The long read: Dumba has spent her life performing in circuses around Europe, but in recent years animal rights activists have been campaigning to rescue her. When it looked like they might succeed, Dumba and her owners disappeared

The first-floor apartment on West 37th Street, a few blocks south of Times Square, was popular with tourists—so popular that a set of keys was left at the counter of a nearby bodega for Airbnb renters to pick up. That's where a 29-year-old Australian woman and a group of her friends retrieved them, no identification needed, when they arrived in Manhattan to celebrate New Year's Eve in 2015. The apartment had been advertised on Airbnb even though most short-term rentals are illegal in New York.

Don Huckstep thought he’d found love in his hometown of Fowler, Indiana. But when Teresa Jarding vanished, it foreshadowed a series of bizarre discoveries.

Tim Ballard told me he was called by God. I wanted to be, too.

(2019) A French coastal community has finally cracked the mystery behind the Garfield telephones that have plagued its picturesque beaches for decades. Since the 1980s, the Iroise coast in Brittany has received a supply of bright orange landline novelty phones shaped like the famous cartoon cat. Anti-litter campaigners have been collecting fragments of the feline for years as they clean the beaches. But now, the source of the problem has been found - a lost shipping container.

Washington, D.C. (June 15, 2021)— Today, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, the Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, released new documents showing President Trump’s efforts to pressure the Department of Justice (DOJ) to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election. At 2:00 p.m., the Committee will hold its second hearing on the events of January 6, 2021, in which insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol to disrupt a joint session of Congress convened to count Electoral College votes.

Thirty years ago, the biggest celebrities on earth opened a chain restaurant. For a few years, it was the hottest ticket in town. Then it went bankrupt. Twice. The brains behind this pop-culture phenomenon explain how it happened.

The NSA contractor remains in federal custody in a reentry program after getting five years behind bars for leaking secrets.

Novavax says its shot is safe, 90 percent effective, and will be put up for emergency-use authorization in the U.S.

Frito Feet is a real thing, and veterinarians say it’s perfectly normal.

One can understand why Sixkiller, now Seattle’s deputy mayor, would be running to the left. His hometown is one of the most liberal cities in the country and heavily Democratic. A nonpartisan primary will be held on August 3 and the general election takes place on November 2. Given the city’s political makeup, only a perceived liberal candidate stands a chance to win. That explains why Sixkiller, an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation, constantly hypes his alleged liberal credentials. He’s “an advocate for social and environmental justice, and a firm believer that government can be a powerful force for change,” says his website. But while claiming to be progressive, Sixkiller has been working as a Washington, DC lobbyist for corporate interests since 2007. His clients included private prison companies, oil and gas firms, weapons makers, and even a CIA front company, Evergreen Air, a transportation firm. His wife, Mariah, currently runs a Washington, DC lobbying firm, Sixkiller Consulting, which Sixkiller founded and of which he still appears to be a partial owner. Her clients have included Noble Energy, Chevron, and Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm that has been accused of paying “illegal kickbacks to fixers for inside information and introduction to contacts,” according to the British newspaper The Guardian.

The aerospace and defense giant paused political contributions after Jan. 6. But only for a little bit.

June is Pride month, and many US corporations are advertising their support for the LGBTQ+ community. A new study, however, has found that 25 companies otherwise eager to wave the rainbow flag have donated more than $10m to anti-LGBTQ+ federal and state politicians over the past two years. The study, released on Monday by the Popular Information newsletter, found that alongside pronouncements of LGBTQ+ support, corporations including CVS, AT&T, Walmart and Comcast have supported candidates who seek to block or otherwise restrict equal rights based on gender or sexual orientation. Many of the corporations have 100% ratings on the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) 2020 Corporate Equality Index, which measures workplace policies and “public commitment to the LGBTQ community”. The index does not take political donations into account. The study found that CVS, while receiving a perfect HRC score and announcing on Twitter it was “proud to join more than 100 companies that have signed HRC’s Business Statement Opposing Anti-LGBTQ State Legislation”, also supported sponsors of anti-trans legislation in Texas, North Carolina and Tennessee, through its corporate political action committee. In Texas, CVS backed Republican state senators Dawn Buckingham and Bryan Hughes, co-sponsors of SB1646, a bill that would “change the state’s child abuse law” to make it a crime for parents to allow children to receive gender-affirming medical care. The company also backed North Carolina state senator Ralph Hise, primary sponsor of S514, which would ban anyone under 21 receiving gender-affirming treatment and which the Advocate, an LGBTQ+ outlet, called “the most repressive anti-transgender healthcare bill in the nation”. CVS’s $1,000 donation to Hise in August 2020 came four years after huge controversy over an anti-trans “bathroom bill” the senator argued was necessary “to protect the citizens of the state of North Carolina”. CVS has donated $259,000 to 54 members of Congress who received a HRC rating of zero, largely through voting against the Equality Act, over the last two years. Others named in the study include cable giant Comcast, which has donated more than $1m to anti-LGBTQ+ politicians since 2019. A Comcast subsidiary, Xfinity, recently tweeted: “Pride is the love we share. And with Xfinity, it’s Pride all year.” Comcast itself has created “a virtual ‘Pride World’, where we will feature events, Pride floats, Pride flags, and even a Pronoun Guide for employees”. But according to the study by Popular Information, Comcast has also donated more than $1.1m to anti-LGBTQ+ politicians since 2019, including $30,000 to the sponsors of anti-trans legislation in Florida and Texas and $1,095,500 to 149 members of Congress marked zero by HRC. AT&T, which recently said “We can #TURNUPTHELOVE for LGBTQ youth together”, also signed a HRC letter opposing anti-LGBTQ state legislation. But it has also supported sponsors of anti-trans legislation in Arkansas ($12,950), Tennessee ($4,000), North Carolina ($5,000), Texas ($22,500), and Florida ($17,500). Walmart – whose website features a “Pride & Joy” section – has donated at least $442,000 to 121 politicians who received a zero from HRC, according to campaign finance reports. Others mentioned in the study for promoting a perfect score on the Corporate Equality Index and publicising support for LGBTQ+ rights while donating to anti-LGBTQ+ lawmakers include United Health, Deloitte and Wells Fargo, which made a $1,000 donation to the North Carolina state senator Joyce Krawiec, who has shared anti-trans articles on social media. Wells Fargo is a corporate supporter of Heritage of Pride, the non-profit that plans and produces New York City’s Pride events. The group has also been supported by Comcast. Michael Bullock of Weekly Senator, a crowdfunding group that channels donations to Senate candidates supporting progressive causes, said LGBTQ+ organisations supported by corporations that donate to anti-LGBTQ+ politicians should be boycotted. Bullock claimed Heritage of Pride “has over time created a parade in which the main goal is to pimp out queer people and queer culture to corporations to make as much money as possible. It’s crazy that this even needs to be said, but all LGBTQ people should boycott the Heritage of Pride until they make sure none of the sponsors fund anti-gay legislation.” Dan Dimant, a spokesperson for Heritage of Pride, told the Guardian the group makes efforts to prevent “pink-washing”, including guidelines on its website, and “takes great pains to ensure that partnerships meet strict criteria and that all partners are working to further the mission of the organization”. “There is a vetting process, so we make our best effort to avoid some of these conflicts of interest but that said it’s a moving target because companies change over time,” Dimant said. While many companies named in the Popular Information study did not comment, many reaffirmed their commitment to LGBTQ+ rights. General Motors said its political contributions “do not represent an endorsement of the candidate or support for all the issues the candidate supports [and] we will continue to clearly communicate with policymakers GM’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion”. Ford said “contributions by our employee Pac are bipartisan and take into consideration many issues that are important to meeting the needs of our customers, our team and our company”. Google defended its record on supporting “the rights of all LGBTQ people” and said a contribution to a candidate “doesn’t mean that Google agrees with that candidate on every issue. In fact, we may disagree strongly on some issues.” Amazon took a similar position.

One of the wounded victims was an off-duty sheriff.

Berman and Company admitted it is the organization behind a campaign protesting against New York City schools curricula.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Monday apologized for comparing COVID-19 vaccine and mask rules to the Holocaust, declaring that "there is no comparison" between the safety measures and the genocide of 6 million Jews during World War II. Greene delivered the public apology following a visit earlier Monday to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum weeks after she drew condemnation from fellow Republicans for the remarks over the long Memorial Day recess. "I have made a mistake," Greene told reporters. "I wanted to say that I know that words that I've stated were hurtful, and for that I am very sorry."

John Demers' resignation, which comes as Attorney General Garland looks to overhaul procedures for obtaining lawmakers' records, is unrelated to the controversy, an official said.

As recently as June 4, states with higher vaccination rates did not have significantly lower case rates than states where few people were vaccinated.

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.

Reality Leigh Winner, the former National Security Agency contractor sentenced to federal prison for leaking classified government information, has reportedly been released from prison.