Experts say the Food and Drug Administration is not prepared for the health threat of bacterial contamination
Multiple brands of infant formula have been recalled recently due to bacterial contamination, and experts say the Food and Drug Administration is inadequately prepared to deal with the health threat they pose in the wake of Trump administration cuts.
Last March, the FDA announced the launch of Operation Stork Speed, specifically intended to “expand options for safe, reliable, and nutritious infant formula for American families”. Two months later, Martin Makary, who was FDA commissioner at the time, told Congress that the FDA had lost around 3,100 employees due to the Trump administration’s reorganization and cuts. Makary departed the FDA the same month.
Continue reading...Investigations into president and corruption charges will get heavy scrutiny if Democrats win majority in midterms
Donald Trump’s presidency is facing investigations and corruption charges from a key House Democrat and ex-prosecutors, involving political and personal abuses of power, which legal experts predict will get heavy scrutiny if Democrats win the House majority in the midterms.
Legal critics call the scandals dogging the president “target rich” for investigations that Democrats will have a “field day” investigating if they win the House majority. Critics cite, for instance, Trump’s damaging the rule of law by weaponizing the Department of Justice (DoJ) to exact revenge on political foes and protect himself from federal investigations, plus Trump moves to profit in radical ways from his presidency with lucrative and new cryptocurrency ventures.
Continue reading...Exclusive: National Crime Agency and safety watchdog issue guidance amid rise in explicit material online
Parents should not put photos of their children on public display online, according to landmark guidance issued to tackle the rise of AI-generated sexual abuse material.
The recommendation has come from the National Crime Agency and the Internet Watch Foundation, which fear that most people are unaware of the dangers posed by paedophiles and criminal networks.
They suggest that parents and guardians make their social media accounts private or share pictures of their children through a “close friends” group. The NCA and the IWF stressed they were not telling parents how to behave online, but said they should be aware of the problem and how to tackle it.
A refreshing Mancunian twist on two classic British gin-based drinks, infused with elderflower liqueur and earl grey
This is a reimagining of two classic British drinks, the English garden and the London fog, but with a Mancunian twist. It brings together gin, earl grey, elderflower and honey in a refreshing, lightly floral cocktail that’s perfectly suited to drinking in the garden on a hot day. We like to champion local producers, so use Salford Distillery’s gin, but any well-balanced, citrus-forward dry gin will work.
Lucy Bryant, Society, Manchester
Continue reading...The 250th anniversary is arriving among Black communities as a whisper instead of a roar
Not soon after Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration, there emerged a viral illustration of four Black women sitting at the top of a building while watching the world burn at a distance. They are observing with coffee cups in hand. An American flag hangs over the edge. If that exhaustion hadn’t been made clear enough, Black people, particularly across TikTok and Threads, have urged one another to “not give them a reaction”.
The “them” is white people who find Black rage exciting and lucrative for their own personal gain. We’re not allowing our anger to become spectacle. We’re not shouting any more. What is most important is to stay alive, take care of one another, and to allow ourselves to step to the forefront for the rights that they have taken for granted as we’ve risked our lives to protect them. There is an old African American proverb: “If you can’t hear, then you must feel.”
Morgan Jerkins is a senior writer, race and equity, at the Guardian US
The cultural phenomenon is beginning her latest era in a castle built inside Madison Square Garden. It’s the perfect celebration for our post-privacy age
It is a cast-iron rule of the comments-section era that there is absolutely no celebrity you can write about without some person dialling in to post a contemptuous: “Who?” Did I say some person? Forgive me: I think I might have meant some guy. Strangely, you never see a “who?” below articles about sport, as though the posters have somehow grasped that ostentatiously announcing that they have precisely no idea about Ousmane Dembélé is not some status-symbol flex, and could secure them quite a painful wedgie.
I am looking forward to catching my first “who?” about Taylor Swift on the occasion of her wedding to Travis Kelce, which is taking place – perhaps you’ve heard? – in New York today. Because of course Miss Americana and her NFL star fiance are getting married over the Fourth of July weekend. And not just any Fourth of July, but the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, drafted by Thomas Jefferson. (I know: who?)
Continue reading...From Miles Davis to Count Basie and Etta James to Prince, Rotterdam’s North Sea jazz festival has hosted the biggest names in music. As the event turns 50, musicians and organisers share their favourite memories from past years – and tell us why jazz isn’t dead
For a weekend in July each year, a vast warehouse complex in the port city of Rotterdam becomes home to the biggest names in jazz. Under the banner of the North Sea jazz festival, the labyrinthine, windowless space has played host to performances from the likes of Miles Davis, free jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman, singer Etta James, saxophonist Wayne Shorter and even Prince.
“We’ve had every major figure in jazz play for us over the past five decades,” senior programme manager Sander Grande says. “It’s the place where all the musicians want to hang and where audiences come to see art that is true and beautiful.”
Continue reading...She’s been a soap icon, a Royle and even a zombie pensioner. Now the actor is starring in Ann Droid, Diane Morgan’s madcap comedy about an elderly woman and her cybernetic companion
Sue Johnston is the kind of actor who usually can’t stand seeing herself on screen, but for Ann Droid she made an exception. The new sitcom by Diane Morgan and Sarah Kendall stars the 82-year-old as a recent widow whose son hires a humanoid robot called Linda (played with delightful uncanniness by Morgan herself) to assist her after he moves out. The results are initially farcical: Linda is a dated – and therefore relatively cheap – model who lacks the intelligence of newer variants and attempts to cheer people up by blasting Cotton Eye Joe at them. Yet the pair soon become inseparable. Johnston describes the show as “rich with humour and love”. When she watched it back, she found it so absorbing that “I forgot it was me – I very rarely do that and I just enjoyed it.”
Ann Droid is worth raving about on its own terms – it’s rambunctiously funny and exceptionally poignant – but it is clear Johnston’s enthusiasm stems from somewhere else too. “I’m proud of Diane and I just want it to work for her,” she says with feeling. The pair met on the set of the Sky sitcom Rovers before Morgan made it big with Philomena Cunk and Motherland and kept in touch. “Which you don’t with everyone. We’re both silly about our dogs; we just made a connection.” She was thrilled to reunite. “There’s a lot about Diane that reminds me of Caroline Aherne. They’ve got that northern, straight-face, cut-through humour. And they’re geniuses.”
Continue reading...Exclusive: National Crime Agency and safety watchdog issue guidance amid rise in explicit material online
Parents should not put photos of their children on public display online, according to landmark guidance issued to tackle the rise of AI-generated sexual abuse material.
The recommendation has come from the National Crime Agency and the Internet Watch Foundation, which fear that most people are unaware of the dangers posed by paedophiles and criminal networks.
They suggest that parents and guardians make their social media accounts private or share pictures of their children through a “close friends” group. The NCA and the IWF stressed they were not telling parents how to behave online, but said they should be aware of the problem and how to tackle it.
This weekend marks 250 years since the signing of the declaration of independence, but Donald Trump is making the celebration all about himself. As the anniversary approaches, Jonathan Freedland talks to the Atlantic’s Yoni Appelbaum about why so many Americans are feeling less patriotic these days
Continue reading...With her kaftans and her headbands and even the odd paper hat, snobbish Margo stole every scene in the sitcom The Good Life. This was what colour TV was made for
Penelope Keith died this week at the age of 86. A formidable actor who came across in real life as grounded, humble and charming, she was known for playing brittle, status-obsessed characters on stage and screen. And none were more memorable than The Good Life’s Margo Leadbetter, whose command of a room depended as much on her diva-level wardrobe as on her pristine home counties vowels. Here was someone who refused to accept the concept of being overdressed, even when answering the hallway telephone. From the moment we first see Margo (in episode two – she is only heard off-screen in episode one), in a screamingly loud chiffon tangerine kaftan, it is obvious that she is the one to watch – first and foremost for her style.
In the 2025 documentary The Good Life: Inside Out, now on Apple TV, celebrating 50 years of the 1970s sitcom, Keith explains that most of the series’ costume budget went on Margo because of her frequent outfit changes: “And people couldn’t wait to see what Margo would wear next.” Keith used to spend Mondays – “my one day off” – in Harrods (“occasionally Harvey Nichols”) trying on pieces: “All those hours in there I spent, trying on those lovely floaty clothes …”. Here are a few of her best looks.
Continue reading...This weekend marks 250 years since the signing of the declaration of independence, but Donald Trump is making the celebration all about himself. As the anniversary approaches, Jonathan Freedland talks to the Atlantic’s Yoni Appelbaum about why so many Americans are feeling less patriotic these days
Continue reading...‘Late announcement’ means forces will have to adapt plans and move officers away from communities, say chiefs
Police leaders have criticised Downing Street’s decision to let pubs stay open until 5am on Monday for England’s World Cup match against Mexico, saying it will take officers “away from communities”.
Mark Roberts, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for football policing, and Scott Green, the organisation’s lead for alcohol licensing, said the “late announcement” meant forces would have to adapt plans and would leave officers working extended hours.
Continue reading...Deal including ‘national priority’ policy brings prospect closer of countrywide agreement between parties
The prospect of a national coalition between Spain’s conservative People’s party (PP) and the far-right Vox party has drawn closer still after the two groupings sealed another deal that will allow the PP to continue ruling the southern region of Andalucía.
The PP, which has governed the former socialist bastion for the past seven years, lost its absolute majority in May’s regional election, forcing it to look to Vox to help it stay in power in Spain’s most populous region.
Continue reading...Deal including ‘national priority’ policy brings prospect closer of countrywide agreement between parties
The prospect of a national coalition between Spain’s conservative People’s party (PP) and the far-right Vox party has drawn closer still after the two groupings sealed another deal that will allow the PP to continue ruling the southern region of Andalucía.
The PP, which has governed the former socialist bastion for the past seven years, lost its absolute majority in May’s regional election, forcing it to look to Vox to help it stay in power in Spain’s most populous region.
Continue reading...Ståle Solbakken’s side have surpassed previous golden generation as they prepare to meet team they beat in 1998
For a country of 5.6 million people, Norway’s list of competitive achievements is remarkable. Our Winter Olympians gobble up medals at a freakish rate, our women’s handball team is all-conquering, we’ve had standout successes in athletics such as the Ingebrigtsen brothers, we’ve had two tournament winners on this season’s PGA tour and, improbably, Norway has also produced the greatest chess player of all time. And while these successes are cherished and celebrated, nothing unites the country quite like football – and no match has stopped the country in its tracks quite like the 2-1 win against Brazil in the final group game of the 1998 World Cup.
The sound of commentator Arne Scheie announcing “Vi har scoret i Marseille!” (“We have scored in Marseille!”) is as firmly etched into our brains as much as anything said by Norwegian poets and politicians in the last 50 years. Scheie was already something of a national treasure, a commentator known for his level-headedness and factual rigour, but when Norway won a late penalty with the score 1-1 he lost the run of himself entirely. He referred to the penalty taker, the Hertha Berlin midfielder Kjetil Rekdal as “Kjetil Reknett, of Werder Bremen” (Reknett is not a surname in Norwegian or, as far as I am aware, any other language).
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Cafés by Holly Pester; The Acrobat by Wisława Szymborska; Volvelle by Rachael Boast; Tree of Knowledge by Victoria Chang; Talk a Blue Streak by Lila Matsumoto
Cafés by Holly Pester (Fitzcarraldo, £12.99)
Beginning with a sequence of prose poems in which the speaker embarks on an anti-epic quest to open her own cafe, Pester’s second collection builds into a meditation on the nature of desire and disappointment. Comic timing remains a strength, as does her linguistic flexibility, wielding language as a weapon in the face of exploitative working conditions, endless monthly direct debits (“Even my egg subscription is a disaster”) and an intensifying cost-of-living crisis. Juggling the demands of caring for an ageing parent, the excited desperation of a love affair, the “fudgy ordeal” of work and the possibility of parenthood, Pester’s speaker discovers solace in the third space of the cafe, both a meeting point and melting pot. “Here begins inspiration, here begins drama,” she suggests. “I order another coffee in honour of circumstantial life.” Ambitious and inviting, this confident collection confirms Fitzcarraldo’s entry in the arena of contemporary poetry.
The Acrobat by Wisława Szymborska, translated by Stanisław Barańczak and Clare Cavanagh (Faber, £12.99)
A slimline selection of Szymborska’s work, showcasing intimate and immediate poems that explore themes of endurance and astonishment. Reflecting the turbulent history of Poland in the 20th century, Szymborska describes life both during and after conflict, documenting the violence of war alongside moments of resilience and poignant domesticity. “After every war / somebody has to tidy up,” she reminds us. “Someone has to shove / the rubble to the roadsides / so the carts loaded with corpses / can get by.” With plainspoken wisdom and deadpan humour, these poems celebrate the ordinary in extraordinary times. Rooted in the pains and joys of everyday human experience, Szymborska’s poetry proves “The commonplace miracle: / that so many common miracles take place.” The book ends with her 1996 Nobel acceptance speech, in which she praises the inexhaustible wonder of the world: “It looks as though poets will always have their work cut out for them.”
The Irish fiddler brings pop exuberance to traditional songs that range from disco to haunting a cappella with a fearless sense of genre fluidity
From Carlow, Ireland
Recommended if you like The Mary Wallopers, Chappell Roan, Anohni
Up next SlutTrad EP out now, UK and Ireland tour starts in October
At a recent London show, SexyTadhg – real name Tadhg Griffin – appeared in a glittering pink corset, channelling high-camp cabaret. And then, they started playing the fiddle.
Continue reading...People across the country are pushing for moratoriums, and electeds who approve projects are being punished
Lenoxdatacenter.com went live in May, promoting what it called a “proposed advanced technology and data center campus” in Michigan. The site did not state who wanted to build the center. Lenox Township officials denied anyone had applied to build one.
Emails obtained by residents through an open records request showed, however, that developers had contacted the township supervisor and deputy supervisor asking for their support to build a datacenter.
Continue reading...Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka and Naomi Osaka through on busy day in SW19
It seems the injury problem for Kalinskaya is to do with her left hamstring, but the treatment seems to have done the trick, because the Russian races to 15-40 on Bencic’s serve, the first break points of the second set. Bencic blocks them both, securing four straight points to hold for 6-4, 4-4.
Safiullin strolls to 0-15, 0-30, 0-40 on Fonseca’s serve; it looks as if the Russian qualifier won’t even have to serve this second set out. Safiullin doesn’t win the first set point but does the second, when he drills deep to Fonseca’s backhand side … and the Brazilian can only net! Safiullin leads 6-3, 6-3. But … Fonseca did come from two sets down to defeat Djokovic a month ago, as the 19-year-old came of age at the French Open, and he’ll be hoping to draw on the spirit of that victory now.
Continue reading...New reporting from the Guardian has shed further light on the ‘ethnicity pain gap’. This is what has to be done to close it
I always know someone is going to say something racist when they start a sentence with, “I’m not racist, but …” Nobody likes to think they would ever discriminate against someone based on the colour of their skin – and some people seem increasingly uncomfortable about acknowledging that such discrimination exists at all in the world. Yet we are now seeing a backlash from certain political groups against diversity initiatives, including from Kemi Badenoch who wants to do away with “DEI bureaucracy”, and Nigel Farage who promises to get rid of “woke” council roles such as those involved in increasing diversity, equity and inclusion.
Whatever your political views, no one wants debates to be lost in emotion rather than based on the evidence. So it is helpful to come back to facts about race and how it affects people’s lives. And as new Guardian reporting on racial inequalities in pain relief reveals, when it comes to healthcare, the evidence is overwhelming: race and ethnicity are associated with differences in the quality of care people receive and, ultimately, in their health outcomes. Regardless of whether anyone is being racist, it is clear that some people receive worse healthcare because of their racial or ethnic background.
Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh
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.
Continue reading...Move inspired by customer service provided by online retailers such as John Lewis and Amazon
People waiting for hospital treatment will get three weeks’ notice of their next appointment under NHS plans inspired by the customer service provided by online shopping operators.
Hospitals are being ordered to start telling everyone on their treatment waiting list at least three weeks before their operation, diagnostic test or meeting with a consultant.
Continue reading...The London-based fintech says restructuring is necessary to reduce ‘duplicate’ roles
Starling Bank has said it will cut more than 100 jobs as it invests more heavily in artificial intelligence to push down costs.
The digital-only bank told staff that 3% of its workforce, or 130 jobs, would be made redundant, as part of a restructuring of its banking and tech operations.
Continue reading...I am having the world’s most basic midlife crisis. I have not found God. I have found a fitness supplement that was once the preserve of male bodybuilders
I like to think that I’m not an easily influenced person who chases every trend. But what can I say? It can be hard to resist the power of the almighty algorithm. So let me confess that I find myself in the throes of the world’s most basic midlife crisis. I have not found God (religion is back in fashion, apparently), but I have found creatine.
It’s possible that you too have discovered creatine: the supplement is all the rage right now. For those who haven’t started mainlining it every morning, a quick primer. Creatine is a fitness supplement that used to be the preserve of male bodybuilders looking to build big muscles. Now, however, it’s being touted as a wonder product that can do everything from improving your memory to boosting your mood to controlling your blood sugar.
Continue reading...Thousands of volunteers are joined by overseas teams in the hope of finding more survivors in the rubble, reports Tom Phillips in Caraballeda.
Photography and video by Manu Quintero
When twin earthquakes tore through Venezuela’s northern coast last week, Israel Rivas was at home hundreds of miles away in the industrial city of San Félix. As the scale of the catastrophe became clear, the 24-year-old knew he had to react. A mechanic and budding photographer, Rivas gathered the money he had been saving to buy a new camera lens and jumped on a bus to make the 12-hour journey to La Guaira, the coastal state that has suffered the most damage.
“I couldn’t eat well. I couldn’t sleep well, knowing that my brothers and sisters from this country are dying, so I … came here and I’m doing the best I can,” he said on Wednesday, exactly a week after the disaster, as he stood outside Residencia La Gabarra, a 12-storey block of beachside apartments that had collapsed into a jumble of reinforced concrete and bricks with at least three children inside.
Continue reading...Thousands of volunteers are joined by overseas teams in the hope of finding more survivors in the rubble, reports Tom Phillips in Caraballeda.
Photography and video by Manu Quintero
When twin earthquakes tore through Venezuela’s northern coast last week, Israel Rivas was at home hundreds of miles away in the industrial city of San Félix. As the scale of the catastrophe became clear, the 24-year-old knew he had to react. A mechanic and budding photographer, Rivas gathered the money he had been saving to buy a new camera lens and jumped on a bus to make the 12-hour journey to La Guaira, the coastal state that has suffered the most damage.
“I couldn’t eat well. I couldn’t sleep well, knowing that my brothers and sisters from this country are dying, so I … came here and I’m doing the best I can,” he said on Wednesday, exactly a week after the disaster, as he stood outside Residencia La Gabarra, a 12-storey block of beachside apartments that had collapsed into a jumble of reinforced concrete and bricks with at least three children inside.
Continue reading...Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Archie Rhind-Tutt and Jonathan Wilson as Cristiano Ronaldo breaks his World Cup knockout duck in a dramatic win over Croatia
Continue reading...