‘Rule of five’ requires government agencies to provide relevant information if at least five members of the committee request it

On Capitol Hill today, Senate Democrats – led by minority leader Chuck Schumer – will hold a press conference at 12pm ET to discuss their plans to push the justice department to release the full and un-redacted Epstein files.

Democrats are using a rare and little-known law, known colloquially as the “rule of five”, which requires government agencies to provide relevant information if at least five members of the committee request it. In this case, all Democrats on the homeland security and governmental affairs committee signed a letter to attorney general Pam Bondi yesterday.

The August first deadline is the August first deadline - it stands strong, and will not be extended. A big day for America!!!

Move follows protests in Ukrainian cities over bill passed last week that curtailed independence of two bodies

Ukraine’s parliament will vote on a new law on Thursday that would restore independence to two anti-corruption bodies, backtracking on a controversial law passed last week that curtailed their powers and led to a political crisis.

Last week’s legal changes prompted rare wartime street protests against the president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and accusations that the presidential office was trying to protect powerful associates from anti-corruption investigations.

‘Fabian grew up the inner-city where it was hard for him to pursue his love of horses. He’s set himself the goal of becoming a five-time Olympic gold medallist’

When I was about 16, I went to Bradgate Park in Leicestershire with a couple of friends. We were there as sunset approached and the landscape became illuminated by beautiful golden-hour light. There were deer and stags all around and I asked one of my friends if I could borrow his camera. It must have been quite annoying for him because I remember wandering off, trying to capture this feeling of mystery and magic.

That was the moment I first really felt a sense of excitement for photography and image-making. Before then, I’d visited many museums and art galleries with my mum and was inspired by some of the art we saw. I was particularly drawn to portraits by Vermeer and Rembrandt. I’ve never been good at drawing or painting, but having a camera gave me a tool to express that creative energy.

Concerns poorer countries could be priced out of negotiations in Belém as room rates soar amid shortage

The UN climate bureau has held an urgent meeting about concerns that sky-high rates for accommodation at this year’s Cop30 summit in Brazil could price poorer countries out of the negotiations.

Brazil is preparing to host Cop30 this November in the rainforest city of Belém, where representatives of nearly every government in the world will gather to negotiate their joint efforts to curb the climate crisis.

US president calls Delhi a friend but criticises policies such as buying arms and energy from Russia amid Ukraine war

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Donald Trump has announced the US will impose a 25% tariff on goods from India plus an extra “penalty” for the country buying arms and energy from Russia amid the war in Ukraine.

Washington has set a 1 August deadline for countries around the world to reach agreements on trade, including India, amid the US president’s sweeping global tariff war.

• Former biathlete struck by rockfall at altitude of 5,700m

• Tributes paid to athlete ‘with heart, attitude and vision’

The German double Olympic biathlon champion Laura Dahlmeier has died after a mountaineering accident in Pakistan, her management confirmed on Wednesday.

The accident occurred at around noon on Monday, at an altitude of approximately 5,700 metres at Laila Peak, the Alpine Club of Pakistan said on Tuesday. Dahlmeier was climbing with her mountaineering partner when she was struck by a sudden rockfall in the Hushe Valley, part of the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region.

After a long day of exploring, swimming or hanging with grandparents, games from Fortnite to Super Mario are a good way to wind down. Sometimes I play along, too

We’re a week into the school summer holidays here in England, and I wonder how many parents who started out determined to keep their children completely away from screens are now beginning to feel the strain. When my sons were much younger, I often had these idyllic images in my head of day trips to the seaside, back garden treasure hunts, paddling in the river, visiting relatives … an endless series of character forming experiences which I imagined in grainy Kodachrome colours. Then I’d be faced with the reality of having a job, and also the, let’s say, limited attention span of my sons. Those boys could rocket through a host of formative activities in a few hours leaving a trail of muddy boots, half-finished crafting projects and tired grandparents in their wake. Sheepishly, we’d end up allowing some Fortnite time to catch our breath.

There is so much pressure and guilt around children and gaming, especially during long school breaks, and I think we need to seriously redress our outlook as a society. I harbour many lovely memories of gaming with my sons during hot August days; drowsily loafing about building ridiculous mansions in Minecraft or laughing ourselves stupid in Goat Simulator. We would always take the Switch on holiday with us, so that in the evenings, when we went out for meals, there would be an hour or so where my wife and I could linger over a glass of wine, while the boys silently played Super Mario together. We still managed to build sand castles, go swimming and explore unfamiliar towns, but games provided a way to wind down and enjoy something familiar.

My generation was raised wondering how ordinary people could countenance an atrocity. In a grotesque twist, the question has circled back to us

The question keeps gnawing at me: Could this really be it? Could we be living through a genocide?

Outside Israel, millions already know the answer. But many of us here can’t – or won’t – say it aloud. Perhaps because the truth threatens to unmake everything we believed about who we are, and who we wanted to be. To name it is to admit that the future will require reckoning – not just with our leaders, but with ourselves. But the cost of refusing to see is even higher.

Yuli Novak is the executive director of B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories

Bishop of Monmouth chosen after Andy John stepped down in June following scandal at Bangor Cathedral

The Bishop of Monmouth, Cherry Vann, has been elected as the new archbishop of Wales, becoming the UK’s first female archbishop and first LGBTQ+ leader in the church in Wales in a symbolic break with recent safeguarding scandals.

Vann, 66, was chosen on Wednesday after an electoral college made up of clergy and laypersons met for two days of deliberations at St Pierre church near Chepstow.

• Post-Olympic injury blues banished with Singapore swim

• Rookie Harrison Turner wins bronze in 200m butterfly

Australian swimmer Mollie O’Callaghan’s golden touch has continued with an emotional victory at the world championships in Singapore.

O’Callaghan collected gold in the women’s 200m freestyle on a Wednesday night when Australia’s fortunes fluctuated.

Experts say thawing of permafrost due to climate breakdown is causing increase in rock collapses across Alps

Hundreds of hikers and tourists were evacuated and dozens of trails closed after a series of rockfalls on the slopes of Cima Falkner in the Brenta Dolomites in the north of Italy, as experts warned of a sharp rise in landslides in the area linked to thawing permafrost.

In recent days, visitors reported hearing loud booms followed by rockfalls and thick clouds of dust rising from Monte Pelmo in the Val di Zoldo after rocky pinnacles broke away and crashed down into the valley below in the municipality of Selva di Cadore in Italy’s Belluno province.

Huda Ammori argued that home secretary’s decision to proscribe group under terrorism laws was ‘abuse of power’

The co-founder of Palestine Action can bring a legal challenge to the home secretary’s decision to ban the direct action group under anti-terrorism laws, a high court judge has ruled.

Lawyers for Huda Ammori argued at a hearing in London last week that the proscription of Palestine Action, placing it on a par with groups such as Islamic State and Boko Haram, was “repugnant” and an “authoritarian and blatant abuse of power”.

Demonstrators say diner ‘great for anti-Tesla protesters’ – but Musk fans and curious tourists have also stopped by

Elon Musk’s “retro-futuristic” Tesla Diner in Hollywood has become a new flashpoint for the “Tesla Takedown” movement, with dozens of protesters picketing the diner last weekend alongside inflatable tube figures of Musk performing a Nazi salute.

The viral popularity of the new diner, which is surrounded by 80 Tesla charging stations and two giant movie screens, has sparked out-the-door lines, massive traffic jams, and two angry protests, all within its first week of operation.

Neeson plays the son of Leslie Nielsen’s Lt Frank Drebin, appearing opposite Pamela Anderson in this enjoyable, at times very bizarre, spoof of 80s LA action movies

Here is Liam Neeson doing a rumbly-menacing voice even sillier than the one he did in Taken – and he now presumably must decide whether, like Leslie Nielsen before him, he will pivot to spoof comedy full-time. To be fair, Neeson has more career capital to lose than Nielsen did. He deadpans it impeccably, but perhaps doesn’t quite have Nielsen’s eerie innocence. In any case, it doesn’t stop this reboot of the Naked Gun franchise from being a lot of fun: amiably ridiculous, refreshingly shallow, entirely pointless and guilelessly crass. It is a life-support system for some outrageous gags, including sensational riffs on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sex and the City, and one showstopping are-they-really-gonna-do-it reference to OJ Simpson, who featured in the original films.

David Zucker, co-creator of those and the Airplane! films, is reportedly dissatisfied with this new version from the team of director Akiva Schaffer and co-writers Dan Gregor and Doug Mand. A spoof of a spoof is always going to be a potential problem, but Schaffer et al canter entertainingly through their succession of absurdist scenarios – and at one stage contrive a classic Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker homage: a moment of mayhem followed by a wide-shot of people queueing up obediently for violence, like Airplane!’s line of (hitherto unseen) passengers.

From strappy sandals to brogues and patent pumps, there’s a flattie for every occasion and outfit

Wearing high heels in summer never worked. We must have been mad! Pretty much everything that is lovely about summer is incompatible with wearing heels. Being outside in the garden or the park, where the grass is soft underfoot! Delightful, but hopeless if you have to balance on tiptoes to stop your heels from sinking into the ground. Walking instead of getting the bus, because it’s so nice out! A seasonal treat, but only in comfy shoes. Summer weddings that start at 3pm and go on until the small hours! The absolute best, but murder with blisters. The beach! OK, we weren’t ever sufficiently insane to wear heels on sand or pebbles. Still, you get my drift.

I haven’t sworn off heels for good, by the way. I think there was a time when lockdown broke my habit, but in the end I missed them. So when autumn comes around, I will relish pulling on my heeled boots for the first time. Come party season, I will hold fast to my belief that a really good night out starts with a shoe that gives a rush of visual pleasure and makes no concessions to being remotely sensible. But for the next couple of months, I have a strict flats-only policy.

Test is one of only about 200 chalk streams in the world and councillors says biodiversity in and around it has declined

Local politicians have recognised the right of a famous chalk stream, the Test in Hampshire, to flow freely and unpolluted.

Councillors on Test Valley borough council voted unanimously to acknowledge “the intrinsic rights” of the rivers within its boundaries, including the Test, which is renowned for its trout and fly fishing.

Carmaker avoids reporting a slump by sending three months’ worth of sales on last day of the quarter at levy of 10%

Aston Martin scrambled to deliver three months’ worth of cars to dealers in the US within 24 hours as it rushed to qualify for lower tariffs that came into effect on 30 June.

By invoicing the whole quarter’s cars on that same day it avoided having to report a sales slump that might have alarmed investors.

Across the world, newly graduated medical students take an oath to uphold the ethics of medical practice. Dr Lina Qasem-Hassan, a Palestinian living and working in Israel, teaches medical ethics as well as practising as a physician, caring for both Israeli and Palestinian patients. In Israel’s internationally acclaimed healthcare system, regarded as one of the world’s leading examples, a quarter of doctors are Palestinian citizens of Israel. While the medical oath calls for equal care for all patients, Lina sees a profession increasingly at odds with that principle. Since filming began in February 2024, and with the conflict continuing to escalate ever since, Lina's commitment to the oath remains unwavering

We’ve promised to provide equal care to all. Now we’re being punished for speaking out against the killing of medics and patients in Gaza

Medicine is a humanistic profession, grounded in ethical values of justice, beneficence and the commitment to do no harm. It is a vocation of healing, of saving lives and of easing physical and emotional suffering. Being a doctor requires inner strength – the ability to see another’s pain, to feel it and to respond with empathy and compassion, alongside the knowledge and professionalism the role demands. I believe a physician also bears a critical responsibility in advocating for their patients’ right to health and in upholding the principle of justice. In that sense, every doctor is, to me, a leader.

I explored these ideas in a new Guardian documentary, The Oath. I tell my story as a Palestinian doctor living in Israel and working within its healthcare system. Made over the past year, the film portrays the struggles and challenges I have faced in that time. However, since I was first filmed in March 2024, the situation in Gaza, and the position we are in as doctors, has only worsened – day by day, hour by hour.

Lina Qasem Hassan is a Palestinian doctor working in the Israeli healthcare system and is chairwoman of Physicians for Human Rights - Israel. Photograph of Lina Qasem Hassan by Fadi Amun

From the Washington Post to CBS, companies are caving to Trump. This is how democracy dies

The latest casualty of Donald Trump’s efforts to silence media criticism is Eduardo Porter, one of the most thoughtful and intelligent critics of his heinous regime.

On Tuesday, Porter wrote his last column for the Washington Post. In a widely circulated email, he explained why he was leaving the Post:

Jeff Bezos and his new head of Opinion are taking the paper down a path I cannot follow, directed toward the relentless promotion of free markets and personal liberties … I have no idea to what extent this is driven by Mr Bezos’ fear of what Donald Trump could do to his various business interests, most of which are more valuable to him than The Post.”

As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network, I am offended. And I don’t know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company … I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles. It’s a big fat bribe. Because this all comes as Paramount’s owners are trying to get the Trump administration to approve the sale of our network to a new owner, Skydance.”

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His next book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, will be out on 5 August

Excess baked potato makes for lovely, light gnocchi and saves on prep time, too

I’m rolling these gnocchi out of yesterday’s leftover baked potato and feeling rather chuffed with myself, because when you’re able to cut out a step from a normally scratch-cook dish such as gnocchi, it makes life easier. Crisp up the leftover potato skins in a pan with sea salt to enjoy as a snack, or freeze them for making loaded potato skins (recipe coming next week).

Players battle through, sometimes they fade away, sometimes they come back stronger. It’s all part of the game

I’ll be honest, I’m done in. Not feeling it. Quills deep in the red zone. This white blank page looks impossibly foreboding. I feel like I’m blinking up at a vast Eiger-shaped word document. Nine hundred words of Garamond from the summit and my crampons are made of blancmange.

You think these Spin columns are easy? I had four days in bed after the last one. I need to get out of this. I’ve been called up, but now it’s plain to see it’s not working. Should I claim Scrivener’s palsy? The yips? Desperately and repeatedly slam the laptop lid on my knuckles? Channel Allan Border to Dean Jones at Chennai in 1986? “Let’s get a proper cricket writer out here. A southerner.” Andy Bull. Tanya Aldred. Let’s be ’avin you!

• England will host China at Wembley on 29 November

• Prize fund for Women’s FA Cup frozen for another year

England will play China in a friendly at Wembley on 29 November, their first confirmed fixture following European Championship glory at the weekend.

The match will be the third of four friendlies for Sarina Wiegman’s victorious team across the autumn, with the first two, in October, still to be announced, and pits the Asian champions against their European counterparts. It will also be the Lionesses’ third Wembley fixture of 2025, following victories over Spain in February and Portugal in May.