World Bank warns 108 countries risk being stuck in ‘middle-income trap’

Too many nations, including China and India, are relying on outmoded strategies to become advanced economies, says report

More than 100 countries – including China, India, Brazil and South Africa – risk becoming stuck in a “middle-income trap” unless they adopt radical growth strategies for their economies, the World Bank has said.

The Washington-based development organisation said emerging market nations would struggle to close the gap on US living standards unless they relied less heavily on investment to increase growth.

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Sonya Massey’s mother called 911 and asked police not to hurt daughter before shooting death

Donna Massey told a dispatcher: ‘Please don’t send no combative policemen that are prejudiced’

Two emergency response calls were made from the home of Sonya Massey, the Black woman who was shot in the face by an Illinois sheriff’s deputy after she called 911 for help, in the days leading up to her death, according to records released Wednesday.

In a third call, Massey’s mother, Donna Massey, reports that her daughter is suffering a “mental breakdown” and tells the dispatcher: “I don’t want you guys to hurt her.” She adds that she fears the police and asks that no officer who is “prejudiced” be sent.

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Trump holds first Pennsylvania rally since assassination attempt hours after heated interview with Black journalists – live

Ex-president says he will travel back to Butler where assassination attempt took place; White House condemns Trump after he questions Harris’s racial identity at NABJ event

Journalists at the annual conference of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) began trickling in to the Hilton hotel in downtown Chicago this morning for a 12pm CT/1pm ET panel – featuring Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

He will be quizzed by the prominent political reporters Kadia Goba of Semafor, Rachel Scott of ABC News and Harris Faulkner of Fox News.

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Trump says running mates have ‘virtually no impact’ in apparent JD Vance snub

Trump says ‘you’re voting for the president … you’re voting for me’ when asked about vice-presidential pick

Donald Trump has said that vice presidential picks have “virtually no impact” on elections when asked about JD Vance’s fitness for office, in an apparent attempt to downplay his running mate’s role on the Republican ticket.

Trump made the comments during a combative interview at the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in Chicago. Asked by the Fox News journalist Harris Faulkner whether Vance would be ready to take over “on day one, if he has to be”, Trump avoided answering directly and instead downplayed the significance of the Vance’s role.

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Incredulous laughter, audible gasps: Trump’s performance at Black journalists’ panel left him exposed

The former president snapped and snarled through his interview – and looked for all the world like an old crank

After keeping an audience of interrogators waiting, Donald Trump finally arrived on stage for his Wednesday appearance at the convention for the National Association of Black Journalists over an hour late. He blamed the delay not on the furious behind-the-scenes between the NABJ and his campaign about whether he could be factchecked in real time, but on what he described as organizers’ inability to calibrate the audio equipment in time for his highly controversial panel discussion. “It’s a disgrace,” he snarled.

When ABC’s Rachel Scott opened the proceedings by asking the former president his impetus for addressing the Black journalists, women and Chicagoans in the crowd who have been regularly subject to his hostility, Trump dismissed the question as “horrible” and called Scott “nasty” before turning his bluster meter up to 11.

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Three accused 9/11 plotters plead guilty in Guantánamo Bay deal – prosecutors

Alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed among trio to plead guilty to conspiracy in exchange for life sentence

Three men accused of being involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack – including the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon – have agreed to plea deals at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

“The Convening Authority for Military Commissions, Susan Escallier, has entered into pre-trial agreements with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi, three of the co-accused in the 9/11 case,” the Pentagon said in a short statement.

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Black journalists respond to ‘disastrous’ Trump panel at annual convention

Many expressed frustration with National Association of Black Journalists for inviting ex-president ‘into our home’

On Wednesday afternoon, Donald Trump participated in a contentious panel hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). The discussion, held in Chicago at the organization’s annual convention, began after an hour-long delay, with a room full of journalists tensely awaiting the program.

During the wait, Philip Lewis, the HuffPost deputy editor, shared on X that the hold-up was being caused by a disagreement between the NABJ and the former president. “I’m told that Trump is demanding that NABJ not do the live factchecking and that’s why the event hasn’t started yet,” he wrote. “We’re in a standoff.”

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Strong earnings report pushes Meta shares up amid heavy AI spending

Stock price grew around 5%, which revealed the company outperformed analysts’ expectations for its second quarter

Meta’s shares rose in after-hours trading on Wednesday off the back of a strong earnings report that comes as the company is spending heavily on AI tools.

The company’s stock price grew around 5% following the report, which revealed the company outperformed analysts’ expectations for its second quarter.

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US man who planned 2020 Venezuela coup attempt arrested for arms smuggling

Jordan Goudreau, 48, was charged in New York for smuggling and conspiracy alongside partner Yacsy Álvarez

A former US Green Beret who, in 2020, organized a failed crossborder raid of Venezuelan army deserters to remove President Nicolás Maduro has been arrested in New York on federal arms smuggling charges.

A federal indictment unsealed this week in Tampa, Florida, accuses Jordan Goudreau and a Venezuelan partner, Yacsy Álvarez, of violating US arms control laws when they allegedly assembled and sent to Colombia AR-styled weapons, ammo, night vision goggles and other defense equipment requiring a US export license.

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US pauses $95m in aid to Georgia after passage of ‘foreign agents’ law

Secretary of state says suspension is due to ‘anti-democratic’ actions from the Georgian government

The US has suspended $95m in assistance to Georgia after its parliament adopted legislation related to foreign agents that critics say was inspired by a Russian law used to crack down on political dissent and that sparked weeks of mass protests.

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said on Wednesday that he had decided to pause the Georgian aid, which would directly benefit the government, in response to “anti-democratic” actions the government has taken.

The US has also already imposed visa bans on a number of Georgian politicians and law enforcement officials for suppressing free speech, particularly voices in favor of Georgia’s integration with the west.

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Trump favorite Kari Lake wins Arizona’s Republican Senate primary

Far-right firebrand to face off against Democrat Ruben Gallego for US Senate seat vacated by Kyrsten Sinema

Kari Lake, the far-right firebrand and favorite of Donald Trump, has won Arizona’s Republican Senate primary.

The Associated Press projected the race at 8.44pm Arizona time on Tuesday night. Lake rose to prominence as a gubernatorial candidate in 2022, when she refused to concede the race to her Democratic challenger Katie Hobbs.

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Largest wildfire in US grows to cover area bigger than Los Angeles

Park fire scorches 386,000 acres as firefighters battle blazes across US west, including historic mining town of Havilah

The largest wildfire in the US swelled to more than 380,000 acres (154,000 hectares) on Tuesday morning, an area bigger than the city of Los Angeles and three times the surface area of Lake Tahoe, as thousands of firefighters battled the blaze in a remote wilderness area in northern California.

Meanwhile, the destruction caused by wildfires raging across the US west came into sharp focus as photographers documented the destruction left by the Borel fire in southern California. The fast-growing fire tore through the historic mining town of Havilah, leaving burnt buildings, cars and forests.

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‘Cat ladies’ come together to show support for Kamala Harris

Zoom call – with pets included – organized as riposte to comments made by JD Vance about ‘childless cat ladies’

A group of pet lovers and self-described “cat ladies” came together for the latest in a series of Zoom calls in support of Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. The Tuesday evening call was hosted by Christine Pelosi, a political consultant and the daughter of Nancy Pelosi, and Nikki Fried, the chair of the Florida Democratic party.

The call was not organized around racial and ethnic identity, but as a rebuff to comments made in 2021 by JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, who told the then Fox News host Tucker Carlson that the US was being run by Democrats, corporate oligarchs and “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too”.

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Atlanta rally: Harris tells Trump to ‘say it to my face’ and challenges him to debate

VP touts prosecution record to cheering crowd after state leaders including Stacey Abrams take stage to show support

Three weeks ago, the political commentariat was writing off Georgia and talking of narrow pathways for Joe Biden to hold the White House. Georgia was a desert. Tuesday evening, an Atlanta crowd greeted Kamala Harris like she backed up a truck full of sweet tea to that desert.

It’s probably too early – nine days since the president’s withdrawal and the vice-president’s ascension – to know if sentiment in Georgia had shifted enough to justify jubilation. But the crowd in Atlanta treated the new presumptive presidential nominee as a reason to celebrate after months of her quieter campaigning in the city as the vice-presidential nominee.

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‘Apocalyptic’ floods in Vermont destroy homes as two dozen rescued by boat

Storms result in caved-in roads and crushed cars nearly three weeks after flooding from Hurricane Beryl

Thunderstorms and torrential rain brought another wave of violent floods Tuesday that caved in roads, crushed vehicles, pushed homes off their foundations and led to dramatic boat rescues in north-eastern Vermont, nearly three weeks after flooding from Hurricane Beryl.

Flash flood warnings remained in effect through Tuesday afternoon hours after some areas got 6 to more than 8in (15 to more than 20cm) starting late the night before.

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Son of El Chapo pleads not guilty in Chicago as mystery cloaks cartel arrests

Officials have mixed accounts around arrest of Sinaloa co-founder El Mayo after Guzmán López turned himself in

Joaquín Guzmán López, the son of Sinaloa cartel co-founder Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in federal court in Chicago, days after his arrest in a dramatic operation in which he may have delivered his father’s former business partner to US authorities.

Guzmán López, 38, was detained on Thursday alongside Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, the other co-founder of one of Mexico’s most powerful organised crime groups, after touching down in a small plane in El Paso, Texas.

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The 1975 sued by Malaysian festival over Matty Healy’s onstage gay kiss

Good Vibes Festival organizer seeks $2.4m after band’s violation of behavior code led to a shutdown last July

The organizer of Malaysia’s Good Vibes Festival has sued the 1975 and all of the British pop-rock band’s members individually, following lead singer Matty Healy’s purported protest against the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ law on stage.

Future Sound Asia, the music festival’s organizers, are seeking $2.4m (£1.9m) after the band’s violation of the event’s behavior code resulted in the festival being shut down last July.

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William Laws Calley, face of My Lai massacre in Vietnam War, dead at 80

Lieutenant Calley was the only person convicted over the largest killing of civilians by US army in the 20th century

William Laws Calley Jr, the only person convicted over the notorious My Lai massacre by US soldiers during the Vietnam war, has died at the age of 80.

A lieutenant during the war, Calley was a member of Company C, which alongside his superior, Ernest Medina, he commanded during the search for Viet Cong combatants in the south Vietnamese village of My Lai and its neighbouring hamlets on 15 March 1968.

This article was amended on 30 July 2024. An earlier version stated that Seymour Hersh’s reporting led to Calley and other officers being court martialed. An internal military investigation was already underway when Hersh reported on the story.

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Republican Arizona mayor John Giles endorses Harris for President

Mesa mayor crosses party line to back vice-president and rebuke Trump’s ‘political extremism’ in op-ed

John Giles, the Republican mayor of Arizona’s third largest city and a previous thorn in the side of his party for endorsing Democrats, has thrown his support behind Kamala Harris for president.

Giles, who since 2014 has been mayor of Mesa near Phoenix, also rebuked Donald Trump in an opinion piece for the Arizona Republic published Monday.

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‘Say it to my face’ says Kamala Harris as she again challenges Donald Trump to debate – as it happened

This blog is closed. You can find our latest US elections coverage here.

Kamala Harris’s campaign has announced a $50m advertising blitz ahead of the Democratic national convention next month with a television ad that portrays the presumptive Democratic nominee as “fearless”.

The 60-second ad will be the first in a series of paid media efforts ahead of the convention, which begins 19 August in Chicago.

We believe in a future where every person has the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead. Where every senior can retire with dignity. But Donald Trump wants to take our country backward. To give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations and end the Affordable Care Act. But we are not going back.

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