Agents accused in lawsuit of using anti-immigrant slurs and denigrating undocumented Mexicans

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents deployed last summer to the Los Angeles area referred to the subjects of their immigration operations with racial slurs, according to newly released court documents.

On 4 July 2025, an unidentified agent wrote in a text chain, “btw tonks everywhere selling food for the 4th festivities in long beach right now”, invoking an anti-immigrant slur, which the US border patrol has previously warned against.

Official declines to say whether Gabriel Perez, who allegedly bet on prediction market Kalshi, resigned or was fired

A White House teleprompter operator who reportedly used inside knowledge to make bets about Donald Trump’s speeches on the online prediction market Kalshi is no longer in his post, according to a White House official.

The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly about the personnel matter and spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Tuesday that Gabriel Perez “no longer works in the federal government”.

Move comes as the Trump administration has increasingly sought to keep Chinese technology out of the US

The Federal Communications Commission announced a ban on humanoid robots from China on Tuesday, saying that the technology poses “unacceptable risks” to the country’s national security. The move comes as the Trump administration has increasingly sought to keep Chinese technology out of the US.

The FCC defines the banned robots as “advanced robotic devices”, which include humanoids and animal-like quadrupeds.

At confirmation hearing, Clayton sidestepped questions about 2020 election and declined to say Trump lost

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The US Senate voted to confirm Jay Clayton as the director of national intelligence on Tuesday, giving Trump another key ally directing the nation’s intelligence apparatus.

The tally, 51-47, fell along party lines, with all Republicans supporting his nomination and all Democrats opposing it.

Some ‘private’ chats and docs are showing up on search engines. Here’s how to protect yours

Users of Anthropic’s Claude chatbot were surprised over the weekend to learn that some of their conversations may be discoverable on search engines like Google and Bing. The revelation is raising questions about how much control people actually have over what they share online.

Anthropic allows Claude users to create public links to their chat threads, which gives anyone with the link the ability to view their conversations – similar to sharing options on apps like Google Docs. But what users may not have realized was that means their Claude conversations, however sensitive or personal, could show up in public search results.

No deaths reported after twister leveled homes and toppled trees and power lines in north-east of state

First responders searched homes and buildings on Tuesday for possible victims of a powerful tornado that ravaged several north-eastern Wisconsin communities.

The Fox Cities region, which is home to more than 100,000 people in the cities of Appleton, Menasha and Neenah, was left in shambles by Monday’s twister, with homes leveled, cars flipped and power lines and trees toppled.

France had also intervened after Trump administration had opposed the reappointment of UN human rights chief

US diplomats walked out of a United Nations meeting after France criticized the country’s human rights record under Donald Trump.

The staged walkout, which occurred on Monday during a UN security council meeting on the Ukraine-Russia war, came days after the Trump administration cited “forced labor” allegations as it imposed sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries.

State kills Dominick Occhicone, 80, and James Duckett, 68, as Ron DeSantis pushes executions before term ends

Florida on Tuesday became the first state in nearly a decade to carry out two executions in a single day, putting to death an 80-year-old man who was the second-oldest inmate known to receive a lethal injection in modern US history.

Hours earlier, the state executed a former police officer convicted of the killing of a young girl.

Three people died, including one of the suspects, and at least five more were wounded, including two-year-old boy

Seattle police recovered a modified machine gun and an untraceable “ghost gun” from the scene of a mass shooting at a food festival this weekend that left three people dead – including one of the suspects – and at least five more wounded, the police chief, Shon Barnes, said on Tuesday.

Sunday’s shooting appeared to involve at least three suspects, Barnes said at a televised news conference. One of those three, 19-year-old Junior Cee Niko Semo, died at the scene. A second, 15-year-old suspect was disarmed and arrested at the scene. At least one more suspect remains at large, Barnes said.

Ruby Rippey writes in Vanity Fair of relationship with then San Francisco mayor and appears to contradict his account

A former aide to Gavin Newsom has publicly shared for the first time her full account of their affair, which took place more than two decades ago when Newsom was mayor of San Francisco.

In a new essay published in Vanity Fair on Tuesday, Ruby Rippey writes about her struggles with alcoholism, substance abuse and her relationship with Newsom while she worked as his appointments secretary and was married to his deputy chief of staff and later the manager of the mayor’s re-election campaign.

Historically Black institution withdrew more than 500 first-year students for missed tuition payments

New York residents who were unenrolled from Washington DC’s Howard University have been offered a reprieve after the historically Black institution withdrew more than 500 first-year students for missed tuition payments in late July. On 27 July, Kathy Hochul, New York’s governor, announced that affected New Yorkers can seek admission at the City University of New York (Cuny) and the State University of New York (Suny) for the fall 2026 semester.

Students will be offered expedited late admissions review at the Suny campuses at Buffalo, Albany, Buffalo State University, Binghamton, Oneonta, Stony Brook and New Paltz, with other schools assessing capacity.

Cole Gray pleaded guilty to 55 counts, including murder, for shooting at Apalachee high school in 2024

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A US judge on Tuesday sentenced a teenager who killed two students and two teachers in a shooting at Apalachee high school in Georgia to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Colt Gray, 16, had pleaded guilty on Friday to 55 counts, including murder, in the 4 September 2024, shooting at the school about 45 miles (73km) north-east of Atlanta. Gray, who was 14 at the time, was charged as an adult.

Dramatic video recorded on 25 July shows a 16-year-old lifeguard rescuing a 10-year-old boy from massive waves at a beach in Santa Cruz, California. The boy was safely brought back to the shore with no injuries, according to the Associated Press

Lenita Moreno, 25, arrested over fire – which allegedly caused $108,000 in damage – at Mormon church in Kaysville

A Utah woman set fire to the church where she was scheduled to get married a day before the wedding, allege authorities investigating what may have been an extreme case of cold feet.

Lenita Moreno, 25, was arrested on a count of aggravated arson in connection with the 10 July blaze, which investigators say caused $108,000 in damage and was started using a tampon and other flammable items.

White House has halted changing vaccine schedule as it is unpopular, but anti-vaxx Trump set on ‘alleviating autism’

Donald Trump is pushing the longtime vaccine opponent and current health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr to be more aggressive on cutting vaccines in the US, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal.

Trump has a long record of anti-vaccine statements, but the White House recently put a hold on vaccine changes after polling indicated they were a losing issue in the midterm elections.

Ukrainian and Israeli leaders converge on Washington with criss-crossing fortunes, but knowing they can count on little from US counterpart

The converging visits of Benjamin Netanyahu and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Washington offer an unusually eloquent snapshot of a world in turmoil, unmoored from decades-old certainties.

Some things remain the same. The US is still an almighty military and economic power and for both foreign visitors, a White House encounter with Donald Trump is critical to their governments and the wars they are fighting.

US president makes positive posts as Ukraine seeks more firepower and Israeli PM seeks to repair relationship

Donald Trump hosted back-to-back White House meetings with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, as Ukraine seeks more firepower for its air defenses and the Israeli prime minister tries to repair his strained relationship with the US president.

Trump described both meetings in positive terms on social media on Tuesday evening, remaining vague about what was discussed.

In recordings made in 2016 and 2017 former president also appears to describe possessing classified information

Former US president Joe Biden appeared to discuss sensitive information and describe possessing classified documents in audio recordings released on Monday by the Oversight Project, a conservative activist group.

The heavily redacted transcripts and recordings were made in 2016 and 2017, while Biden was working with a ghostwriter on his 2017 memoir, Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose. No classified material was ever alleged to have appeared in the book.

‘He died doing the work he was born to do,’ Trump says as political leaders honor Republican US senator

Donald Trump and other political leaders convened in Washington for the memorial of the long-serving US senator Lindsey Graham on Tuesday afternoon, remembering the “swashbuckling” South Carolina Republican as “a true American original” whose embrace of “America first” never softened his advocacy for a staunch interventionist US foreign policy.

Graham, a polarizing figure and one-time rival turned stalwart ally of Trump, was known for championing the US-Israel war on Iran and was a prominent voice in the anti-abortion movement and an unwavering supporter of Israel, serving as one of Capitol Hill’s most outspoken foreign policy hawks.

Court-appointed investigator finds California City facility failed to comply with judge’s order to provide adequate healthcare

California’s largest immigration detention center has failed to comply with a judge’s orders to provide adequate healthcare, according to a court-appointed monitor who found the facility was struggling to meet a wide range of medical standards.

The California City detention center, located north-east of Los Angeles, was found to have major flaws in the care it provides residents, including significant gaps in emergency care, failures to provide medications in a timely manner, inadequate screenings for health conditions and a lack of accommodations for people with disabilities.

Three men were arrested for ‘repeated beatings with canes and paddles’ causing near-fatal injuries to two pledges

A US Secret Service agent and two others have been arrested after Florida state investigators uncovered evidence of “alleged hazing incidents involving prolonged and repeated beatings with canes and paddles” in Miami.

Investigators arrested Marquez Christopher Pinder, 29, on Sunday. Two other men – Jared Lamar James, 26, and Elijah Delano Dyous, 29 – were also arrested for allegedly helping to orchestrate the beatings, purportedly as part of a fraternity hazing ritual in April that left two people hospitalized with severe injuries.

Erik Davis is accused by the government of a ‘conspiracy’ to obstruct ICE – experts say it’s part of a pattern to criminalize lawful organizing and ruin activists’ lives

Erik Davis was driving to a medical appointment in St Paul, Minnesota, on 16 June when federal agents surrounded his car.

“They hauled me out … and put me in a belly chain,” recalled the 53-year-old. He was arrested on the spot on charges of being part of a “conspiracy” to “impede or injure” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.

Letter, published before Anthony Fauci will appear before Congress, accuses Republicans of ‘waging a war on individual scientists’

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More than 155 scientists, physicians and public health advocates have called for an end to what they describe as the “vilification and harassment of many American scientists” by the Trump administration and its allies.

In an open letter published one day before Anthony Fauci, the former top US government science adviser, is scheduled to appear at a high-profile hearing in US Congress, after the Republican-controlled Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee compelled him to testify, the scientists and physicians dismissed allegations against the ex-National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Niaid) director as “baseless”.

• Irishman’s UFC return v Holloway ended after 69 seconds

• McGregor tore ACL in fight and is out for lengthy spell

Conor McGregor is seeking a rematch ⁠of his recent loss to Max Holloway in what would be the final bout of ⁠his UFC deal.

In ⁠an ​Instagram post Monday that references the UFC’s International Fight Week next July, McGregor wrote, “What was ⁠to be a generational beating is now to be reset. IFW 2027. The Last Dance.”

Former Olympic canoeist Davey Hearn’s lawyers say testimony undermines felony charge

A witness in the case against a former Olympic canoeist accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool testified that the area of the pool liner was already damaged and would have required repairs regardless of David “Davey” Hearn’s alleged actions.

A court filing released on Monday contained that revelation – and in the document, lawyers for Hearn requested access to all grand jury testimony that led to his indictment, pointing to “irregularities” in those proceedings.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

Ex-officials ask FCC to reject petitions to deny renewal of broadcast licenses for eight stations owned by ABC

A group of prominent former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) officials, including key staffers and commissioners appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents, issued a filing on Tuesday that warns the agency is trying to send a “chilling message” to broadcasters after it received petitions to deny ABC license renewals for eight of its local television stations.

The network’s licenses are up for early renewal after an extremely unusual order from the Brendan Carr-led FCC in late April, following criticism of ABC by Donald Trump and Melania Trump.

Some have called for Nuremberg-style trials against big oil. But there are laws already on the books to describe companies’ conduct

The sky outside is hazy orange, and my five-year-old son is screaming bloody murder. “Sorry, buddy, we have to stay inside,” I say. “It’s not safe to breathe out there.” I had told him we’d be going to the beach today. Something inside me tears a little as I wonder how many promises he’ll see similarly broken in the coming years.

Far too many parents were forced to have some version of this conversation with their children this month, as smoke from record-breaking wildfires poured across the midwest and north-east. Some of them already had to tell their kids that their Fourth of July festivities were canceled because of the lethal heatwave that caused numerous mass casualty events earlier this month.

The 20-year-old crypto bro likes to keep a low profile. He could still be forced to testify before the House oversight committee

Unlike his garrulous father, Barron Trump seems to be a man of few words. The president’s youngest son has been busy flogging energy drinks and making millions from cryptocurrency schemes, but he’s not big on public speaking. Indeed, the best-known clip of him talking is probably from when he was four years old and said “I like my suitcase” in a Slovenian accent.

Still, while 20-year-old Barron Trump might prefer to stay behind the scenes, he may find himself hauled in front of Congress and forced to answer some difficult questions. Last week, Yassamin Ansari, a Democratic congresswoman and a member of the House oversight committee, called for Barron to testify about his alleged connections to the toxic influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate. The Tate brothers, who have become household names by monetising misogyny, were recently arrested in Miami, just before Andrew was due to co-host a bare-knuckle boxing event. They’re now fighting extradition to the UK, and face allegations of rape, assault, trafficking and offences relating to “indecent images of a child and extreme pornography”. They deny these charges.

Authorities say the killings fit the definition of family annihilation, one of at least eight in the US this year

Authorities in Michigan have identified a man they say fatally shot his wife and six children on Friday in a mass murder that fits the definition of a family annihilation.

Citing autopsy results, the Ottawa county sheriff’s office said in a news release Monday that Kristopher Karolkiewicz; his wife, Amanda; and their six children, aged five to 15, all died of gunshot wounds before their bodies were found in their burning home in Grand Haven Township. The agency noted that Kristopher Karolkiewicz shot himself to death – and said the deaths of Amanda and the children were ruled homicides.

US states and federal government tracking cases as outbreak comes amid cuts to public health funding

An outbreak of cyclosporiasis highlights how US states and the federal government work together to track foodborne illnesses – and where they diverge.

Experts said the enormous number of cases, potentially more than 11,000 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) count, is symptomatic of “vulnerabilities” in food safety systems in the US.

The former Black Panther’s lawyers ask a UN panel to review his detention after US legal avenues were exhausted

As he approaches the 45th anniversary of his incarceration in December, the Black radical writer and prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal is taking his claim that he has been subjected to arbitrary imprisonment for a crime that he did not commit to a new tribunal: the United Nations in Geneva.

On Tuesday Abu-Jamal, 72, lodged a petition with the UN’s working group on arbitrary detention, a body within the Human Rights Council. It marks the latest attempt by the internationally renowned prisoner and prolific author of 15 books to seek relief, having exhausted all domestic channels through state and federal courts.

Controversial move to classify Iran war as two separate campaigns criticised as attempt to minimise casualty figures. Plus, the man who started an animal shelter after a dog saved his life

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Good morning. A controversial move by the Pentagon to reclassify casualties in the Iran war as being killed in “overseas 0perations” is being taken by US military veterans as a sign of disrespect for the dead.

Michael E Smith, a retired US rear admiral who completed combat tours in Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo, said: “It’s such a huge disrespect for the families. To claim that they weren’t killed as a result of the war – oh, it was just overseas operations – is just ludicrous.”

What changes did the Department of Defense make? The Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS), a military database for displaying casualties, introduced a new casualty category labeled “Overseas Operations” for personnel killed and wounded “starting July 7”. That splits the count from the beginning of the US-Israel war on Iran into effectively two different campaigns.

How is the administration justifying the change? The War Powers Act of 1973 requires the president to end military operations within 60 days unless Congress authorizes an extension, which it has not. The Trump administration has argued that the April ceasefire with Iran paused the clock on 1 May for the conflict’s initial period. The separate casualty count beginning on 7 July follows that interpretation.

If you thought he was just a shady rule-dodging reprobate, the Fifa boss’s latest 15-page Instagram rant might make you think again

I hope you have found time to enjoy Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s 15-page Instagram meltdown about his World Cup. The last time I saw this many defiant words, they were inked on someone sitting cross-legged on the floor of a Salvadoran supermax prison.

Infantino has been clapping back at his haters – putting them on blast, in the parlance of our times – and on this evidence seems mesmerisingly close to picking out a Chicano script font and getting STILL I RISE needled across his corporate clavicles. Right next to the ones reading THROUGH THE FIRE, UNBREAKABLE and BUILT DIFFERENT.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

Marina Hyde’s new book, What a Time to be Alive!, is out in September (Guardian Faber Publishing, £20). To support the Guardian, order your signed copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply

ICE report reviewed by the Guardian discloses a patient was ‘subject to force feeding, hydration or urinary catheterization’, which experts have described as torture

The Trump administration subjected at least one person undertaking a hunger strike in immigrant detention to forcible medical treatment – engaging in medical practice that healthcare associations and international human rights groups have described as torture.

A document from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) health service agency, reviewed by the Guardian, confirms for the first time that the administration has used forced treatment on a hunger striker since Donald Trump began his second term. The document, published online in February by the ICE Health Service Corps (IHSC), discloses that an unnamed patient who began hunger strikes between October and December of last year and “was subject to force feeding, hydration, or forced urinary catheterization, or involuntary blood draws”.

Despite resounding 86-to-12 vote, Democratic aide warns bill gives president unchecked discretion to waive sanctions and impose tariffs. This blog is now closed.

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Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, set for 9:30am ET on Tuesday, will be closed to the media, the New York Times is reporting.

The meeting is expected to be much more cordial than the one last year where Trump openly berated Zelenskyy and said, “you don’t have the cards”. The administration and rightwing influencers have shown a shift on Ukraine as of late, and Trump and Zelenskyy had a friendly meeting at a Nato summit earlier this month.

Whether in favor of or against the US-Israel war on Iran, people across the country are left holding the bill and wondering on its purpose

Five months after the United States and Israel started a historically unpopular war against Iran that was going to supposedly last weeks, the fighting has refused to resolve in victory, defeat or peace. Iran’s supreme leader had been killed in the opening strikes, ceasefires broke down, and the strait of Hormuz has been closed and reopened.

For voters interviewed across the country, while the damage may be distant, the residual effects have shown up at the pump, on the grocery bill and in a phone call telling a spouse they have a day to report for deployment. And for a country still absorbing the aftermath of Israel’s war on Gaza – funded to the tune of billions of dollars by the United States – the war in Iran lands on top of an already raw argument about what American power is for.

Like genies of folklore, AI agents take their instructions literally – to potentially disastrous effect. We must track their ability to do what we actually mean

In July, Hugging Face, a company that hosts much of the world’s AI software and open-source AI models, was hacked. A malicious dataset had been used to run code on one of its servers. Whoever was behind it captured internal security credentials and moved through systems over a weekend, running thousands of actions from a swarm of temporary server environments. It looked like the work of a sophisticated criminal group.

It was not. It was one of OpenAI’s new, still unreleased GPT models.

Da’Jon Anthony Hayes-Burr, shot by another teenager, had stopped a 45-year-old man from harassing a 12-year-old girl

Kentucky’s largest city is mourning the recent shooting death of a teenage boy who had earned a municipal commendation months earlier for defending a young girl from sexual harassment – and survived being stabbed in the process.

Da’Jon Anthony Hayes-Burr, 15, was shot on Saturday night in Louisville’s Shawnee neighborhood, according to authorities there. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital, and police booked a 14-year-old on a count of murder, as the Louisville news outlet WAVE first reported.

Memorials for the Republican senator to start in US Capitol as the Israeli and Ukrainian leaders meet with Trump

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Two days of funeral ceremonies for Lindsey Graham, the late South Carolina Republican senator, will begin in Washington on Tuesday, with mourners set to include the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Both leaders are also meeting Donald Trump at the White House.

Rights groups condemn secrecy surrounding killings and say hurry to execute raises chance of ‘torturous’ deaths

Florida is preparing on Tuesday to carry out the state’s first double execution within a single day since the start of the modern era of the US death penalty in 1976.

Barring last-minute legal intervention, James Duckett, 68, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at noon on Tuesday at Florida state prison near Starke. Six hours later, Dominick Occhicone, 80, faces the same fate.

For generations, support for Israel was central to Jewish-American identity. But today, amid accusations that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza, a growing generational and political divide is reshaping views in the US Jewish community. Matthew Cassel travels to New York City – the heart of Jewish-American life – to explore how Israel’s wars across multiple fronts are challenging long-held traditions and dividing families.

Samsung and SK Hynix fall by more than 10% amid renewed fears over AI spending and Chinese competition

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The sell-off in AI stocks has intensified, driving South Korea’s stock market down to its lowest level in three months.

Investors continued to ditch chip stocks on Tuesday, amid rising concerns about the huge amount of borrowing among AI companies to fund their datacentre expansion plans.

MTC provided security at heavily criticised Manston centre in Kent and could now make £500m managing the site

A private security company linked to Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown reported a slump in UK revenues after losing an asylum centre contract but could make £500m managing the same facility until 2036.

Management & Training Corporation (MTC) said sales fell from £28.4m to £17.6m in 2025 after its contract to provide “security and care” at the heavily criticised Manston site in Kent ended in September.

Born in a camp in Nepal, I was welcomed to the United States as a child. Loving this country does not mean ignoring its contradictions

It was a hot, dry afternoon, sometime in the spring of 2009. I was wearing an oversized T-shirt and a pair of shorts twice the size of my waist, held up with a piece of wire. I sat beneath a tree across from the bamboo office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), waiting.

My heart pounded as sweat rolled down my face. Every few minutes I looked toward the dirt road, hoping to see the white van. Finally the blue IOM logo came into view, and within seconds, dozens of people were running toward it.

Landmark deal covers about 76,000 claims and could end contentious, decade-long legal battle

Johnson & Johnson said it would pay an estimated $5.5bn to resolve tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging its baby ⁠powder and other talc products caused ⁠ovarian cancer, in a landmark ​deal that could end a contentious, decade-long legal battle.

Johnson & Johnson on Monday said the settlement covers about 76,000 claims, including ones consolidated in a federal court in New Jersey, and related cases in state court, ⁠representing nearly all of the remaining talc claims against the company.

El-Sayed says in TV debate ‘ogre on a pike’ Zoom comment was in reference to John Fetterman, not Haley Stevens

The Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed said his comments that progressives need to put the head of an “ogre” on a pike was in reference to the Senator John Fetterman – not his opponent, Representative Haley Stevens.

In a televised debate on Monday, the final head-to-head before the state’s 4 August primary, the moderator asked El-Sayed whether he regretted his comments made in a Zoom meeting, in which, according to leaked audio published by Politico, he suggested that if “you put one ogre on a pike, and then everyone else gets the message”.

Police believe Sara Gilson was killed by husband Jeremiah Duffy after she accused him on TikTok of child sexual abuse

Sara Gilson, the social media influencer who was killed after she publicly accused her husband of child sexual abuse, “couldn’t seem to get away” from Jeremiah Duffy despite filing multiple protective orders, Gilson’s ex-husband said in an interview.

“She had been stuck in a relationship where domestic abuse seemed ‘OK’,” Lyle Landers told People. “I had begged her for five years to get away from him. I had offered to help her, in any way I could, to get away from him. But he seemed to have some sort of control over her, and she couldn’t seem to get away.”

Fraught time for Ken Martin as new reporting details cash-flow problem and divisions over party’s direction

Mounting financial pressures and growing internal turmoil at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) have intensified scrutiny of chair Ken Martin, as new reporting detailed a deepening cash-flow problem, management concerns and widening divisions over the party’s direction less than 100 days before the November midterm elections.

The latest reporting has underscored both the committee’s financial distress and the toll it has taken on Martin personally. The New York Times reported that the embattled DNC chair, who took the helm last year, became the subject of an internal HR inquiry after throwing his phone in the direction of a junior aide’s desk during a heated exchange in early July, prompting a formal complaint. The Times, citing people familiar with the matter, also reported that the incident nearly cost him his job and has contributed to growing isolation with the party as the committee grapples with mounting financial strain.

Defense department updated database of casualties to list four service members deceased in ‘Overseas Operations’

A controversial move by the Pentagon to reclassify casualties in the Iran war is being taken by US military veterans as a sign of disrespect for the dead.

“It’s such a huge disrespect for the families,” said Michael E Smith, a retired US rear admiral and the founder of National Security Leaders for America. “To claim that they weren’t killed as a result of the war – oh, it was just overseas operations – is just ludicrous.”

Tornado that blackened midday sky rips roofs off homes and flips vehicles in town of Menasha

A tornado struck north-eastern Wisconsin on Monday, blackening the midday sky and sending workers sheltering in office basements as ferocious winds splintered homes, scattered twisted metal across a highway and knocked out power to more than 30,000 people.

The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado in Winnebago county, about 90 miles (145km) north-west of Milwaukee. Damage was reported in cities including Appleton and Menasha, where police chief Matt Albrecht said some homes and businesses were “severely impacted”.