Latest film in franchise takes just $43m in North America and $95m globally, against a $250m budget
The Walt Disney Company’s live-action remake of Moana may be the No 1 movie at the North American box office but it did not make a big splash in its first weekend in theaters.
The movie, which cost a reported $250m (£187m, A$360m) to produce, earned just $43m from ticket sales in the US and Canada, according to studio estimates on Sunday.
Continue reading...Republican senator, who died Saturday, had a global reach few could rival and was vital in shaping Trump’s worldview
It was revealing that one of the first tributes to Lindsey Graham, a US senator who died on Saturday aged 71, came from Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, a far-right provocateur who recently caused widespread anger by sharing footage of himself taunting bound activists who had been trying to sail to Gaza with aid.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, was not far behind, calling Graham a “great friend of Israel and a cherished friend of mine”, and he was quickly followed by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who described him as “a true defender of freedom and the values that make our world safer”.
Continue reading...Fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Texas builder, renews outcry against Trump’s immigration crackdown
The builder got up every morning long before dawn, left home to pick up his construction crew and then headed out to work on yet another house somewhere across the sprawl of Houston.
Fourteen hours later, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo would return to the wife he’d met as a teenager in Mexico and the modest house he’d built for his family on the city’s east side.
Continue reading...Pair airlifted to hospital in two-hour rescue operation after Guardia Civil searched area for survivors
A British couple have been found badly burned and semi-conscious in a Spanish ravine amid deadly wildfires that have swept through the country’s Almería province, according to local media reports.
The couple were on holiday in the region and were thought to be out hiking when they were caught up in the wildfire, which has so far killed 13 people and burned more than 6,000 hectares (14,800 acres). At least 23 people are missing.
Continue reading...Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the UAE reportedly came under attack as Tehran says it is closing Strait of Hormuz
There has been almost no visible traffic in the strait of Hormuz so far today, with only two oil products tankers seen approaching the narrow waterway, according to a Bloomberg report.
As a reminder, the US president, Donald Trump, has declared the ceasefire over while leaving the door open for talks, and mediators have been trying to salvage a diplomatic solution despite the attacks intensifying.
Continue reading...Scientists worry that current eradication efforts won’t be able to contain parasitic infestation pushing into US
When conservationists set up cameras in remote regions of Central American forests, they wanted to monitor illegal cattle movement, which can lead to deforestation. But in recent months, they discovered another alarming development: wildlife rapidly infected with the new world screwworm.
It’s a warning sign of how the fly could spread in the US – and it signals new difficulties in pushing it back south, a process that will probably take years, experts say.
Continue reading...Republican served in Senate since 2003 and was sharp Trump critic before becoming one of his most loyal backers
Lindsey Graham, a longtime US senator and key ally of Donald Trump, has died from a sudden illness, his office said on Sunday. He had just turned 71.
Graham’s abrupt death will send shock waves through Washington and the Republican party. He had served in the Senate since 2003, representing South Carolina, and was running for re-election in November.
Continue reading...Tensions between progressive and moderate camps of Democratic party on display in key Senate race in Michigan
The Israel-Gaza war created gaping divisions in the Democratic party and contributed to a resounding loss in a critical presidential election year in 2024. Two years later, the issue continues to dominate races across the country, as progressives try to seize on Israel’s falling popularity and a broad anti-war sentiment ahead of November’s midterms.
A recent debate among two Democrats vying for one of the most competitive US Senate seats in the country openly displayed the tension between progressive and moderate camps of the party.
Continue reading...Ed Davey voices concern about the Musk family foundation taking the far-right activist on a visit to Moscow
The UK must do more to defend its democracy after it emerged that Elon Musk’s family foundation had taken the far-right activist Tommy Robinson to Russia, Ed Davey has said.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was brought to Russia by the Musks, the billionaire tech mogul’s father told the Guardian.
Continue reading...Ceasefire at the point of collapse after almost a week of tit-for-tat exchanges escalate tensions across Gulf region
Donald Trump has rejected Iranian claims to have closed off the strait of Hormuz as both sides battled for control over the waterway, leaving a ceasefire agreed last month at the point of collapse.
US forces said they had attacked 140 targets in Iran on Saturday night and Sunday morning after Tehran struck and disabled a container ship in the strait, whose transit it said had not been approved. In a statement, US Central Command (Centcom) said its targets had included missile and drone sites, naval facilities, ammunition depots, communication networks and surveillance locations.
Continue reading...Foreign ministers will discuss options on Monday but decision on imports is not expected for months
The EU has been accused of dragging its feet over upholding international law, on the eve of a long-awaited debate about banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements.
EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday will discuss a possible ban on imports from the settlements, against an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where a UN inquiry found Israel to be committing a genocide, and surging state-backed violence in the occupied West Bank, which has killed at least 235 children.
Continue reading...Ro Khanna said settlers were armed with US-made weapons and Israel Defense Forces refused to intervene
The US congressman Ro Khanna says armed Israeli settlers detained him during a visit to the Israel-occupied West Bank recently, describing the experience as a first-hand view of the realities faced by Palestinians living under occupation.
In an interview with Reuters on Thursday from a Palestinian village, the progressive US House Democrat from California said his detention happened the previous day while his delegation visited an area of the southern West Bank that has experienced repeated attacks by Israeli settlers.
Continue reading...Errol Musk says far-right activist is ‘a fine young man’ and held meetings with Russian business figures
Elon Musk’s family foundation took Tommy Robinson to Russia, according to the billionaire X owner’s father, who was with the British far-right activist in Moscow as he encouraged anti-migration protests in Britain.
Robinson – whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – appeared last month in Moscow, from where he issued calls for supporters to take to the streets after a knife attack in Belfast. He shared video of himself in a luxury Moscow hotel with the older Musk, whose son has been a vocal supporter of Robinson.
Continue reading...Vigilantes also took part in the fight that raged all night and the following morning, residents say
Nigerian soldiers killed more than 300 members of kidnapping and cattle bandit gangs in the north-western state of Zamfara this week, according to a government official.
Government troops targeted the gangs in Gummi district in a two-day operation that “led to the elimination of more than 300 terrorists”, Zamfara’s information commissioner, Mahmud Muhammad Dantawasa, said in a statement.
Continue reading...Sculpture of Jewish army officer wrongly accused of treason has been moved around the city for decades
For 40 years, the statue of Capt Alfred Dreyfus has been moved around Paris, never finding a permanent home.
The French army twice refused to allow it to stand at l’École Militaire, where Dreyfus, a Jewish officer it had wrongly accused of treason in 1894, was stripped of his rank in one of the most notorious acts of antisemitism in France’s history.
Continue reading...Plans specify tolls must not be compulsory, as US officials urge Iran to make public statement that strait is open and that shipping can safely pass
Europe is studying proposals that may allow the charging of navigational fees in the strait of Hormuz so long as the tolls are not compulsory and have the support of the UN agency that regulates maritime transport.
Britain’s deputy prime minister, David Lammy, said the imposition of compulsory tolls would be disastrous. But some of his cabinet colleagues said they recognised that systems of payments for specific navigational services were permissible in many natural waterways, including the strait of Malacca and the Channel.
Continue reading...Nearly 17,000 injured and thousands more listed as missing amid calls by president Delcy Rodríguez and UN for financial help
The death toll in Venezuela’s devastating twin earthquakes has passed 4,300, the government said on Saturday.
At least 4,333 people were killed and 16,740 injured in the back-to-back quakes on 24 June that flattened entire districts in the coastal state of La Guaira, the Venezuelan parliament chief, Jorge Rodríguez, wrote on Telegram. Thousands more people are listed as missing.
Continue reading...Carmakers welcome ruling against suit claiming manufacturers including Nissan, Ford and Peugeot fitted devices to defeat emission tests
Car manufacturers have welcomed a high court verdict that rejected most of the allegations in a “dieselgate” claim brought on behalf of 1.6 million UK owners of polluting cars.
In her judgment, Lady Justice Cockerill said that “in the majority of instances, the court found that the relevant strategy did not constitute a prohibited defeat device” – software that enables the engine to behave differently in tests.
Continue reading...Kai Wegner admits poor communication in handling of power blackout overshadowed his other political work
Berlin’s embattled mayor has abandoned his campaign to stand for reelection after failing to recover from a row over his decision to play tennis while large parts of the German capital were hit by a power blackout in January.
Kai Wegner announced on Friday afternoon that he would not run in Berlin’s 20 September election after coming under huge pressure to step down from his party, the Christian Democrats (CDU). Some members wrote an open letter to Wegner this week in which they appealed to him to withdraw his candidacy.
Continue reading...Medieval artwork safely delivered to British Museum before display from September in carefully controlled conditions
The Bayeux tapestry has survived myriad perils, from cathedral fires to its potential destruction for use as wagon covers. Now, with the embroidery about to be displayed in a blockbuster London exhibition, experts must contend with a host of more insidious dangers.
The arrival of the tapestry at the British Museum in the small hours of Friday morning was a historic moment – albeit less dramatic than the landing of William the Conqueror it portrays.
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