Host of Rick Steves’ Europe says he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and plans to have surgery in late September
Traveler and TV travel guide Rick Steves announced on Wednesday that he has cancer.
In a social media post, Steves said that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and plans to have prostate surgery in late September.
Continue reading...Tim Walz and Bill Clinton headline the third night amid reports Oprah Winfrey will also appear. Here’s a look at other noteworthy speakers on the schedule
The Democratic national convention is under way, with primetime addresses scheduled for tonight from Bill Clinton; Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s running mate; and many more.
CNN reported that Oprah Winfrey, the talkshow host and longtime Democrat, is set to appear on the main stage. In previous elections, Winfrey lent her star power to Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Chris Murphy, US senator, Connecticut
Olivia Troye, former Trump administration national security official
Bennie G Thompson, member of the US House of Representatives, Mississippi
Andy Kim, member of the US House of Representatives, New Jersey
Stevie Wonder, singer-songwriter and musician (performance)
Kenan Thompson, comedian, and guests (remarks on Project 2025)
Mindy Kaling (host introduction)
Hakeem Jeffries, US House of Representatives Democratic leader
Bill Clinton, former US president
Nancy Pelosi, former US House speaker
Josh Shapiro, governor of Pennsylvania
Catherine Cortez Masto, US senator, Nevada
Amanda Gorman, national youth poet laureate, whose performance of The Hill We Climb at Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration wowed the audience
Wes Moore, governor of Maryland
Pete Buttigieg, US transportation secretary
John Legend and Sheila E, musicians (performance)
Amy Klobuchar, US senator, Minnesota
Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota and Kamala Harris’s running mate (keynote address)
Democratic national convention 2024 live updates
Monday: For the People
Tuesday: A Bold Vision for America’s Future
Wednesday: A Fight for Our Freedoms
Thursday: For Our Future
Continue reading...Independent candidate’s campaign says he will make address to nation on Friday in Arizona
Robert F Kennedy Jr is set to drop his maverick campaign for president, it has been reported, amid speculation the independent and environmental lawyer will throw his support behind Donald Trump.
The ABC network, citing “sources familiar with the decision”, reported that Kennedy would formally leave the race on Friday. The report followed an announcement on his campaign website that he would make a statement that day “about the present historical moment and his path forward” in Phoenix that would be live-streamed on X and other social media.
Continue reading...Mark Geragos says special counsel guilty of ‘character assassination’ by trying to bring salacious details into trial
An attorney for Hunter Biden has accused prosecutors of wanting to introduce salacious details about partying and spending by Joe Biden’s son to smear his character in front of jurors at his upcoming trial on federal tax charges.
During a lengthy hearing in Los Angeles federal court, Hunter Biden’s lawyer said special counsel David Weiss’s team was intent on “character assassination” by seeking to bring in evidence of spending on things like strippers in the case alleging a scheme to avoid paying at least $1.4m in taxes.
Continue reading...Victor Miller proposed customized ChatGPT bot to govern Cheyenne, Wyoming – but fared badly at the ballot box
A mayoral candidate in Wyoming who proposed letting an artificial intelligence bot run the local government lost his race on Tuesday – by a lot.
The candidate, Victor Miller, announced his run for mayor of Cheyenne earlier this year, and quickly made headlines after he decided to run with his customized ChatGPT bot, named Vic (Virtual Integrated Citizen), and declared his intention to govern in a hybrid format, in what experts say was a first for US political campaigns.
Continue reading...Robert Telles on trial over murder of Jeff German, who wrote critical articles about the public administrator
A Las Vegas politician accused of murdering a local investigative journalist who wrote critical articles about him took the stand in his own defense on Wednesday, giving his testimony in narrative style, without being asked questions.
“Right now I want to say unequivocally: I’m innocent. I didn’t kill Mr German. And I’ve got a lot to share with you all,” said Robert Telles, a former Clark county public administrator.
Continue reading...Pentagon investment would make North America’s first cobalt sulfate refinery as US looks to diversify supply chain
The US military has made its largest investment in Canada’s mining sector in decades, spending millions amid a looming battle among nations to control the supply of cobalt.
On Tuesday, the Pentagon announced a $20m grant to help build a cobalt refinery in the province of Ontario, saying the investment will “create a more robust industrial base capable of meeting growing demand across both the defense and commercial sectors”.
Continue reading...People of ancient Clovis culture could have impaled huge animals on pikes rather than throwing spears, finds study
When it came to taking down giant animals, prehistoric hunters would quite literally have faced a mammoth task. Now researchers have shed fresh light on how they might have done it.
Experts studying sharp stone points made by the Clovis people, who lived in the Americas from about 13,000 years ago, say that rather than hurling spears at enormous animals such as giant bison, mammoths or ground sloths, the tribes could have planted their weapons point-up in the ground to impale charging creatures.
Continue reading...Former president addresses delegates amid reports Oprah Winfrey is expected to make an appearance
Kamala Harris’s campaign raised four times as much money last month than Donald Trump’s campaign, Reuters is reporting, citing federal disclosures filed late on Tuesday.
The Harris campaign told the Federal Election Commission it raised $204m in July, compared to $48m reported by Trump’s main fundraising group.
Continue reading...Mobico also reports 24% increase in half-year profits to £71.2m as group tries to reduce £1.2bn debt
The owner of National Express has revealed it has begun the sale of its North American school bus business in an effort to reduce its £1.2bn debt, sending its shares sharply higher.
The share price of Mobico, which changed its name from National Express Group in June 2023, jumped by more than 20% after markets opened on Wednesday, before settling at 14% up at 66p by mid-morning.
Continue reading...Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin hold the election key – can the Democrats see off the challenge from Trump?
Away from the deafening roar of the party faithful that nightly fills the Democratic national convention in Chicago an urgent question is being asked behind the scenes: how can the party convert the energy that has exploded around Kamala Harris’s belated candidacy into actual votes on election day?
All eyes are on the “blue wall” states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, where the identity of the 47th US president is likely to be settled. The outsized significance of the three states in the race is evident in the scramble of the presidential candidates to woo them.
Continue reading...Ex-president praises Kamala Harris as a champion of the people. Plus, US woman breaks record for widest tongue
Good morning.
Barack Obama returned to the scene of past triumphs yesterday to pass the mantle of political history to Kamala Harris amid chants of “Yes, she can!”. The former US president gave the closing speech on night two of the Democratic national convention (DNC) in his home city of Chicago, delivering a withering critique of Donald Trump.
What was Obama’s best line? “I’m feeling hopeful because this convention has always been pretty good to kids with funny names who believe in a country where anything is possible” – a nod to his 2004 convention speech as a relatively lowly Illinois state senator that shot him to fame.
What did Bernie Sanders focus on? In his speech, Sanders detailed an extensive progressive agenda that he said Democrats must enact if Harris is elected as president, stressing the need to expand healthcare access, reduce the cost of higher education and raise the minimum wage.
What is Trump saying privately? According to Stephanie Grisham, the ex-president’s former press secretary who has since said she abhors Trump and spoke at the DNC to excoriate him, Trump has called his supporters “basement dwellers”.
Continue reading...The ‘joyful warrior’ will seek to build on the momentum of his and Kamala Harris’s campaign
Tim Walz will seek to build on the intense enthusiasm surrounding his and Kamala Harris’s campaign on Wednesday, as the newly anointed vice-presidential nominee headlines the third night of the Democratic national convention in Chicago.
The speech will give Walz an opportunity to introduce himself to a much wider audience of voters, as most Americans were unfamiliar with the Minnesota governor before Harris selected him as her running mate earlier this month. An ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted last month, shortly after Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race and endorsed Harris, showed that only 13% of Americans knew enough about Walz to register an opinion of him.
Continue reading...Brittany Lacayo clinches Guinness World Record mark with tongue wider than a hockey puck and as wide as a credit card
An American lawyer was once so secretive about her unusually wide tongue that she avoided giving even a glimpse of it to her legal office colleagues – but she has overcome her reticence and used the prodigious organ to clinch a Guinness World Record mark.
Brittany Lacayo of Houston, Texas, secured the organization’s title for female with the world’s widest tongue after hers came in wider than a hockey puck – and at about the same width as a credit card.
Continue reading...This blog is closed
Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer, has turned up at the Democratic national convention, for reasons unknown.
Cohen fell out with Trump years ago, and was a witness for the prosecution in the former president’s hush-money trial in New York, which ended with him being found guilty of 34 felonies related to falsifying business documents.
Continue reading...Actors, dubbed ‘Bennifer’ in 2000s, married in Las Vegas in 2022 after re-sparking relationship from two decades prior
After just over two years of marriage, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez have filed for divorce.
According to a report from Variety magazine, Lopez filed on Tuesday in Los Angeles county superior court. The official separation date is listed as 26 April.
Continue reading...Stephanie Grisham, ex-press secretary who excoriated Trump on Tuesday, to be followed by lawmakers and voters
Stephanie Grisham, Donald Trump’s former press secretary, excoriated the Republican presidential nominee at the Democratic national convention on Tuesday, saying: “He has no empathy, no morals and no fidelity to the truth.”
Grisham, a Republican operative who also served as a spokesperson to Melania Trump, offered firsthand accounts of the former president’s behavior behind closed doors.
When are Michelle and Barack Obama speaking?
The lineup of notable Democratic speakers tonight
Obama to bring message of hope to convention speech
Here are the rising stars and politicians to watch this week
What to know about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz
Continue reading...Ex-president falsely claims US is in grip of violent crime wave, and vows to shield officers from legal accountability
Donald Trump has pledged to shield police officers from legal accountability if he is re-elected as president after falsely claiming the US is in the grip of a wave of violent crime that he blamed on the Black Lives Matter movement and migrants crossing the Mexican border.
Speaking to police officers in Michigan on Tuesday, the former president sought to pin responsibility for the imagined crisis on his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, who he characterised as among “Marxist district attorneys” with a record of being anti-police and pro-criminal during her term as the DA in San Francisco in the 2000s.
Continue reading...Ex-president headlining in Chicago on Tuesday brings memories of 2004 appeal for unity that inspired Democrats
From “skinny kid with a funny name” to elder statesman: Barack Obama, the former US president, will be the headline speaker at the Democratic national convention in Chicago on Tuesday – 20 years after he first burst on to the national political scene.
Obama, a state legislator from Illinois, was days from his 43rd birthday and months from being elected to the Senate when he was given a slot at the party’s 2004 convention in Boston. “Rising star to woo voters with upbeat keynote speech,” was the Guardian headline on 27 July 2004.
Continue reading...What we know about four Britons and two Americans still unaccounted for after boat sank during storm
Fears are growing for six people who are missing after a superyacht, the Bayesian, sank off the coast of Sicily when it was hit by a tornadic waterspout during a storm on Monday morning.
On Monday the body of one man, the yacht’s chef, was recovered from the water. There were 15 survivors. A rescue mission is under way to search for six others who remain unaccounted for. The four Britons and two Americans have all been named. Here is what we know about them.
Continue reading...