FBI obtains warrant to search Clinton aide’s laptop

The FBI has obtained a warrant to investigate emails found on a laptop used by Clinton aide Huma Abedin, as part of its investigation into the Democratic presidential candidate’s use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state. The move came as the Senate minority leader, Harry Reid, said the FBI director, James Comey, may have broken the Hatch Act, which bars federal officials from using their official authority to influence an election, by his decision to send a letter to Republican congressional committee chairs on Friday announcing the new development. That showed “clear intent to aid one political party over another”, Reid said, adding a claim that Comey was not releasing information linking the Trump campaign to Russia. Reports said FBI investigators had known for weeks they might find pertinent emails on Abedin’s device, which was shared with her estranged husband Anthony Weiner, who is under investigation over alleged illicit texts to a minor. Clinton called on Comey to “put it all out on the table”; Donald Trump said the email scandal was “worse than Watergate”.



Clinton emails inquiry: FBI gets warrant as Comey told he may have broken law

Will Hillary Clinton lose?



The Democrat is losing support just as the Republican is experiencing a resurgence. While Clinton still stands to win, a shift in sentiment appears to have begun with the WikiLeaks release of emails that showed how much even Clinton aides worried about blurred boundaries between business, charitable and political interests. In an election that many describe as an unpopularity contest, it may not take much more to swing the mood of independents. A Monday morning Consult/Politico poll, though, still had Clinton in the lead, eight days out from the vote.

Will Hillary Clinton lose the US election because of the FBI email investigation?

How the world sees the US election

Many countries have shown a preference for Clinton but Trump has pockets of support, as Guardian journalists around the world explain. In Russia, warm words about Putin from Trump and a slightly more positive tone of television coverage relating to the real estate tycoon have both left their mark. A Russian poll found that 22% of Russians had a positive opinion of Trump, compared with just 8% for Clinton. In Mexico, Trump’s rise has stirred unease and indignation. Iranians have been amused by the bitter rivalry been Clinton and Trump. In an unprecedented move, state TV broadcast the last presidential debate.

How the world views the US elections, from Israel to North Korea

Dakota pipeline: protesters plan ‘last stand’

Native American protesters are preparing to take a “last stand” against the Dakota Access pipeline this week. The Standing Rock protesters in North Dakota have been fighting the $3.8 bn pipeline since April but were dealt a blow last week when police raided their camps and arrested hundreds, paving the way for construction of the final stretch of the controversial oil project. “There isn’t much land left between the water and the equipment,” said Cheryl Angel, a member of the Sicangu Lakota tribe. “They’re right there. They have breached our sacred ground.”

Dakota Access pipeline protesters set for ‘last stand’ on banks of Missouri river

Oakland ‘mega-evictor’ serves 3,000 notices

A pro-tenant group says a landlord who has a seat in Oakland’s housing cabinet is also the top evictor in the city, where a housing shortage has reached crisis levels. William Rosetti and his firms have filed more than 3,000 eviction notices, the first step in removing a tenant, making the Bay Area real estate executive Oakland’s No1 “mega-evictor”.

Oakland’s ‘mega-evictor’, the landlord who filed over 3,000 eviction notices

Sinjar, one year on

Beside the sun-bleached bones, the tangles of human hair and greying piles of clothes exposed by wind and rain, a leaflet newly dropped by the Iraqi army fluttered in the wind. “We are coming to save you from Isis!” the text announced. Too late for those buried in the mass grave below, writes Emma Graham-Harrison. Sinjar, a centre for the minority Yazidi group and symbol of their suffering under the Islamic State, was liberated nearly a year ago. The whole area still feels ghostly and abandoned, still waiting for life to return.

Fear and suspicion haunt Sinjar a year after liberation from Isis

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Brexit points Jewish refugees’ descendants back towards Germany

Following the British vote to leave the European Union, descendants of tens of thousands of German Jews who fled the Nazis are making use of their legal right to become German citizens. German authorities have reported a twentyfold increase in the number of restored citizenship applications – a right reserved for anybody who was persecuted on political, racial or religious grounds during the Nazi dictatorship, as well as their descendants. The chairman of the UK Association of Jewish Refugees said that for many, applying for citizenship of a country that treated their ancestors so badly was a “considerable psychological challenge”.

Descendants of Jewish refugees seek German citizenship after Brexit vote

Cubs hopes stay alive as fans wave the W flag

The W flag is what the Cubs traditionally fly at Wrigley Field, writes Greg Couch, and it went up on Sunday night when the Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians 3-2 in Game Five of the World Series – the first time the team has won in the series at home since 1945. It must be an incredible feeling to be a Chicago Cubs player, Couch writes. You walk around town and everyone is talking about you, cheering you, thanking you, loving you, telling you how fantastic you are, naming breakfast cereals after you. The series stands at 3-2 to the Indians: Game Six is on Tuesday in Cleveland.

Aroldis Chapman shines to keep Cubs’ World Series alive

A world without animals

A couple of years ago, we heard news that the population of all vertebrate species had fallen by 50% in 40 years. On Thursday, we were told that by 2020 the figure is likely to rise to 66% of all vertebrates. It’s no wonder conservationists are shouting. They are desperate to get their message heard. Animals, it seems, are on the way out. And no one appears to much care.

Imagine a world without animals. You’ll soon see how much we need them

Mixed blessings of mezcal’s popularity

Mezcal, tequila’s stronger and smokier relative, has become a staple spirit in trendy bars across Mexico and the US, and it has inevitably attracted the interest of global alcohol giants. Traditionally produced in small batches by farmers who use artisanal methods, the agave-based drink has struck a chord with the growing sector of consumers passionate about slow food, farmers’ markets and craft drinks. Local growers, though, are worried a unique spirit is under threat.

Mezcal’s meteoric rise continues, but not all industry insiders are ready to toast

In case you missed it …

On a UK tour promoting his autobiography, Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen says politics is about the way you live your life – a system of belief he learned from his mom. “My mother was basically decent, compassionate, strong, willful,” he told the Guardian’s Michael Hann. “She insisted on creating a world where she could make her children feel as safe as possible, even though she certainly had her faults in that area. But she was consistent. You could count on her. Day after day after day. And she was very strong.”

Bruce Springsteen: ‘You can change a life in three minutes with the right song’