In a video on X, the independent presidential candidate said he and his friends thought the prank in New York would be funny
Robert F Kennedy Jr released a bizarre video on Sunday in which he admitted that, a decade ago, he dumped a dead bear cub in New York City’s Central Park and staged the scene to make it look like a bicyclist had run over the animal.
The video was apparently an effort to combat an upcoming New Yorker story that he predicted will be a “bad story”.
Continue reading...Firefighters make advances on wildfire that has burned 627 sq miles, but return of high temperatures may help it grow
Fire crews battling California’s largest wildfire this year have corralled a third of the blaze aided in part by cooler weather, but a return of triple-digit temperatures could allow it to grow, fire officials said Sunday.
Cooler temperatures and increased humidity gave firefighters “a great opportunity to make some good advances” on the fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills, said Chris Vestal, a spokesperson for the California department of forestry and fire protection.
Continue reading...Founder says procedure, aimed at helping paralyzed people use digital devices by thinking alone, went ‘extremely well’
Neuralink has successfully implanted in a second patient its device designed to give paralyzed patients the ability to use digital devices by thinking alone, according to the startup’s owner Elon Musk.
Neuralink is in the process of testing its device, which is intended to help people with spinal cord injuries. The device has allowed the first patient to play video games, browse the internet, post on social media and move a cursor on his laptop.
Continue reading...Florida representative Byron Donalds spars with ABC host over Republicans’ questioning of vice-president’s heritage
Donald Trump ally Byron Donalds and ABC host George Stephanopoulos sparred on Sunday over Republicans’ attack line questioning Kamala Harris’s racial identity.
During an interview on ABC’s This Week, the Republican Florida representative called the issue a “phony controversy” and said “I don’t really care.” He then proceeded to double down on the issues – which the former president brought up earlier this week at the NABJ conference – by saying: “When Kamala Harris went into the United States Senate, it was AP that said she was the first Indian American United States senator … Now she’s running nationally, obviously the campaign has shifted. They’re talking much more about her father’s heritage and her Black identity.”
Continue reading...Supreme court justice says ‘too much law’ impairs liberties and talks about importance of an independent judiciary
US supreme court justice Neil Gorsuch has said ordinary Americans are “getting whacked” by too many laws and regulations in a new book that underscores his skepticism of federal agencies and the power they wield.
“Too little law and we’re not safe, and our liberties aren’t protected,” Gorsuch told the Associated Press in an interview in his supreme court office. “But too much law and you actually impair those same things.”
Guardian staff contributed.
Continue reading...Congressional race could head for recount as Yassamin Ansari leads Raquel Terán by 67 votes as of yesterday
The Democratic primary in Arizona’s third congressional district still remains too close to call and could be headed for a recount.
Former Phoenix city council member Yassamin Ansari led former state lawmaker Raquel Terán by 67 votes with nearly 44,000 ballots counted as of Saturday evening.
Continue reading...Two schools and a hospital complex struck as Palestinian stabs two Israelis to death in a city near Tel Aviv
Israeli airstrikes hit two schools and a hospital complex in Gaza on Sunday, killing at least 30 people, amid reports of heated disagreements between US and Israeli leaders about a possible ceasefire deal.
Inside Israel, a Palestinian stabbed two people to death in a city near Tel Aviv, adding to tensions as the country braces for Iran’s response to the assassinations of key allies this week.
Continue reading...Aide says US had tried to include Marc Fogel in prisoner swap and officials will do ‘what they can’ to bring him home
Deputy US national security adviser Jonathan Finer said Sunday that the White House worked hard to get Pennsylvania schoolteacher Marc Fogel included in the recent landmark prisoner swap involving Russia and western American allies – and though those efforts were unsuccessful, government officials continue doing “what they can” to bring him home as soon as possible.
Appearing on CBS News’s Face The Nation, Finer declined to provide further details about Fogel’s case and what his return to the US may entail. But he did assure the US is doing “novel things” to ensure US nationals will not be detained in Russia – like Fogel – or elsewhere in the future.
Continue reading...Far-right plan for a Republican presidency would undercut unions, strip child labor laws and boost corporate profits
Donald Trump proclaimed he was for “all the forgotten men and women”, in his acceptance speech at the Republican convention. His vice-presidential pick JD Vance consistently portrays himself as a pro-worker populist. But an analysis of the labor chapter of Project 2025 – an ambitious rightwing plan to guide the next Republican presidency – found it has little to offer them.
Project 2025’s labor section proposes hardly anything to improve workers’ wages and working conditions. It is, however, chock full of recommendations that would boost corporate profits, undercut labor unions and advance the rightwing culture war.
Continue reading...‘Blue wall’ states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin could decide the outcome of November’s election
Of all the lessons Kamala Harris’s campaign will have learned from Hillary Clinton’s botched run for president eight years ago, among the most important is that it’s better to talk about jobs than guns in the three rust belt states that hold the key to the White House.
The peculiarities of the US’s electoral college will almost certainly see November’s presidential election decided by voters in just seven states. Four – Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina and Georgia – lie in the southern sun belt.
Continue reading...Technical issues and poor comms led many to believe two astronauts are lost in space, but a return date is imminent
It should have been a welcome public relations triumph for Boeing, an opportunity to show that even if panels were falling from its aircraft, it could still fly humans into space and return them safely to Earth.
And for a while at least, it looked like it had been successful. The majestic June launch of the much-delayed and over-budget Starliner capsule from Florida, ferrying two Nasa astronauts to the International Space Station, offered a glimpse of a bright new future in the heavens for the troubled aerospace giant.
Continue reading...The ruling is the first substantive order after a landmark supreme court opinion last month that conferred broad immunity for former presidents
A federal judge presiding over the election subversion case against Donald Trump has rejected efforts from his legal team to dismiss the indictment on grounds that the former president was prosecuted for vindictive and political purposes.
The ruling from US district judge Tanya Chutkan is the first substantive order since the case was returned to her on Friday, following a landmark supreme court opinion last month that conferred broad immunity for former presidents and narrowed special counsel Jack Smith’s case against Trump.
Continue reading...The assassination of a Hamas leader in Tehran humiliated Iran’s leaders, dashed hopes of a ceasefire and left the heavily armed nations of the Middle East moving inexorably closer to an all-out war they all claim not to want
If Iran’s newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, was hoping for a honeymoon period after his inauguration last week, he must be sadly disappointed. Less than 12 hours after Pezeshkian was sworn in, an explosion, reportedly caused by a remotely controlled bomb, shook an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) compound in central Tehran. The target: Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political leader, an honoured guest at the inauguration, and one of the Middle East’s most wanted. The bomb under the bed killed Haniyeh instantly. Honeymoon over.
Pezeshkian was the surprise winner of last month’s presidential election. Edging out a conservative hardliner favoured by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, he promised to repair tattered ties with the US and Europe. Many hoped his victory would herald a more open, more progressive era and defuse social tensions, especially over the enforced wearing of the hijab, which triggered huge unrest under his predecessor, Ebrahim Raisi.
Continue reading...Ex-president touched upon a range of topics from crime to immigration in his speech with mostly made-up statistics
Donald Trump addressed a fully-packed venue in downtown Atlanta on Saturday, with thousands of people waiting in the Georgia heat outside to enter, or to protest his appearance in a city he has condemned repeatedly.
His remarks were consistent with the tenor and comportment of restraint and probity Atlantans are used to hearing at this point.
Continue reading...Named Debby, the storm system had maximum sustained wind speeds of 40mph and was moving toward the state
A tropical storm with near hurricane strength winds and life threatening storm surges is expected to crash into Florida’s Big Bend area on the northern Gulf coast shoreline by Monday morning, the National Hurricane Center said.
As of 5pm ET on Saturday, the storm, named Debby, had maximum sustained wind speeds of 40mph and was moving off the coast of Havana, Cuba, and towards Florida. The National Hurricane Center has designated Debby with an advisory 6.
Continue reading...Ricky Alderete sentenced for three offenses before Kansas unveiling of new statue of baseball and civil rights pioneer
A man who stole a bronze statue of Jackie Robinson that was cut off at the ankles and found days later on fire in a trash can in a Kansas park will spend about 15 years in prison, though most of that sentence is related to a burglary a few days after the January statue heist.
A judge sentenced Ricky Alderete on Friday in three different cases he said in court stemmed from his addiction to fentanyl.
Continue reading...Doug Emhoff and Chasten Buttigieg’s success spurred talk about transportation secretary’s veepstakes chances
While Kamala Harris cleared her campaign diary this weekend to finalize her choice of running mate ahead of a swing-state presidential campaign blitz next week, political spouses were hard at work.
The vice-president’s husband, Doug Emhoff, and Chasten Buttigieg, husband of the US transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg – a potential running mate for Harris at the top of November’s Democratic ticket whose candidacy has been strengthening in recent days – were on New York’s Fire Island on Friday for a sold-out event that raised $321,000.
Continue reading...Ex-president says he will only debate on Republican-friendly channel on 4 September, while Harris demands he stick to original network
Donald Trump says he would be willing to debate Kamala Harris on the friendly environs of Fox News in September – but the vice-president has not signed on to what would be a switch-up.
Trump had previously agreed to appear on ABC News and debate Joe Biden a second time this year before the president ended his re-election campaign.
Continue reading...Two suspects were killed and a third was injured when police stormed the house to rescue a deputy trapped inside
A Florida sheriff’s deputy was killed and two other deputies were wounded while attempting to reach the first officer in what police called an ambush shooting inside a home.
The three deputies were shot at a house in Eustis, Florida, on Friday night, Peyton Grinnell, the Lake county sheriff, said during a news conference at the scene.
Continue reading...The national park had an average 24-hour temperature of 108.5F that month, beating its previous record in 2018
Death Valley, the hottest place on Earth, recorded its hottest month ever on record in July, the National Park Service (NPS) announced.
In a statement released on Friday, the NPS revealed that the park had an average 24-hour temperature of 108.5F (42.5C), in turn beating out its previous record of 108.1F (42.3C) set in 2018.
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