News (old posts, page 813)

Trump brushes off US intel reports on Iran to align himself with Israel

President has dismissed verdict by handpicked spy chief, Tulsi Gabbard, that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons

Tulsi Gabbard, the US director of national intelligence, delivered a concise verdict during congressional testimony this March: the intelligence community “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and supreme leader Khomeini [sic] has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003”.

As he rushed back to Washington on Tuesday morning, Donald Trump swatted aside the assessment from the official that he handpicked to deliver him information from 18 US intelligence agencies. “I don’t care what she said,” said Trump. “I think they were very close to having one.”

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Katie Boulter reveals shocking online abuse sent to her and other tennis players

  • British player believes much of it comes from gamblers

  • ‘I don’t think people were aware of how much it happens’

Katie Boulter has revealed the extent to which she has been targeted by online abusers who have sent death threats, explicit pictures and toxic comments during her matches. The British No 2 believes much of the abuse comes from gamblers who have lost money.

Boulter, aiming for a hat-trick of victories at the Nottingham Open, opened her defence with a convincing 6-2, 6-2 win against the world No 44, Lulu Sun, but it was the grim catalogue of hate posted online that Boulter had earlier made public in an interview with BBC Sport which was the talk of the tournament.

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‘Not our war’: bipartisan US lawmakers back resolution to block involvement in Iran

Republican Thomas Massie joins with Democrats in effort to require Congress approval before Trump attacks Iran

As Donald Trump publicly threatens to join Israel in attacking Iran, an unlikely coalition of lawmakers has moved to prevent the president from involving US forces in the conflict without Congress’s approval.

On Tuesday, Republican congressman Thomas Massie, whose libertarian-tinged politics have often put him at odds with Trump, joined with several progressive Democrats to introduce in the House of Representatives a war powers resolution that would require a vote by Congress before Trump could attack Iran. Democrat Tim Kaine has introduced companion legislation in the Senate.

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Olympic champion Noah Lyles pulls out of race with NFL star Tyreek Hill for personal reasons

  • 100m champion says race was planned for New York

  • Athletes have exchanged trash talk in recent months

Olympic champion Noah Lyles said he was prepared to race Miami Dolphins star receiver Tyreek Hill in New York before plans fell through due to “personal reasons”.

Speaking at a Sport Beach event in France, Lyles said the proposed event had come to fruition after several months of back-and-forth trash talk.

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‘What if the strikes hit us on the highway?’: Thousands flee Tehran amid bombardment

Fearful residents endure fraught journeys out of Iranian capital as Israel issues evacuation order

As Farhad* and his friends left Tehran, they had plenty of time to survey the destruction. Smoke billowed from rooftops and flames flickered behind them as they inched their way through miles-long traffic to escape Israel’s bombardment of Iran’s capital city.

Despite leaving early on Tuesday morning, it took Farhad six hours to reach his ancestral village, a journey that usually would take no more than two-and-a-half hours.

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Ex-senator Bob Menendez arrives at prison to begin serving 11-year sentence

The New Jersey Democrat will be held in Pennsylvania facility after his conviction on bribery charges

Bob Menendez arrived at a federal prison on Tuesday to begin serving an 11-year sentence for accepting bribes of gold and cash and acting as an agent of Egypt. The New Jersey Democrat and former US senator has been mocked for the crimes as “Gold Bar Bob”, according to his own lawyer.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed that Menendez was in custody at the Schuylkill federal correctional institution in Minersville, Pennsylvania. The facility has a medium-security prison and a minimum-security prison camp. Given the white-collar nature of his crimes, it is likely he will end up in the camp.

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The Guardian view on Gaza’s engineered famine: stop arming the slaughter – or lose the rule of law | Editorial

As Palestinians starve amid the rubble, western governments defend Israel, fund armed aid and dismantle the very rules they claim to uphold

Gaza’s cries have been drowned out by Israel’s strikes on Iran, and the diplomatic pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu over the suffering has ebbed. Yet as the industrialised world urges de-escalation in the Middle East, the devastation continues. On Tuesday morning, witnesses described Israeli forces firing towards a crowd waiting for trucks loaded with flour, leaving more than 50 dead. These are not stray bullets in wartime chaos, they are the outcome of a system that makes relief deadly.

As Médecins Sans Frontières declared this week, what is unfolding in Gaza is “the calculated evisceration of the very systems that sustain life”. That includes homes, markets, water networks and hospitals – with healthcare continually under attack. Last week, a UN commission found that more than 90% of the Gaza Strip’s schools and universities have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli forces using airstrikes, burning, shelling and controlled demolitions. What’s happening is not the collateral damage of military necessity, it is a programme of civic annihilation.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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The Guardian view on Egypt and Alaa Abd el-Fattah: Starmer and Lammy vowed to do all they can. So do it | Editorial

The UK still has ways to press for the release of the British-Egyptian writer and bring an end to the hunger strike endangering his mother’s life

Last month, Sir Keir Starmer promised to do “everything I possibly can” to free Egypt’s highest profile political prisoner, Alaa Abd el-Fattah. A few months earlier, the foreign secretary had described the case of the British-Egyptian writer and campaigner as the “number one issue”. In opposition, David Lammy had joined a protest in Mr Abd el-Fattah’s support outside the Foreign Office and demanded serious diplomatic consequences for Cairo if no progress was made.

Progress has not been made and time is running out. Arbitrary detention has stolen almost a decade of Mr Abd el-Fattah’s life, while that of his remarkable mother, Laila Soueif, may be drawing to its close. As of Tuesday, the 69-year-old, who lives in London, had not eaten for 261 days, as she demands her son’s release. After taking 300-calorie liquid supplements for a short period, she returned to a full hunger strike almost a month ago and has been hospitalised since the end of May. In Egypt, Mr Abd el-Fattah has been on hunger strike for more than 100 days.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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