zwarte meerderheid geëlimineerd • Meld u aan voor de Breaking News US-e-mail • Goedemorgen en welkom bij onze live verslaggeving van de Amerikaanse politiek. De door Republikeinen gedomineerde wetgevende macht van Tennessee heeft donderdag kaarten voor de herindeling aangenomen, waarmee het enige Democratische congresdistrict van de staat met een Zwarte meerderheid wordt geschrapt, terwijl Republikeinse wetgevers zich haasten hun positie te verbeteren voor de tussentijdse verkiezingen in november.

• Sommige parlementsleden beschuldigen de burgemeester van Greater Manchester ervan de boodschap van de lokale verkiezingscampagne te ondermijnen tijdens het Change:Now-evenement. • De beslissing van Andy Burnham om op een progressieve rally te verschijnen naast prominente figuren van de Green Party en Liberal Democrats heeft woede opgeroepen bij enkele Labour-MP's, die hem beschuldigen van het ondermijnen van hun lokale verkiezingsboodschap. • De burgemeester van Greater Manchester, die wordt gezien als een van de meest waarschijnlijke uitdagers van Keir Starmer, zal deze maand spreken op het Change:Now-evenement, georganiseerd door de linkse groep Compass.

US president directs fresh criticism at pontiff days before secretary of state Marco Rubio’s visit to VaticanMiddle East crisis – live updatesDonald Trump has issued a fresh verbal attack against Pope Leo XIV, accusing the pontiff of “endangering a lot of Catholics” because “he thinks it’s fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon”.The remarks come two days before Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, meets Leo at the Vatican in an effort to ease the tensions sparked by Trump’s previous broadside against the Chicago-born pontiff over his condemnation of the US-Israeli war on Iran. Continue reading...

WhatsApp group has bought tens of thousands of meals for people via Facebook pageCarl used to own pubs – several of them – and a string of hotels. Then two years ago, rising costs forced him into bankruptcy. Now he sleeps on the beach in summer, and in winter sits in an all-night McDonald’s nursing a single cup of coffee.Carl’s daughters are in a different part of the country with his ex-wife. To maintain the illusion that he lives a normal life, Carl is careful only to video-call them from the local Wetherspoon’s with a meal and a drink carefully positioned in shot. That way, he reasons, he looks like a man with somewhere to be. Continue reading...

Plans to install traffic lights on Clachan Bridge will ruin tourist attraction and endanger pedestrians, critics warnTraffic lights are to be installed beside the scenic Clachan Bridge on Scotland’s wild Argyll coast despite fears it will be a “desecration” of a nationally-significant heritage site.Known since the early 19th century as the “Bridge over the Atlantic” the 233-year-old crossing from the mainland to the Isle of Seil attracts visitors eager to boast of their trans-oceanic journey, but there are concerns motorists on green will soon act aggressively towards pedestrians on what is a much-photographed landmark. Continue reading...

Rural dwellers reveal failings in backup plans, as campaigners call for deadline to be extended from 2027 to 2030“Every time there is a power failure I lose all means of communication with the outside world,” says Robert Dewar of life in a remote village in the Scottish Highlands since the landlines were transferred from the old copper cable network to broadband connections.Blackouts also knock out the village’s mobile phone signal. “Our most recent power cut lasted for 42 hours,” Dewar says. The interruption outlasted his five-hour emergency backup battery. “If I had had a heart attack there is damn all I could have done about it, except compose myself, say my prayers, and await the outcome.” Continue reading...

Senator Jack Reed says at hearing that defense secretary failed to give Trump accurate picture of war in IranUS politics live – latest updatesSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailPete Hegseth has failed to give Donald Trump an accurate picture of the war on Iran while resorting to “dangerously exaggerated” statements to create an inaccurate picture of a US military triumph, a senior Democrat told a Capitol Hill hearing on Thursday.Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, told Hegseth, the defense secretary, that far from victory, US citizens were having to bear the cost of a war they did not support in the form of increased fuel prices. Continue reading...