NYC office found covered in red paint after AOC voted ‘no’ on defense bill that included over $600m in aid for Israel
A Bronx office of US House member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was vandalized early Monday, according to New York City police, who say they are investigating.
The vandalism occurred as the progressive Democratic congresswoman grapples with “threats on [her] life”, as her campaign manager put it, after a recent US House vote involving American aid to Israel.
The Department of Education case is the latest example of an unexplained decision bowing to Trump
Just when we thought the US supreme court couldn’t sink any lower in bowing and scraping to Donald Trump, it issued a shocking order last week that brushed aside important legal precedents as it ruled in the president’s favor. In that case, the court’s rightwing supermajority essentially gave Trump carte blanche to dismantle the Department of Education, which plays an important role in the lives of the nation’s 50 million public schoolchildren, sending federal money to schools, helping students with disabilities and enforcing anti-discrimination laws.
Many legal experts, along with the court’s three liberal justices, protested that the court was letting Trump abolish a congressionally created federal agency without Congress’s approval. In their dissent, the liberal justices warned that the court was undermining Congress’s authority and the constitution’s separation of powers. Not only that, we should all be concerned that the court was giving dangerous new powers to the most authoritarian-minded president in US history.
Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labour and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues
Ben Stokes says England did not ‘go over the line’
The India captain, Shubman Gill, has strongly criticised some of England’s behaviour during their ongoing Test series, describing it as not “what I would think comes in the spirit of the game”.
On the eve of the fourth Test at Old Trafford Gill was asked if he regretted confronting the England batter Ben Duckett during the last match at Lord’s, a moment that prompted England to decide, as Harry Brook put it on Monday, “to give them something back and not be the nice guys we have been in the last three or four years”. Gill’s intervention came as England’s openers tried – successfully as it turned out – to restrict India to bowling a single over during a seven-minute period at the end of the third day, using delaying tactics that included spotting convenient movement behind the sightscreen, and calling on the physio after being hit by the ball.
Epstein confidante’s lawyer confirms discussions with government after deputy attorney general Todd Blanche said he wants to ask her ‘what do you know?’
Coca-Cola has laid out plans to launch a product made with US cane sugar this year, days after Donald Trump claimed the company had agreed to replace high-fructose corn syrup.
The announcement came on Tuesday in Coca-Cola’s earnings report. It confirmed a 16 July post on Trump’s Truth Social platform in which the president said Coca-Cola “agreed” to use “REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States”.
Excess consumption of sugar from any source harms health. To make the US food supply healthier, the Trump administration should focus on less sugar, not different sugar.
Experts say switching corn syrup for cane sugar does not make the drink healthier
Coca-Cola has laid out plans to launch a product made with US cane sugar this year, days after Donald Trump claimed the company had agreed to replace high-fructose corn syrup.
The announcement came Tuesday in Coca-Cola’s earnings report. It confirmed a 16 July post on Trump’s Truth Social platform in which the president said Coca-Cola “agreed” to use “REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States”.
Austria’s month-long ImPulsTanz celebration goes beyond the norm to turn rope jumping, navel-gazing and masked protest into explosive shows
Matteo Haitzmann is a violinist who has tonight swapped his strings and bow for a skipping rope. With drummer Judith Schwarz and Arthur Fussy on modular synthesiser, he has formed an unorthodox trio to deliver a show in which each stroke, beat and jump lives up the title: Make It Count. It’s an hour of unusual rigour with an electrifying thrill – and the standout from my whirl through Vienna’s ImPulsTanz festival, a kaleidoscopic programme of performance and participation.
With the studied nonchalance of a rock star, Haitzmann stands on one of three island-like platforms, swinging what could be mistaken for a mic lead. Hanna Kritten Tangsoo’s lighting design will become increasingly mercurial but right now the synth desk twinkles, beams crisscross the stage creating an anarchic A next to the drum kit and the swirling rope resembles a red flash of lightning.
António Guterres says ‘sun is rising on a clean energy age’ as 90% of renewable power projects cheaper than fossil fuels
The world is on the brink of a breakthrough in the climate fight and fossil fuels are running out of road, the UN chief said on Tuesday, as he urged countries to funnel support into low-carbon energy.
More than nine in 10 renewable power projects globally are now cheaper than fossil fuel alternatives. Solar power is about 41% cheaper than the lowest-cost fossil fuel alternative, and onshore wind generation is less than half the price of fossil fuels, according to a report from the International Renewable Energy Agency.
White House cites Unesco’s focus on ‘divisive social and cultural causes’ in latest withdrawal from global bodies
The US will quit the United Nations’ culture and education agency Unesco, the US state department has said, as Donald Trump continues to pull out of international institutions.
“Unesco works to advance divisive social and cultural causes and maintains an outsized focus on the UN’s sustainable development goals, a globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our America First foreign policy,” a state department spokesperson, Tammy Bruce, said.
In the public statement, a Times spokesperson said the White House’s actions represented “simple retribution by a president against a news organization for doing reporting that he doesn’t like”, warning that “such actions deprive Americans of information about how their government operates”.
Prestige titles grabbing some glamour include Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and Jim Jarmusch’s all-star Father Mother Sister Brother, while Jude Law plays Putin
A high-calibre cast of Hollywood A-listers are due to descend on Venice’s waterways for this year’s film festival, with George Clooney, Emma Stone, Oscar Isaacs and Julia Roberts starring in films that will premiere on the Lido between 27 August and 9 September.
Highly anticipated titles in a hefty lineup include Mexican director Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, with Isaacs as the titular protagonist scientist and Saltburn star Jacob Elordi as the monster, as well as Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the heavyweight wrestling champ Mark Kerr and Emily Blunt as his wife Dawn Staples.
In his first show since the Late Show was cancelled, Colbert addressed rumours the show was axed to please Trump
Stephen Colbert declared to Donald Trump that “the gloves are off” in his first broadcast since his Late Show was cancelled amid a political firestorm, as his fellow hosts lined up to defend him with Jon Stewart scathingly denouncing Paramount for trying to “censor and control” its hosts.
Colbert, the top-rated late-night talk show host in the US, said last week on his CBS show Late Night – which he took over from David Letterman in 2015 – that Paramount’s decision to pay a $16m settlement to Trump over another flagship CBS show, 60 Minutes, amounted to a “big fat bribe”. CBS is part of Paramount, which needs the Trump-controlled Federal Communications Commission to approve its $8bn sale to Skydance.
The US technology company has been seeking damages of up to $4.55bn (£3.37bn) from the estate of the late tycoon, once hailed as the UK’s answer to Microsoft founder Bill Gates, over its disastrous takeover of his British software company Autonomy.
IMMA says it plans to reinstate screenings of The Angelic Conversation, following a complaint against the showing of a gay kiss on the museum’s outdoor screen
The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) has rejected accusations of censorship after suspending screenings of a Derek Jarman film following a complaint against the showing of a gay kiss.
In a statement, the museum’s director Annie Fletcher said: “We at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) are dismayed at the current supposition that we would actively censor the work of Derek Jarman and /or any artist from the LGBTQ+ community.”
As Maga supporters revolt over the Epstein scandal, figures like Tucker Carlson are now a gadfly of the White House’s handling of the controversy
As Donald Trump tries to contain an ugly rift with his own supporters about the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking scandal, influential media personalities in the Maga movement face a tricky dilemma.
Should they close ranks with the US president – who has denounced demands for more information on Epstein as a “waste [of] Time and Energy” about “somebody that nobody cares about” – or pick at a political wound that the Trump administration desperately wants to scab over?
The midsummer party in Vegas is a showcase for the next wave of NBA talent. Our correspondent in the desert empties her notebook
The Portland Trail Blazers were the butt of every draft night joke when they took China’s 7ft 1in Yang Hansen, who had been widely projected as a second-round pick, at No 16 overall. But it appears the joke may be on the rest of the NBA, at least if Vegas Summer League is any indication. Hansen was unequivocally the story of the week, impressing with his high-level offensive skillset, and, in particular, his aptitude for passing and facilitation, an unusual trait for someone his size that has garnered him comparisons to one Nikola Jokić. Despite a ton of attention from global media (Hansen is already getting massive amounts of press back home in China), the jovial 20-year-old appears to have a good head on his shoulders, too. He told Ben Golliver of the Washington Post this week: “There’s a saying in my heart, don’t worry about anything that’s more than eight hours away. And even if it’s within eight hours, don’t worry too much.”
Test selection picture blurred after tight outcome
The final midweek game of this Lions tour was always destined to be something of a mixed bag. Towards the end there were a clutch of unlikely red-shirted players out on the field and the outcome was still in doubt up until the closing moments. Two tries for Jamie Osborne eventually squeezed his side home but very little about the evening turned out to be comfortable.
In terms of pointers towards second-Test selection the picture was also fairly blurred. Blair Kinghorn, back from a strained knee, showed some excellent touches but also had a couple of passes intercepted. Jamie George’s lineout throwing was consistently good while Owen Farrell’s no-nonsense instructions to his team were audible from the stands 50 metres away.
Edmundo Sosa’s Phillies teammates mobbed him beyond first base after a 3-2, walk-off win over the Red Sox on Monday night. In the moment, it didn’t matter to him that he’d gotten there thanks to a call of catcher’s interference.
“To be honest, this feels exactly like a home run,” Sosa said. “The most important thing about it is that we end up winning the game, and that’s what we went out to do.”
Nobody should expect to go to a huge concert and expect privacy, but the incident is a jarring reminder of the reach of the surveillance state and the internet’s insatiable appetite for public shaming
I’m not a curtain-twitcher, OK? I’m just a little bit nosy and happen to procrastinate by staring out of the window. Inspiration rarely strikes during these procrastination sessions – but I have absorbed an awful lot of information about my neighbours. “Guess what,” I’ll say to my wife. “I think the flight attendant who always puts his trash out when it’s not trash day broke up with his boyfriend because I haven’t seen him around lately.” My wife, meanwhile, never has any idea what I’m talking about and usually tells me to mind my own business.
I’m starting to think she has a point. In fact, we should all work a little harder at minding our own business. Because I’m not the only nosy parker out there, am I? Judging by the global obsession with the Coldplay couple, we’re all far too invested in other people’s lives.
While the US president is preparing to assist Volodomyr Zelenskyy’s efforts against Russia, his plan may have significant limits
Donald Trump presents himself as a peerless president, an unrivaled negotiator, even a “genius”. So it’s a unique moment when he comes close – I emphasize the qualifier –to conceding that another leader has outfoxed him. Trump suggested as much recently when characterizing Vladimir Putin’s modus operandi. “Putin,” he told reporters on 13 July, “really surprised a lot of people. He talks nice and then bombs everybody in the evening.” Melania Trump may have contributed to this reassessment. As Trump recounted recently, when he told her about a “wonderful conversation” with the Russian leader, she responded, “Oh, really? Another city was just hit.”
Trump’s new take on Putin is a break with the past. His esteem for Putin–whose decisions he has described as “savvy” and “genius” – has contrasted starkly with his derisive comments about the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom he memorably disrespected during a White House meeting and even blamed for starting the war.
Rajan Menon is a professor emeritus of international relations at the City College of New York and a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies
What batch cocktails are best for summer parties? Ella, by email First things first: stand down that cocktail shaker. When you have more than a handful of people over, you need drinks that scale up easily. And a paloma never fails to hit the hot weather happy-hour spot, says Max Venning, director of Three Sheets bars in London and co-author of Batched and Bottled Cocktails. “It’s great for a garden party, because you just whack it all in a jug and into the fridge in the morning, then all you need are iced glasses and soda water.” Combine 350ml good-quality blanco tequila (“Ocho or Volcan are my go-tos”), 250ml fresh pink grapefruit juice, 10ml tomato vinegar (“or white balsamic”) and two tablespoons of caster sugar, stir until the latter dissolves, then chill. “While you’re waiting for your guests, coat half the rim of your glasses with a mix of salt, a touch of ground black pepper and a sprinkle of ground cumin: wipe half the outside rim with grapefruit, put the salt mix on a small plate and gently press the wet part of the glass into the salt, so it sticks.” When you’re good to go, fill each glass with ice, fill halfway with the paloma mix, top with soda and stir gently: “Garnish with edible flowers or a grapefruit slice.”
Another party starter, says Alex Lyonness, bar manager at Luca in London, is a naked and famous, which, happily, is “quick to batch because it’s equal parts mezcal, Aperol and yellow chartreuse, and quick to build because it’s 60ml of that mixed with 20ml lime juice”. Sandia Chang, meanwhile, would lean more towards a “lighter” negroni: “We often pre-batch a cocktail that’s a cross between an americano and a white negroni, which is equal parts Lillet Blanc and Suze,” says the co-founder of Bubbleshop and Kitchen Table, who serves that mix of classic French aperitifs over ice and topped up with soda.
Teenagers who take part in video games tell of being headhunted to work on technology used against Ukraine
Russian authorities have systematically involved children in the design and testing of drones for the country’s war in Ukraine through nationwide competitions that begin with innocent-seeming video games and end up with the most talented students headhunted by defence companies, an investigation has found.
The revelations, part of an investigation by the exiled Russian news outlet the Insider, are the latest to show just how much Russia’s leaders are dragging the country’s youth into the war effort in Ukraine, with “patriotic” and militarised education often spilling over into outright participation.
Exit bans used by China for reasons ranging from criminal investigations to diplomatic leverage tool
The Chinese government has blocked a US federal employee from leaving China, the US state department has confirmed.
The federal employee works for the US Patent and Trademark Office, and was visiting China in a personal capacity, according to the state department. “We are tracking this case very closely and are engaged with Chinese officials to resolve the situation as quickly as possible,” a spokesperson said.
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