Darline was 13 when her brother became her legal guardian – and was a key presence as he rose in the Republican ranks

When Lindsey Graham was in college, his parents died, just over a year apart. But he worried most about his sister, who, at 13, was suddenly an orphan. Graham became her legal guardian – and later adopted her so she could receive his benefits through his service as an air force lawyer.

On Tuesday, following Graham’s sudden death, that sister, Darline Graham, was sworn in to serve the remainder of her late brother’s Senate term. “Lindsey took care of his little sister in years long departed,” said Henry McMaster, South Carolina’s Republican governor, at a press conference on Monday convened at the state capital in Columbia. “It’s my honor to ask his little sister, Darline Graham, to finish his work for him now.”

Government has been forced to pay back duties to companies that imported goods into the US that were hit by Trump’s tariffs

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The US government has already paid back tens of billions of dollars in tariffs it collected before the supreme court ruled them illegal, according to budget figures released on Monday.

Tariffs – taxes on imported goods – have been a key part of Donald Trump’s economic plan since he took office again last year.

Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah will lose ‘close to a million and a half acres each’ and open land to developers and oil industry

Donald Trump has approved a sharp reduction in the size of two national monuments in Utah held sacred by many Native Americans, in the latest move to open US public land to corporate developers and the oil and gas industry.

The two monuments, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, will see a reduction of “close to a million and a half acres each”, Trump said during an executive order signing event on Monday, undoing protections established by former presidents.

Trump’s secretary of state claims the global tribunal is interfering with US military and law enforcement operations

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, launched a campaign to dismantle the international criminal court (ICC) on Monday, claiming the global tribunal was interfering with US military and law enforcement operations at the risk of American sovereignty.

Rubio invoked images of US border patrol agents and elected leaders being “dragged before an international court” and tried by judges from around the world in a lengthy op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal Monday.

Idaho to have ballot measure for reproductive freedom law that would reverse ban on abortions at all pregnancy stages

One of the strictest abortion bans in the country will be on the ballot this November after Idaho’s secretary of state certified a ballot measure on Monday that would reverse the state’s abortion ban that prohibits the procedure at all stages of pregnancy.

The ballot initiative was headed by a volunteer-run group called Idahoans United for Women & Families, which ran a petition drive to get the measure in front of voters this fall. They gathered more than 100,000 signatures, surpassing the required 70,725 to get on the ballot.

American president says ships will be charged for safe passage through strait in apparent policy reversal

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The US has launched its third consecutive night of strikes on Iran hours after Donald Trump said Washington would reinstate a maritime blockade on the country and, in an apparent policy reversal, charge ships for safe passage.

“These strikes will continue imposing a heavy cost on Iranian forces and degrade their ability to attack innocent civilians and commercial shipping in the strait of Hormuz,” the US military’s Central Command said.

Thanks to pollution, overpopulation and the climate crisis, Earth is facing a terrifying new crisis: an irreversible 'water bankruptcy'. Now, fights over water have ramped up across the world, including in the US west. Host Carter Sherman speaks with Guardian extreme weather correspondent Gabrielle Canon about the battle over the future of the Colorado River Basin, whose water sustains some 40 million people across seven states – but is now drying up. Gabrielle recently rafted down the basin's last 'wild' river, the Yampa. Damming or diverting the Yampa could bring the west some much-needed hydration. It may also devastate the vast natural ecosystem that relies on the river's free-flowing waters. Also: Carter and Kai Wright react to the death of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham

• Gabrielle Canon’s story on the Yampa River

• Guardian stories on Lindsey Graham:

  • Analysis on Graham as dealmaker

  • The scramble to replace Graham

  • Lindsey Graham in his own words

Good, an unarmed US citizen and mother, was killed by immigration officer and Pretti was shot by CBP officials

Previously withheld evidence regarding the fatal shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti is now in the hands of Minnesota prosecutors, helping the state gain clarity on the deaths that occurred earlier this year during protests against a federal immigration crackdown.

“Through the cooperation of our federal partners, we have obtained hard drives of previously withheld evidence in the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, and the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis,” the Hennepin county attorney, Mary Moriarty, said in a video statement posted on social media.

Carl McDaniel was ‘respectful distance’ from animal when it charged and has severe injuries, including broken bones

A tourist who was tossed 8ft in the air by a bison at Wyoming’s Yellowstone national park – an encounter viewed by more than a million social media users thanks to a viral video online – has been identified as a “community-minded” grandfather from Washington state.

Carl McDaniel had severe injuries including broken bones after Friday’s campsite encounter with the bison, which was posted to YouTube by the Wyoming news outlet Cowboy State Daily. A photographer named Mike MacLeod rushed to help the victim on the ground after making the recording.

Authorities said inquiry into cyclosporiasis outbreak was continuing but early results pointed to salad greens and lettuce

• What is cyclosporiasis, the parasitic illness causing ‘explosive’ diarrhea?

State health officials in Michigan said on Monday they have identified lettuces and salad greens as a “potential source” of the thousands of cases of cyclosporiasis – a parasitic infection that causes “watery diarrhea”, loss of appetite and weight loss.

In a statement, the Michigan department of health and human services said the investigation is still continuing, but early results “point to lettuce or salad greens as a potential source for this outbreak”, though officials also cautioned it is too early to rule out other food sources.

Kathleen Williams sanctions president’s lawyers and says $10bn suit against IRS was brought for ‘improper purpose’

A federal judge on Monday nullified an agreement the government reached with Donald Trump and his sons over the leak of his tax returns. The judge lambasted the government and president’s lawyers for using the judicial process to try to concoct a beneficial arrangement for the president.

The ruling from US district judge Kathleen Williams in the southern district of Florida blocks a widely criticized arrangement the government and the president’s attorneys reached earlier this year to resolve a $10bn lawsuit by Trump and his sons over the leak of the president’s tax returns. The government never responded to the lawsuit and then announced it was settling the suit by creating a $1.8bn slush fund to compensate victims of “government weaponization” and giving the president, his family, and related entities immunity from tax audits.

US defense secretary says taskforce will ‘combat dangers’ of leaks in latest escalation of White House press crackdown

The US defense secretary, ⁠Pete Hegseth, ​announced on Monday that the Pentagon and the US Department of Justice have created a “joint taskforce ​to identify and ​prosecute” what he called the “unauthorized disclosure ​of sensitive” information to the press, marking the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s effort to crackdown on leaks.

In a ⁠video ​posted on X, Hegseth said that “to combat the dangers that leaks pose, effectively immediately, I have ​delegated tasking authority ​to the war department’s ‌office ⁠of general counsel, empowering OGC to request and receive ​all ​information, ⁠records and support across the ​department concerning ​media ⁠leak investigations”.

Shawn Fain calls allegations ‘bogus’ and says attorney holds a ‘grudge’ against him over union’s ‘anti-war stance’ on Gaza

The US Department of Justice is investigating allegations against the United Auto Workers (UAW) president, Shawn Fain, that he put pressure on another high-ranking union official to provide benefits to his fiancee and sister and then retaliated against the official who refused to approve it.

On Sunday, Fain, who is running for his second term as union president, said the accusations are false and a part of election interference against him.

• Vick arrested in connection with Memphis shooting

• 29-year-old started on Jayhawks’ 2018 Final Four team

Lagerald Vick, a former University of Kansas basketball player and a starter on their 2018 Final Four team, has been charged with attempted first-degree murder in ⁠Tennessee.

Vick, 29, was a guard for the Jayhawks from 2015 to 2019.

• Saturday’s bout in Las Vegas finished in first round

• Irishman says he will undergo surgery on leg

Conor McGregor says he plans to fight again in UFC despite the fact that his return to competition lasted just 69 seconds before he suffered a leg injury, which he says will require ⁠surgery.

“Surgery. Prehab. Return ⁠to ​martial arts practice. Go again,” McGregor wrote on Instagram on Monday. “Final fight of the contract. ⁠Praise God!”

South Carolina governor asks Darline Graham Nordone to replace senator who died on Saturday, after Trump recommendation

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Henry McMaster, South Carolina’s governor, appointed Lindsey Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone, to replace him in the Senate following his death on Saturday, after Donald Trump recommended that she be given the role.

Her appointment was welcomed by lawmakers from both parties, who saw Nordone as an appropriate replacement for the brother who had raised her after their parents died when she was a teenager.

Brent crude rises 5% after US president says 20% toll will be imposed on key trade route to cover ‘safety and security’

Oil prices rose 5% on Monday as Donald Trump reinstated the US blockade of Iranian shipping in the Gulf and will charge other countries to pass through the strait of Hormuz.

As the US and Iran exchanged strikes amid an escalating standoff over the vital trade route, the price of Brent crude climbed to $79.37 a barrel.

Higher temperatures can cause radio, TV and microwave signals to travel hundreds of miles farther, upsetting communications

It was 3am in north-east Indiana’s Huntington county when the outdoor emergency alarm went off on 1 July.

The only issue? There wasn’t a storm, tornado or any other emergency weather event forecast or present anywhere for hundreds of miles.

Killing of man – identified by rights groups as 26-year-old Colombian – comes days after man killed by ICE in Texas

• US politics live – latest updates

A federal immigration officer shot and killed a man in Biddeford, Maine on Monday, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed, just days ⁠after a man ⁠was ​killed by an immigration officer during a traffic stop in Texas.

In the statement, DHS claimed Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were “conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal”.

Elizabeth Warren asks Jamie Dimon if he was advised to ‘mildly threaten’ UK chancellor over tax on bankers’ bonuses

A leading Democratic senator has written to the boss of JP Morgan to request clarification on the bank’s contact with the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the senate banking committee, wrote to Jamie Dimon last week to ask if he took advice from Epstein while lobbying against a UK tax on banker bonuses, in a letter published by the committee on Monday.

Suspects, aged 15 and 16, taken into custody but not formally charged in ‘targeted mass shooting’ in East St Louis

Two teenagers were arrested on Sunday in connection with a “targeted mass shooting” that killed five members of the same family and wounded two others in East St Louis, Illinois, according to state police.

The 15- and 16-year-old suspects were taken into custody at Holten state park, a recreation area east of the city, the Illinois state police director, Brendan Kelly, said at a Sunday news conference – but they had not immediately been formally charged with a crime.

Shortages triggered by pipeline rupture drive up costs and deepen frustrations, as pressure grows on water utility

Jonathan Collazo owns two restaurants in a bustling section of San Juan, which has been plagued by water outages, severely disrupting the daily lives of residents and businesses alike.

The water scarcity is part of an escalating frustration felt by thousands of customers of Puerto Rico’s water utility over the past several months, prompting the governor to activate the national guard to distribute drinking water across the US territory. The shortages extend beyond San Juan, with sectors in municipalities including Loíza, Guaynabo, Bayamón and others experiencing interrupted service.

Body of pilot involved in tackling Gold Mountain fire recovered by divers from Silver Jack reservoir

A pilot who was helping to fight a wildfire in Colorado has died after the aviator’s aircraft crashed into a reservoir, local authorities said.

The Gunnison county sheriff’s office said in a statement that it was notified of the deadly crash at about 5.17pm local time on Sunday. Gunnison’s regional communications center received a call reporting that the aircraft involved in the crash went down in the Silver Jack reservoir located in the county’s south-western portion.

• Matches will take place on 10 and 13 October

• Washington DC and Chester, Pennsylvania to host

The top two teams in women’s soccer will meet in a pair of friendlies this fall, with the United States hosting Spain in Washington DC on 10 October and Chester, Pennsylvania three days later.

The meeting pits the 2024 Olympic gold medalist United States against a Spain side who won the 2023 women’s World Cup. It will serve as a benchmark for both sides in the run-up to the 2027 World Cup in Brazil.

As US water wars rage, a tributary of the Colorado River faces unprecedented pressure. Visitors worry how long this aquatic ‘relict’ will last

On an early morning in mid-May, a group of near strangers shoved camping gear and clothes into waterproof bags, slathered on sunscreen, and ambled into the bright-yellow rafts that would carry them down one of the last free-flowing rivers in the American west.

Unhindered by large dams or diversions, the Yampa curves across 250 miles (400km) of alpine tundras, cottonwood forests and ancient red-rock canyons, rising from Colorado’s Rocky mountains to where it joins with the Green River in Utah, much in the way it has for millions of years.

Proposed legal settlement over 2022 oil spill would resolve allegations that South Bow violated clean water laws

A proposed legal settlement with the US government would require the Keystone pipeline system’s operator to pay a $26.9m civil penalty over a large oil spill in Kansas in December 2022 and spend about $40m more to prevent future accidents.

The agreement would resolve allegations from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Kansas that South Bow, based in Canada, violated US and state clean water laws. The rupture dumped nearly 13,000 barrels of heavy crude oil into a creek running through a rural pasture in Washington county, Kansas, about 150 miles (241km) north-west of Kansas City.

Public health advocates warn of conflicts of interests and say panel likely to provide justification for key rollbacks

The Trump administration has stacked a top chemical safety board with industry-aligned scientists who have a range of financial conflicts of interest and stand to profit from deregulation, public health advocates say.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s science advisory committee on chemicals (SACC) is slated to review research for dozens of toxic chemicals during the new members’ terms. At least 13 proposed Trump appointees are probably conflicted on the chemicals that will be reviewed, comments filed with the EPA by a coalition of public health advocacy groups alleges.

US political leaders must be more clear-eyed about our global alliances, without embracing his scorched-earth approach

Donald Trump memorably took out a full-page advertisement in multiple newspapers in 1987 charging that America was carrying too much weight for its allies. In his first term he repeated this charge, threatening to withdraw from Nato and berating US allies around the world in the process. Last week’s gathering of Nato’s heads of government in Turkey suggests his approach is running out of steam as the world adjusts and the president bumps up against the limits of American unilateral power in Iran.

Trump’s domestic political opponents should breathe a sigh of relief but not rush headlong into an uncritical embrace of US alliances. For all his counterproductive bluster, Trump recognized something real. If his opponents in the Democratic and Republican parties are not more clear-eyed about what alliances cost Americans – as Biden failed to be with Israel – they will fuel the fires that brought Trump to power in the first place.

Christopher S Chivvis is a senior fellow and director of the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Tehran says latest US attacks have ‘rendered futile’ the diplomatic efforts of the last few months. Plus, hit song in Australia prompts speculation about AI use

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Good morning.

The US military has launched a fresh wave of attacks against Iran amid the escalating standoff over the strait of Hormuz.

What has Iran said about the latest hostilities? Iran condemned the latest wave of attacks, its foreign ministry saying they had “rendered futile all efforts of the past few months to reduce tension and establish peace in the west Asian region”. The ministry added: “The US regime has also caused the return of insecurity in the strait of Hormuz and disruption of international commercial shipping.”

Is the strait open? Iran said on Sunday that passage through the waterway was not possible because of what it called recent illegal US military movements in the region. The US said its forces were positioned to safeguard freedom of navigation, and reiterated guidance that, despite a severe security threat, an “expanded” southern route near the Oman coastline was available for two-way traffic.

How will Graham be replaced in the Senate? South Carolina’s governor, Henry McMaster, will appoint a new senator to serve out the remainder of Graham’s term, which ends on 3 January. Whoever is appointed will likely have a leg up in a special primary election on 11 August to get on the November ballot. The candidate would still run against the Democratic nominee Annie Andrews, a pediatrician who gained significant support in the red state, but who still faces an uphill challenge.

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The Democrat’s outgoing senator for Michigan Gary Peters has endorsed member of Congress Haley Stevens to be his successor over Abdul El-Sayed in the state’s neck-and-neck primary race set for 4 August.

“She has demonstrated to me time and time again that she’s a fighter,” Peters told the Detroit News. “We need workhorses in the Senate, and we need someone who can do that job from day one. This is not a place for on-the-job training.”

As people yearn for connection, these events are popping up around the world - and spreading ‘collective effervescence’

We met in a former synagogue, a vast room with hardwood floors where the sound could echo freely. All were strangers, many former choir nerds, united by a love for group singing. Our goal was to learn and perform, in a single day, a classic of our time: a song from the Hannah Montana movie.

The event, near downtown Los Angeles, was a one-day choir hosted by the Gaia Music Collective – a three-hour gathering where more than 100 people rehearsed a choral arrangement of the song and sang it three times, with ourselves as the only audience.

Senator played major role in critical negotiations with Democrats and members of his own party on key issues

When Democrats and Republicans were earlier this year locked in a standoff that had plunged the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) into the longest partial government shutdown in US history, news of a path forward emerged in the form of a statement from Republican senator Lindsey Graham.

By announcing that the budget committee he chairs would set to work on a measure to fund the agencies leading Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign for the remainder of his presidency, Graham played a major role in rallying the GOP behind a plan that reopened DHS.

The twisting road to the candidate’s exit left a lot to be desired. But ultimately, reporters ferreted out the truth

After the New York Times published an article in early June about the Senate candidate Graham Platner’s treatment of the women he dated, the story’s main source reacted with disappointment and anger.

It was a “gift to the Platner campaign”, charged Lyndsey Fifield, who had dated the Democratic combat veteran years ago and who spoke candidly to the Times about that experience.

Many imagined his buff, gruff and tattooed traits would help him connect with working-class men. But this logic was flawed

The left would do well to revisit New York’s Democratic primaries two weeks ago – it was a sunnier news cycle, yes, but those races were also an object lesson in progressive realpolitik.

Zohran Mamdani, busy as he already was, devoted a remarkable amount of time, resources and political capital to selecting and backing the eventual victors in three different races – in one case reversing a promise to support an incumbent, Adriano Espaillat, in favor of activist Darializa Avila Chevalier, and in another case supporting Claire Valdez, a relatively unknown assemblywoman, even as the Working Families party, major unions and other progressives backed the Brooklyn borough president, Antonio Reynoso.

Lawmakers face obstacles, including demands from Trump, Mitch McConnell’s absence and senator’s sudden death

Republican lawmakers return to the Capitol this week facing a lengthy to-do list and Donald Trump’s demands for new voting restrictions, as Democrats jockey for an advantage ahead of the November midterm elections.

Lawmakers from both parties are eager to highlight before voters legislative victories ahead of the midterms, when control of Congress is at stake. But for Senate Republicans, who are already navigating an array of demands from Trump, their agenda grew further complicated over the weekend with the death of Lindsey Graham, the budget committee chair who was a key player in negotiating a party-line bill to fund additional defense spending and other priorities outlined by the president.

Joan Rivet drank water she managed to splash up to her face by turning faucet on with her foot

An 82-year-old North Carolina woman says she survived falling in her bathtub and being trapped there for nine days by turning the faucet on with her foot and drinking water that she managed to splash up to her face – all while drifting in and out of consciousness.

Joan Rivet recently shared her remarkable survival story with North Carolina’s The Mountaineer newspaper, providing an extreme example of the kinds of emergencies that can face the millions of older Americans who fall by accident annually, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates.