Filing by attorney general Raúl Torrez comes after DoJ appears to have ignored deadline for key Epstein ranch files

New Mexico filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Justice and acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, on Wednesday for “stonewalling” its criminal investigation into the activities of the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein at a remote ranch in the state.

Raúl Torrez, the New Mexico attorney general, had said he was mulling the possibility of legal action if the justice department did not share with him by 31 July information about the alleged historical abuse of girls and young women at Epstein’s Zorro ranch about 30 miles south of Santa Fe.

Wednesday’s filing, seen by the Guardian, delivers on that threat after the justice department appeared to ignore last Friday’s deadline.

Democrats ‘united by a common purpose: putting a check on Trump’, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand say

Leading Democrats quickly papered over whatever qualms they had about progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed after his win in the Michigan Senate primary was confirmed on Wednesday, instead welcoming the former public health official as their champion against the Republican nominee, Mike Rogers.

The state is now key to Democrats’s hopes of retaking control of the chamber in November’s midterm elections. Winning in Michigan would put them on the path to snarling Donald Trump’s legislative agenda and blocking his judicial nominees for the final two years of his presidency, while defeat could undermine their prospects of gaining a majority in the chamber for years to come. Rogers lost a Senate race in Michigan two years ago by a slim margin to Democrat Elissa Slotkin.

Abdul El-Sayed, an insurgent former public health official who harnessed Democratic frustration with the party establishment, narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan’s U.S. Senate primary, setting up a crucial test for progressives in a key battleground state.

El-Sayed will face Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman, in November in a race that will help determine control of the Senate. His first challenge will be unifying Democratic factions after a bitter primary that offered divergent visions for a party desperate for a path back to power.

Stevens, who pledged her support for El-Sayed after conceding defeat, was backed by the Democratic establishment, including outgoing Sen. Gary Peters, whose retirement spurred a scramble to fill his seat. El-Sayed promised a more aggressive approach for confronting entrenched corporate interests and President Donald Trump, and declared his victory was nothing short of a political earthquake despite only scraping by Stevens.

Donald Trump’s administration has detained dozens of parents and spouses of active-duty U.S. troops as it rolls back immigration protections for military families to pursue its mass deportation agenda, an Associated Press investigation found.

More than 50 parents and spouses of active-duty service members have been detained since Trump took office for a second term, and at least six have been deported, the AP found in the first accounting of such detentions, which the government does not track. At least eight immediate family members of U.S. service members remain in federal immigration custody.

Parents and spouses of people in the military have generally been shielded from deportation under bipartisan consensus for decades. But the AP found they’re now routinely being detained for months as they try to adjust their legal status through the policies available to service members’ close relatives and even as the military continues to recruit by advertising immigration benefits for enlistees’ families. Experts warn that the reversal could undermine military preparedness even as the U.S. is at war in Iran. It’s left military members without emotional support and caretakers for their children, delayed deployments and forced some to take leave.

Trump loyalist, who also has president’s endorsement, has spent millions trying to prove 2020 election was ‘stolen’

Mike Lindell is leaving his role with the company to focus on his campaign to become the next governor of Minnesota. In a social media post published Tuesday, Lindell said that the company is strong enough to withstand his departure.

“This decision is not about walking away. It is about stepping forward to serve. I am putting Minnesota above myself, my title, and my business interests so I can give this campaign and the people of our state my full time, energy, and attention,” Lindell said.

Lindell, who has been endorsed by Donald Trump, is a longtime loyalist of the president who has spent millions of dollars trying to prove that the 2020 election was rife with fraud. He says that his run is meant to disrupt the state’s political establishment.

Iran conflict windfall over three months reignites calls for companies ‘cashing in on human misery’ to pay for environmental damage

Eight of the biggest oil companies amassed profits of more than $90bn (£67bn) in just three months as the Iran conflict sent energy prices soaring and the emissions-fuelled climate crisis caused deadly heatwaves.

The windfall war profits have reignited calls for oil and gas supermajors such as Saudi Aramco and BP to pay for the environmental damage caused by “cashing in on human misery” and fund a rapid transition to renewable energy.

Guardian analysis found that the eight listed oil producers made almost $93bn (£69bn) in the three months to the end of June – the first full financial quarter after the US-Israeli war on Iran triggered a surge in global oil prices to highs above $126 a barrel.

The Justice Department knew or should have known for weeks that its case against a former Olympian charged with intentionally damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was flawed, and that he bore no responsibility for longstanding problems at the landmark, defense lawyers said Tuesday.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro on Friday moved to dismiss the indictment against David Hearn, saying in a 20-page filing that newly produced evidence from the Interior Department showed the former Olympic canoeist was not responsible for damage to the pool’s lining.

Pirro’s office attributed the damage instead to a botched installation by a contractor as well as “the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration” in the weeks surrounding July 4, as directed by President Donald Trump.

National Guard troops seized Anna King, slamming her to the ground and leaving her with injuries that required surgery, according to a federal tort claim

A retired U.S. Army captain and Iraq War veteran is taking legal action after National Guard troops approached her outside her Washington, D.C. home, pushed her to the ground and detained her in an aggressive, caught-on-camera confrontation.

Anna King, who received a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for her service, was cornered on her front porch by three National Guard troops on the evening of May 8.

“Get away from me right now,” King can be heard telling the guards in footage taken on a Ring security camera. “You have absolutely no authority to detain me.”

Footage shared by the ACLU of the District of Columbia shows King trying to go inside her home as the men, three Idaho National Guard members, grab King and force her to the ground as she screams for them to get off her.

An association of thousands of FBI agents and other groups are backing a lawsuit filed by three bureau employees who were fired last year for their roles in an investigation into Donald Trump’s efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election.

A legal brief by the FBI Agents Association is one of five filed by outside parties in the last week in support of the agents, who were terminated as part of a broader personnel purge by FBI Director Kash Patel that has targeted employees who investigated Trump or are perceived as being against the administration’s interest.

Taken together, the filings, including from former FBI and Justice Department alumni, underscore a concerted and bipartisan pushback to the waves of terminations that have roiled the FBI in the last year and a half as Patel has sought to remake the bureau in his own image.

The U.S. Army has used up much of its stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles during its five-month war with Iran, according to three people familiar with the data, raising concerns about the military's ​readiness for future conflicts.

The missiles are principally the Army's surface-to-surface weapons, known as Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM). The U.S. has used "virtually all" of these weapons, according to two of the sources.

The ‌degree to which the military is running out of ATACMS and Precision Strike Missiles has not been previously reported.

The long-range munitions are an important part the military's arsenal, allowing accurate strikes from a safe distance. U.S.-supplied ATACMS have played a key role in the war in Ukraine, allowing Ukrainian forces to attack targets inside Russia. The PrSM is a newer, more advanced generation that will replace the ATACMS, which have a shorter range.

US president hits out at ExxonMobil and Chevron, saying they should ‘give some of that back to the public’

Donald Trump has criticised oil companies for “making too much money” from the global energy market disruption caused by his war on Iran.

Brent crude had been trading at about $70 (£52) a barrel before the first US-Israeli strikes at the end of February, but by the end of April it had soared as high as $126 and is now trading at about $85 a barrel.

The US president took aim at the windfall profits revealed last week by ExxonMobil and Chevron, and said the companies would “give some of that back to the public”.

New York can’t ban federal agents from wearing face coverings or require that they wear visible identification, a federal judge ruled Monday.

The ruling comes after a federal judge earlier this year blocked a similar law in California that was enacted after the Trump administration aggressively worked to increase immigration arrests.

For the Northern District of New York, U.S. District Judge Mae D’Agostino wrote that while New York “appears to be well-intentioned in its pursuit of transparent policing,” that’s not what the court is deciding.

“The issue now before the Court is about constitutionality—not transparency or preferable policy decisions,” she wrote.