‘The Artemis generation’: Nasa to launch first rocket to the moon since 1972

Test flight that will have no human crew aboard aims to return humans to the moon and eventually land them on Mars

For the first time in 50 years, Nasa on Monday is planning to launch the first rocket that can ferry humans to and from the moon.

The giant Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is scheduled to take off from Nasa’s Cape Canaveral, Florida, complex at 8.33am ET (1.33pm UK time) atop an unmanned Orion spacecraft that is designed to carry up to six astronauts to the moon and beyond.

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MTV VMAs 2022: Taylor Swift wins and Johnny Depp surprises in chaotic ceremony

Taylor Swift announced a new album, Nicki Minaj shouted out female genitals and Johnny Depp made a surprise appearance in a strange, profane evening

Taylor Swift took home the night’s biggest prize – and announced a new album – during the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards, a chaotic, bleep-heavy show that nodded to music phenomena past and present, and featured a surprise appearance by Johnny Depp.

Swift, who won best longform video and video of the year for All Too Well (10 Minute Version) for her 2021 re-recorded album Red, was the only artist to double-up on televised awards. Across three hours, MTV moonmen statues went to industry veterans such as Nicki Minaj (best hip-hop) and the Red Hot Chili Peppers (best rock); non-English superstars such as Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny (artist of the year) and Blackpink’s Lisa (best K-pop); and newer faces Jack Harlow (song of summer), Lil Nas X (best collaboration, with Harlow, for Industry Baby) and Dove Cameron, a former Disney child star turned actor, who surprised some to win best new artist.

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Taylor Swift announces new album, Midnights, to be released in October

The 32-year-old singer used her acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards to reveal her 10th studio album is on the way

Taylor Swift has announced she is releasing a new album, Midnights, in October.

While receiving the top honour at MTV’s annual Video Music Awards, the 32-year-old singer used her acceptance speech to announce her 10th studio album would come out on 21 October.

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Washington Commanders running back Brian Robinson shot multiple times

  • Player was victim of apparent robbery or carjacking
  • Coaches and staff of NFL team are present at hospital

Washington Commanders rookie running back Brian Robinson was shot during what police say was an attempted robbery or carjacking, the NFL team said on Sunday night.

The 23-year-old former Alabama player was taken to a hospital with what the team called non-life-threatening injuries. The Commanders said team co-owners Dan and Tanya Snyder, president Jason Wright, coach Ron Rivera, team physician Dr Anthony Casolaro and clinical psychologist Dr Barbara Roberts were with Robinson at the hospital.

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Kenyan cyclist Sule Kangangi killed in crash at Vermont Overland gravel race

  • 33-year-old dies after crash at high speed on Saturday
  • Kangangi was committed to growing cycling in Kenya

Kenyan cyclist Sule Kangangi died in a crash on Saturday while competing in a gravel race in Vermont. The 33-year-old was riding at high speed in the Vermont Overland race when he crashed.

“Sule is our captain, friend, brother. He is also a father, husband and son. Gaping holes are left when giant’s fall. Sule was a giant,” his Team Amani posted on social media. “Instead of leading us at the front of the pack, he will now lead us as our guiding pole star as we press forward in the realization of his dream.”

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Mississippi governor declares state of emergency ahead of massive flooding

Flood stage considered ‘major’ at 26ft, but warnings estimate water to reach 34ft in some areas, while others could see 35.8ft of water

Mississippi’s governor, Tate Reeves, declared a state of emergency on Saturday as the state braces itself for massive flooding that was predicted for Monday.

“If predictions prove accurate, the Pearl River is expected to crest on Monday, August 29th, at 36 feet,” several feet over what is considered a major flood stage, Reeves said. “This is 24 hours sooner than originally predicted.”

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Kinzinger: Republicans ‘hypocritical’ for defending Trump over taking classified material

Party spent years chanting ‘lock her up’ at Hillary Clinton for private email system, says congressman, a vocal critic of Trump

Congressman Adam Kinzinger, the Illinois Republican who has been one of the most vocal critics of Donald Trump, called out his party for criticizing Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while continuing to defend the former president’s decision to take sensitive government information to his home at Mar-a-Lago.

Kinzinger’s comments came days after the FBI released a redacted version of the affidavit the agency submitted to a federal judge to justify a search of Trump’s home. The document details how Trump retained classified material at Mar-a-Lago and that the government had been working for more than a year to retrieve those materials. A batch of documents returned earlier this year contained 184 documents marked as classified, including 25 marked as top secret.

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Woman fatally shoots three male relatives before killing herself

Facebook post accused father, brother-in-law and his father, of either physically abusing woman’s sister or ignoring it

A Massachusetts woman shot her brother-in-law, his father, her own dad and herself to death after she publicly accused the first man of physically abusing her sister for years while the other two – along with additional relatives – stood idly by, according to authorities and a chilling social media post that offers an apparent motive for the violence.

The gruesome saga began with a Facebook post published on the afternoon of 23 August in which Khosay Sharifi recounted how her sister has been choked, slapped, kicked, punched in the face and cursed out by her husband of 14 years.

In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 800-273-8255 and online chat is also available. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org

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Bernie Sanders rebukes GOP for backing corporate tax breaks but not student debt relief

‘I don’t hear any of these Republicans squawking when we give massive tax breaks to billionaires, Vermont senator says

Senator Bernie Sanders chided Republicans on Sunday for backing tax breaks for corporations and wealthy Americans while criticizing Joe Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan.

“Look, I know it is shocking … to some Republicans, that the government actually, on occasion, does something to benefit low income families and working people,” the progressive from Vermont said during an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News’s This Week. “I don’t hear any of these Republicans squawking when we give massive tax breaks to billionaires.”

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US warships sail through Taiwan Strait for first time since Pelosi visit

China’s military says it is monitoring the US ships, maintaining a high alert and ready to defeat any provocations

The US Navy said two warships were sailing through international waters in the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, in the first such operation since heightened tensions with China over the Taiwan visit of the US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi.

The guided-missile cruisers USS Antietam and USS Chancellorsville were conducting a “routine Taiwan Strait transit”, the US 7th fleet said in a statement.

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What’s the real story behind James ‘Whitey’ Bulger’s violent murder?

Recent revelations have only fed speculation that some form of plot lay behind the gangster’s brutal demise in prison

US organized crime has long held a tight grip on America’s popular imagination, sustaining entire industries of books, television series and Hollywood movies, as well as countless breathless headlines in tabloid newspapers.

But few names have been as famous as the south Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, who for decades presented himself as a benevolent gangster who protected his community and was given Hollywood treatment by Johnny Depp in “Black Mass” and Jack Nicholson in “The Departed”.

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Artemis 1: crowds flock to watch Nasa’s most powerful rocket blast off to the moon

Megarocket to lift off from Florida on Monday morning, one of final crucial test steps before astronauts’ return to the moon

The most powerful space rocket ever to leave Earth will take a 50-year leap across the heavens when it rises from its Florida launchpad on Monday, one of the final crucial test steps before humanity’s return to the moon for the first time since 1972.

Artemis 1, comprising Orion, a six-person deep-space exploration capsule, atop a 98m (322ft), 2,600-tonne (2,875-ton) Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket, is scheduled for its maiden liftoff at 8.33am ET (1.33pm UK time) from the same Cape Canaveral launch complex that staged the Apollo lunar missions half a century ago.

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Three Dutch commandos wounded in shooting outside US hotel

Dutch men were in Indiana for training; at least one in critical condition after what police say appeared to be an altercation

Three Dutch commandos in the United States for training exercises have been wounded in a shooting in downtown Indianapolis after what local police believe was a disturbance outside the hotel where they were staying, authorities say.

The Dutch defence ministry said one of the men was in critical condition and the two others were conscious, while Indianapolis police said two of the soldiers were in critical condition and the third was stable.

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Pro- and anti-abortion groups clash at California Planned Parenthood clinic

Fights broke out after counter-protesters confronted an annual rally by Straight Pride, a group with links to the alt-right

A clash between groups opposing and supporting abortion rights broke out at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Modesto, California, on Saturday was cleared by law enforcement in tactical riot gear using pepper ball guns, police have confirmed.

The encounter, which resulted in multiple arrests, was confirmed by the Modesto police department. Video of the clash was posted on Twitter.

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US investigates fake heiress who infiltrated Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort

A Ukrainian woman posed as a Rothschild to gain access to the Florida resort, heightening fears over security lapses

A second foreign national is being investigated by US authorities for gaining access to Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida resort which is at the center of an FBI probe over missing classified documents, heightening fears over security lapses both during and after his presidency.

According to an article from the Organized Crime & Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a Ukrainian woman posing as a member of the Rothschild banking dynasty is under bureau investigation after infiltrating the private members club under a false pretense.

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Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data breach lawsuit ends in 11th hour settlement

Dramatic move shows Mark Zuckerberg ‘desperate to avoid being questioned over cover-up’, says Observer journalist who exposed scandal

Facebook has dramatically agreed to settle a lawsuit seeking damages for allowing Cambridge Analytica access to the private data of tens of millions of users, four years after the Observer exposed the scandal that mired the tech giant in repeated controversy.

A court filing reveals that Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has in principle settled for an undisclosed sum a long-running lawsuit that claimed Facebook illegally shared user data with the UK analysis firm.

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‘Time has run out’: UN fails to reach agreement to protect marine life

This fifth round of discussions was meant to establish a UN Ocean Treaty that would protect biodiversity in international waters

The latest round of talks at the United Nations aimed at securing protections for marine life in international waters that cover half the planet ended without agreement Saturday.

The fifth round of discussions, which began two weeks ago, were designed to establish a UN Ocean Treaty that would set rules for protecting biodiversity in two-thirds of the world’s oceanic areas that lie outside territorial waters.

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US to name Arctic ambassador as thawing pole heats superpower rivalry

US says ambassador-at-large will engage with other Arctic nations, Indigenous groups and other stakeholders

The US has said it will create a position of Arctic ambassador to step up diplomacy as Russia and China increase their presence in waters opened up by climate breakdown.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, will soon name an ambassador-at-large who will engage with other Arctic nations, Indigenous groups and other stakeholders, state department spokesperson Vedant Patel said.

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Of all the legal threats Trump is facing, is this the one that could take him down?

The quiet workings of a Georgia grand jury hearing evidence of election fraud could represent the ex-president’s greatest danger

Donald Trump’s lawyers are earning their keep.

The former president’s attorneys have raced to put out one fire after another in recent months as they defend Trump from investigations into the squirrelling away of secret documents at Mar-a-Lago, his part in the storming of the Capitol during his last days in office, and twin probes into his business dealings in New York.

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Naomi Judd dealing with bipolar disorder when she died by suicide, autopsy says

Medical examiner’s report confirms country star shot and killed herself in April and had been managing post-traumatic stress

Grammy-winning country musician Naomi Judd was struggling with bipolar disorder when she shot herself and died at her home in Tennessee earlier this year, according to a report released Friday by the local medical examiner, and a statement from her family added that she was dealing with post-traumatic stress, too.

Judd and her family had previously discussed in largely general terms her long battle with depression prior to her death by suicide at the end of April. But the report Friday from the Nashville medical examiner’s office, along with the statement from Judd’s relatives, offered the most complete description yet of the mental illnesses surrounding her depression.

In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 800-273-8255 and online chat is also available. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org

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