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Jul 17, 2026 - World

Democrats also criticize speech as ‘lies and long-debunked conspiracies’Sign up for US News Breaking emailTrump makes unverified claims of China ‘election meddling’Donald Trump used the imprimatur of the presidency and United States intelligence agencies to try to undermine confidence in American elections in a presidential address on Thursday that seemed bluntly aimed at laying the groundwork for further destabilizing the electoral system before November’s midterm elections.In his address from the East Room at the White House, Trump attempted to give the impression that his administration had uncovered new bombshell findings about vulnerabilities in the US’s election system. China, he claimed, had illicitly acquired voter information on 220 million Americans (many states allow anyone to buy voter roll information; Trump did not say the means by which the nation acquired the data). He claimed that China interfered in other ways to undermine his 2020 campaign and that the information had been suppressed by intelligence officials. Continue reading...

Jul 17, 2026 - World

Pollution levels in the city were elevated as smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted south across a huge swathe of the USThe sun shone feebly through the thick haze. The smell of burning wood hung thick in the air. Many New Yorkers donned masks as the air quality plummeted amid health warnings.The National Weather Service issued an air-quality alert because pollution levels were elevated as smoke from raging Canadian wildfires drifted south across a huge swathe of the US, reaching all the way to New York City and even beyond out into the Atlantic. Continue reading...

Jul 17, 2026 - World

‘Special conference’ to take place at noon where Burnham will be formally announced as Labour leaderThe Telegraph live blog is normally a pretty good read (although not as good as ours, obviously). But today Andy Burnham may want to give it a miss. At the Telegraph they don’t seem very enthusiastic about a Burnham premiership, and here is a selection of the blog headlines: ‘Burnham is coming for your home’; Burnham could crash the economy, claims Truss; Burnham accused of ‘waving away’ scrutiny on path to power; ‘Burnham is already a global laughing stock’.Still, the main headline, Burnham to blame Thatcher for Britain’s problems, is spot on.The new Labour leader will say that ‘Britain took a series of wrong turns in the 1980s’ when ‘political power was centralised and economic power privatised’. To build an economy and a country that works for all people and places, Andy will say that it requires ‘a new path to the one we’ve been on for the last 40 years’.Officials are working on a range of options. They include signalling willingness to approve new oil and gas fields at Jackdaw and Rosebank, and an expansion of so-called tiebacks which allow further drilling on or near existing fields.No final decision has been made on what form the North Sea announcement will take, but Burnham is likely to indicate he is in favour of more drilling, the people said.Burnham has told Scottish Labour MPs that he will make an early visit to Aberdeen to underline the importance he attaches to the North Sea oil and gas industry.Gary Smith, leader of the GMB union, and Sharon Graham, leader of Unite the Union, have slammed the Labour government’s policy of ending new exploration licences in the basin on environmental grounds as “economic madness” and “an act of self-harm” respectively. Continue reading...

Jul 17, 2026 - World

Southern rail station also attacked, Iranian media says, as IRGC claims to have destroyed US fighter jets stationed in JordanUS marines board tanker amid blockade of Iranian portsHere is a map by Anadolu Agency of the reported US attacks on Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory strikes in the region:Kuwait’s energy ministry said one of its power and water desalination plants was attacked by Iran, resulting in a fire and damage to the facility. Continue reading...

Jul 17, 2026 - World

The US military's Central Command (CENTCOM) said it hit dozens of targets in its latest airstrikes, which concluded at dawn Friday, the sixth night in a row of American attacks.