Judge says he’s granting request to dismiss prosecutions even though request is clearly based not on facts or the law

A federal judge nominated by Donald Trump during his first term reluctantly agreed on Friday to grant the Department of Justice’s motion to dismiss the seditious conspiracy convictions against leaders of the Proud Boys who were convicted by a jury of serious crimes during the attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters on 6 January 2021.

The US district judge Timothy Kelly noted in a seven-page memorandum that the Proud Boy leaders Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl were all convicted of multiple crimes, including seditious conspiracy, and a fourth member of the group, Dominic Pezzola, was convicted of assaulting an officer and “breaking a Capitol window, thereby helping to create the first entry point through which hundreds of rioters streamed into the building”.

Workers observed draining water from Lincoln Memorial pool plagued by algae blooms and peeling paint

Crews were observed Friday draining the plagued Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, a landmark at the heart of Donald Trump’s mission to beautify Washington DC.

Interior secretary Doug Burgum, whose agency oversees the National Park Service, told conservative podcaster Katie Miller in an interview released earlier this week that the new round of draining was planned. He also said that the water might still contain debris from an extensive Independence Day fireworks display over the National Mall.

Paperwork ends Democratic campaign laden with scandals, including most recently accusations of sexual assault

Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Maine, officially withdrew his candidacy on Friday afternoon, ending a campaign laden with scandals.

Maine’s secretary of state confirmed Platner had filed the paperwork to remove his name from the November ballot, two days after Platner publicly said he planned to exit the race.

Venture between two Pennsylvania senators stokes speculation about Fetterman’s future in Democratic party

The Democratic senator John Fetterman, who has faced mounting political challenges, is joining forces with the Republican senator Dave McCormick to launch a new joint fundraising committee, a move that is likely to fuel additional questions about Fetterman’s increasingly rightward lurch.

Pennsylvania’s two US senators have established a shared fundraising committee that will collect donations benefiting both of their campaigns in an unusual bipartisan arrangement.

Matthew Wielicki frequently criticizes established climate science online, including in videos from rightwing PragerU

The Trump administration has tapped a former geochemist who has railed against “climate alarmism” and calls himself an “Earth science professor-in-exile” to oversee the federal government’s flagship report about climate impacts on the US.

Matthew Wielicki, who lacks formal training in climate science, will now lead the nation’s Global Change Research Program, which federal officials have gutted during Trump’s second term.

Earlier this week, Graham Platner, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Maine, was accused by a former partner of sexual assault. Platner denies the allegations, but on Wednesday, he suspended his campaign, accusing the “political establishment” of tanking his candidacy. But this is only the most recent scandal to have surfaced around Platner’s campaign — over the past year, the oyster farmer and combat veteran was revealed to have a tattoo that closely resembled a Totenkopf (a widely recognized Nazi symbol), a long paper trail of racist, misogynist and homophobic posts on Reddit, and in June, the New York Times published allegations from three former partners about Platner’s “toxic” behavior in their relationships, including, in several cases, physical intimidation (allegations Platner denied).

As Democrats regroup and evaluate their dwindling chances to flip the Senate in November, hosts Kai Wright and Carter Sherman are joined by Guardian political reporters Lauren Gambino and Shrai Popat to ask why voters flocked to Platner, why they were reluctant to abandon him as the scandals came out — and what the whole mess says about who gets the privilege of political redemption.

Habitat destruction strongest driver of species loss, with legislation keeping 99% of listed species from going extinct

The Trump administration repealed a crucial part of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) on Friday, finalizing a new rule that will open habitats of imperiled wildlife to development, logging, mining and other uses.

For the last 50 years, the landmark environmental law included a broader understanding of the word “harm”, which ensured that not just the plants and animals themselves were protected but also the places that are critical to their survival. The inclusion of habitat in the “harm” definition was upheld by the supreme court in 1995, which ruled in support of old-growth forest protections relied on by endangered spotted owls.

Advocacy group calls on acting attorney general to lead ‘thorough, transparent federal investigation’

The deaths in recent days of two Black men in Tennessee, one in the custody of police and the other at the hands of national guard troops, has prompted the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to demand the suspension of the so-called Memphis Safe Task Force, Donald Trump’s anti-crime alliance of federal, state and local law enforcement.

In a letter to the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, on Friday, the NAACP also demanded “a thorough, transparent federal investigation” into the actions of the taskforce, which it said has surged federal and military officers into Memphis with insufficient training for civilian policing.

Lawyer says men who were riding in van are being pressured to self-deport as footage of incident is reportedly with investigators

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The three men who were in the van when federal immigration officials shot and killed a man in Houston, Texas, this week are strongly disputing the Trump administration’s narrative of the events and are being pressured to sign deportation orders, according to their lawyer and lawmakers.

The three men, who were arrested by immigration officials during the incident, denied that the driver of the vehicle, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, “weaponized” his vehicle against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. They also told their lawyer that there was never an ICE official in front of the van and that the shots that killed Salgado came from the “sides” of the vehicle.

Governor Mike Kehoe urges people to follow guidelines with more heavy rain expected through the weekend

Missouri has declared a state of emergency in response to severe storms and flash flooding affecting the state’s central, south-central, and south-eastern regions.

In a news release, Governor Mike Kehoe said that under the order, the Missouri state emergency operations plan has been activated, allowing state agencies to coordinate directly with local jurisdictions to expedite emergency assistance.

State had pardoned immigrant Tou Lue Vang in June over 2006 conviction but federal government expels him to Laos

A Laotian man pardoned by state officialsin Minnesota last month has been deported from the country, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has announced.

Tou Lue Vang, an immigrant from Laos, faced deportation for a 2006 conviction of first-degree criminal sexual conduct after raping a young girl between 2002 and 2004. Because Laos initially refused to accept deportees, Vang spent nearly two decades living in Minnesota.

The US’s 250th anniversary, the funeral of Ali Khamenei, another brutal heatwave in Europe and the World Cup – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

The new PM will need a superb foreign secretary and the ability to get like-minded countries on board. Early signs suggest he may have the right skills

It’s all starting to feel very real now. Or so Andy Burnham said on the day he in effect became Britain’s official prime minister-in-waiting; a moment both heady and sobering.

The papers are signed, the die cast. Keir Starmer has yet to leave the building, but his party is already talking about him as if he somehow couldn’t hear. On Friday, Burnham made his first brutal break with his predecessor, apologising over Starmer’s head for Labour’s handling of the war in Gaza. The government should, he said, have called for a ceasefire earlier, and should now be increasing pressure on Israel.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

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.

President’s dismemberment of Election Assistance Commission called a ‘brazen attempt’ to control elections

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Donald Trump has been accused of trying to “rig” the upcoming US midterm elections after he fired the last three members of an independent federal commission.

Trump’s extraordinary move to paralyze the US Election Assistance Commission (EAC) wipes out the only federal agency devoted solely to election administration months before the US midterm elections.

Company reports $1.4bn profit despite its highest quarterly fuel expense in history

Delta Airlines saidelevated airfares are likely to last despite a recent drop in oil prices, reporting strong appetite for travel and record-high revenue in its quarterly results Friday.

Though the company had its highest quarterly fuel expense in its history, demand has been high enough to pass along 60% of its extra fuel costs to consumers, Delta’s CEO, Ed Bastian, told CNBC, with plans to eventually pass along all elevated costs.

There is just one week to go until the winner of the World Cup is crowned, and it has been a memorable tournament, not least due to the extraordinary intervention by Donald Trump this week that shocked the football world. Lucy Hough speaks to global sports business correspondent Matt Hughes

President says he would refuse to sign housing bill without passage of voting legislation, but without veto it will still become law

A major housing bill has automatically become law without Donald Trump’s signature, after the president said he would refuse to sign the legislation because Congress has not approved new restrictions on voting nationwide.

The measure, known as the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, is the biggest change to federal policy for buyers, renters and homebuilders in decades, and Congress approved it with large margins last month after lengthy negotiations between Democrats and Republicans.

Nathan Johnson says if elected he’ll investigate state’s deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to provide rural internet

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A Texas Democrat running to become the state’s attorney general has said he will investigate Elon Musk’s SpaceX company if elected, saying it “sure looks like” corruption was involved in a deal he said handed the world’s richest person $110m of taxpayers’ money.

Nathan Johnson made the comment in an interview with the Dallas News on Friday, in which he called for greater legislative scrutiny of state grants funneled to SpaceX for its Starlink satellite program, which provides fast internet access for customers in remote areas.

‘Minnesota 15’ indicted after opposing ICE crackdown – just the latest attempt by Trump DoJ to criminalize resistance

Days after pleading not guilty to conspiracy charges, Emmett Doyle took the stage at a dive bar in Minneapolis, and performed an Irish protest ballad. “And you dare to call me a terrorist, while you look down your gun,” he sang during his set.

The tune has particular resonance now that Doyle, a musician and carpenter who the US government claims is an “antifa” domestic terrorist, awaits trial for protesting. “That song has been a source of inspiration for me, in finding courage to face this ordeal,” he said.

Over the last six months, activists have ensured the US doesn’t forget enslavement in the nation’s first capital

On an overcast day, Tiffany Cooper, a visitor, snapped a photo of a panel about an enslaved woman at the President’s House in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The remainder of the brick wall was blank, with bolts serving as the only reminder of the other panels that once stood there.

As a Black woman, Cooper said that she felt a deep sadness at the “incompleteness” of the exhibit. It once detailed the lives of nine enslaved Africans who served George Washington when Philadelphia was the US capital in the 1790s.

Helicopter pilots were suspended from duty after a low-level stunt over beachgoers during holiday aviation show

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Eight South Carolina national guard helicopter pilots have been returned to flying duties following a suspension over a low-flying sweep over beachgoers as part of a Fourth of July event honoring service members.

“Effective immediately, the suspension of all involved South Carolina pilots has been lifted,” the Pentagon spokesperson, Sean Parnell, wrote on Friday morning on social media. “Carry on Patriots.”

• 4-1 defeat to Belgium averaged 33 million viewers on Fox

• Mexico v England neared 45 million across platforms

The US men’s national team officially broke the record for ⁠most-watched soccer telecast in US history twice in a row.

As disappointing as ⁠Monday’s 4-1 last-16 loss to Belgium was for fans, the pregame excitement helped attract 33.086 million ⁠viewers, according to Nielsen Media research. The audience peaked at 41.033 million during the ⁠9.15-9.30pm eastern time window.

Tyler Robinson is accused of shooting the far-right activist at Utah Valley University last year

A five-day preliminary hearing to determine whether the case against Tyler James Robinson, the man charged with killing Charlie Kirk, will advance to trial came to a close on Friday.

Final arguments are set to take place in September. US district judge Tony Graf will sift through the evidence presented by the state and Robinson’s defense team before issuing a ruling.

State hit by new wrongful death lawsuit by family of Jason Wilson, who died in ‘brutally hot, un-airconditioned’ cell

Texas, the state with the largest prison population in the US, is coming under mounting legal pressure to address the ongoing crisis of brutal heat in its cells, as extreme summer temperatures expose inmates to suffering, illness and even death.

The Texas department of criminal justice (TDCJ), the state agency that runs dozens of prisons, has been hit by a new wrongful death lawsuit by the family of Jason Wilson. The inmate was found dead in his solitary confinement cell at the Coffield unit in July 2024.

The Magnolia Mother’s Trust is the first to target low-income families led by Black mothers in Jackson, Mississippi

Three months after giving birth to her son, Amaya Jones moved into a new apartment complex. She knew no one else in the building, but it was a fresh start for her and her two children. One day, someone put up a flyer on her unit’s door, notifying her about a program called the Magnolia Mother’s Trust (MMT).

Launched in 2018, the MMT is the longest-running guaranteed income program in the country, and the first to target extremely low-income families headed by Black mothers in Jackson, Mississippi. With no strings attached, the program provides mothers with $1,000 a month for 12 months.

After a fun World Cup with a dismal end, the US enters the 2030 cycle with numerous avenues to rebuild the squad

After an exciting home World Cup run ended with a disappointing thud in the last 16, there are massive questions lingering around the US men’s national team program. Mauricio Pochettino’s contract is up and US Soccer has made an extension offer, but both parties are taking some time. Matt Crocker’s abrupt exit as sporting director to take a similar job with Saudi Arabia before the World Cup begs more queries about the direction of the sport in this country. And while most of the 2026 squad’s core still projects to contend for 2030, four years is a long time.

From now, each year offers a major tournament. This is what the US should hope to clarify at every step of the way.

For progressives too, working-class heroes are bearded, buff white guys. Their treatment of women can be overlooked

Ana Marie Cox’s New Republic profile of the Maine oyster farmer and former Democratic senatorial candidate Graham Platner begins with an encounter on the shore with a salt in rubber boots. Learning that she’s looking for Platner, the guy says: “Good man.”

In the 2025 article, Cox is charmed by Platner, who’s as voluble as this guy is terse. She’s impressed by the oyster, calling it a metaphor for “how labor, science, and regulation can still stitch together a community and economy.”.

Critics accuse president of ‘fattening the wallets of his cronies’ as working Americans face higher energy rates

The Trump administration has directly spent $2.7bn of taxpayer money on its crusade against wind power while pouring $1.125bn into boosting coal, which critics say is pushing up Americans’ bills.

They say the moves are evidence that the president aims to serve fossil-fuel companies like those which donated record sums to his presidential campaign, rather than the working-class Americans to whom he pledged to lower energy bills and other costs.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were reportedly seeking two people from Guatemala. Plus, readers recommend the best films of 2026 so far

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Good morning. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a man killed by federal immigration agents during a traffic stop in Houston this week, was not the intended target of the “enforcement operation”, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were reportedly seeking two people from Guatemala when they attempted to stop Salgado Araujo, a Mexican immigrant who had lived in the US for 35 years.

Salgado Araujo, who was on his way to work early on Tuesday morning, was driving three other people in a white van. After the shooting, the three men were taken into custody. One of the three men has been identified by advocates as Victor Hugo Salgado Araujo, the brother of the victim. It was reported that he was still in an immigration detention center.

How have authorities justified the killing? The ICE agents who stopped Salgado Araujo claimed he “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer” who then fired his weapon “in self-defense”, but did not provide evidence to corroborate that account. It is a defense the agency has used in other high-profile incidents, including when Renee Good was killed in Minneapolis, when video evidence later contradicted the description. The officers involved in shooting Salgado Araujo were not wearing body cameras, DHS said.

How is Trump endangering the midterm elections? The US president has terminated the remaining members of the independent, federal commission that assists election administration officials nationwide just a few months before the midterm elections. The remaining three commissioners of the four-member bipartisan commission ⁠were forced out on Thursday. The one Republican appointee resigned and the other ⁠two, Democratic appointees, were notified of their terminations via email.

Rule from Mamdani administration bans companies from trapping customers into paying recurring charges and ‘junk fees’

New York City has adopted a new rule that bans companies from using deceptive subscriptions to trap customers into paying for gym memberships, streaming services and other recurring charges, the city’s consumer protection office said.

The new rule, which will start on 1 October, promises hefty fines and aggressive enforcement for violators. Companies that do not provide a simple way to cancel could pay $525 per user subscription, back fees and additional fines.

It comes from his willingness to violate all norms, rules and laws – and leaving everyone else to pick up the pieces

At the Nato summit just ended, Trump lashed out at other Nato members, saying he was “very disappointed with Nato” and asking: “Why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars, and they’re not there for us?” He reiterated his desire to take over Greenland, blasted European energy and immigration policies, insulted Spain, and worried allies by declaring that the fighting between Kyiv and Moscow “doesn’t affect us”.

Yet throughout the proceedings, Trump was treated by other Nato powers with as much courtesy and respect as any US president has ever received from Nato – perhaps more. “It was a great meeting, there was a lot of love in that room, a lot of unity,” Trump said when it was over.

As the US president swung between threats to take Greenland and promises of help for Ukraine, pledges of a ‘stronger Nato’ were lost in the wind

Nato leaders survived another nerve-racking summit with Donald Trump and the 77-year-old defence alliance lives to fight another day, proving its durability against Atlantic storms. But it will never feel safe as long as the unpredictable, vengeful and ruthlessly transactional US president is in the White House.

As usual, Trump stole all the headlines at the annual summit, with a mixture of Nato-bashing and implausible threats to take control of Greenland and cut trade with Spain. He declared the ceasefire with Iran dead and called Iranian leaders “scum” as US warplanes bombed Iranian targets along the strait of Hormuz. Pitted against such irresistible clickbait, no Nato communique stood a chance of public attention.

This live blog is now closed.

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The Trump administration plans to erect new fences outside the White House, in the latest bid to boost presidential security, the Washington Post (paywall) reports, citing three people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the plans.

According to the people, the White House and Secret Service would be able to close the new fences, planned where Pennsylvania Avenue intersects 15th and 17th streets NW, and prevent pedestrian access in front of the White House if they determine there are security risks.

The populist Democrat nominee for Senate in Maine bowed to the inevitable but turned his farewell into a pity party

“Always give your best, never get discouraged, never be petty. Always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.”

These were the parting words of Richard Nixon after he was forced to resign the presidency over the Watergate imbroglio in 1974. For Graham Platner on Wednesday, the stakes were somewhat smaller. But when it came to suspending his Senate campaign in Maine, the Democrat had plenty of hate to go around.

Democrats need a candidate who can speak to working-class, inland and rural Mainers. A logger from the North Woods seems like the obvious choice

Maine’s US Senate race was blown wide open by Graham Platner dropping out. Thankfully, a suitable populist is at hand to fill the breach. His name is Troy Jackson.

Jackson was born to a 16-year-old mother in the northern Maine town of Fort Kent. He is a fifth-generation logger, union member and former state legislator. As a teenager himself, he went to work in the woods, and by 1998 he led a union logging blockade to prevent Canadian scabs from working Maine jobs.

To some of Platner’s most influential backers his swaggering, reckless and casually brutish masculinity was understood not as a liability, but as a virtue

Graham Platner was accused of rape on Monday, and it quickly became clear that he will never be a United States senator. After days of delay, he finally suspended his campaign in a long and grievance-filled video on Wednesday night. The prospect of his victory was doubtful even before Monday, when a woman he once dated, Jenny Racicot, went on the record to Politico alleging that in 2021, a very drunk Platner let himself into her house, when she had told him not to come over. Racicot says she realized he was there when she heard strange noises; then, she says he raped her, forcing intercourse without a condom while she repeatedly told him no.

Politico reported that it reviewed emails between Racicot and her therapist about the alleged encounter. The outlet also interviewed a boyfriend Racicot later confided in about the alleged incident, and reviewed messages she shared with another woman warning her away from Platner, long before the start of his political career. Platner denies wrongdoing, saying: “Any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically untrue.” But he put out a video saying that he would “reflect on the best path forward” for his campaign. Since Platner may have known about the inevitability of this accusation becoming public, one wonders if the best time for such reflection might have been several months ago, when Maine voters still had the chance to select a more worthy and more viable candidate.

The crossover in the American sports calendar has made for a compelling collision of cultures, from Scots in Boston to a new English folk hero in Atlanta

First they sang for Harry Kane. Then they sang for Michael Harris II.

The Atlanta Braves center-fielder is not someone many Major League Baseball fans would consider a household name. A local kid made good, he has established himself as an above-average, everyday outfielder and at age 25 is enjoying a career-best season, but his face doesn’t dominate billboards and ads in the way of Shohei Ohtani or Aaron Judge.

Five years after his last fight, the Irishman returns to the octagon. His comeback says as much about the UFC’s appetite for its fallen star as it does about McGregor himself

These days Conor McGregor resembles an ace fighter the way a movie set depicts real life. Passing similarities are obvious but anything more than a quick, squinty glance reveals they are not the same.

For the 37-year-old Irishman, the line between genius athlete and performance artist was already blurred by the time he found himself destroyed in front of Dustin Poirier five years ago, yelping foul-mouthed barbs in the painful aftermath of his fourth stoppage loss in seven fights.

Exclusive: Senator Ed Markey on why he has proposed legislation aimed at curbing datacenters, automated hiring systems and harm to children

US senator Ed Markey is worried about the perils of unregulated artificial intelligence.

What part? All of it: the costs associated with thirsty, energy-guzzling datacenters, intrusive workplace surveillance, bias in discriminatory algorithms, AI overriding workers’ judgments, and deepening economic inequality – as those who profit most from AI rake in extraordinary windfalls.

‘Violent disorder’ in London in the aftermath of France’s win over Morocco as Spain and Belgium build up towards quarter-final showdown

A 17-year-old girl fell off a truck and died while celebrating France’s World Cup quarter final win over Morocco, emergency services said Friday.

Celebrations erupted across France after the 2-0 win in the United States with hundreds dancing in the streets of Paris, watched by thousands of police on security duties.

Airline’s board ‘minded to recommend’ deal – after agreeing in principle to accept rival one from Castlelake

• Nils Pratley: two bidders are better than one

The board of easyJet has given the green light to a possible £5.7bn offer from the US private equity firm Apollo, as the low-cost airline becomes the subject of a surprise bidding war.

The company’s board said on Friday that it was “minded to recommend” the potential all-cash offer, which values the business at £7.15 a share, to shareholders.