Arizonans have endured scorching temperatures for more than two weeks and that hot streak is about to get even hotter, with a brutal heat wave starting to take shape ahead of the weekend.

Donald Trump has lashed out what he described as “cockroaches” in Washington DC following the release of the Durham report. The 300-page report – from an investigation led by Trump-appointed Special Counsel John Durham – railed against the FBI for opening a probe into alleged ties between Mr Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Russian government. “THEY ARE SCUM, LIKE COCKROACHES ALL OVER WASHINGTON, D.C.,” the former president wrote on Truth Social in response to the findings. Meanwhile, Mr Trump’s name has cropped up in a bombshell lawsuit brought against Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and his former personal attorney. Mr Giuliani’s former aide Noelle Dunphy is suing Mr Giuliani for sexual harassment while she worked for him in 2019 and 2020. Mr Giuliani has strongly denied the claims. In the lawsuit, Ms Dunphy claims that she was told that he and then-president Mr Trump were offering to sell presidential pardons for $2m apiece. She also claims that she was forced to give Mr Giuliani oral sex while he was on speakerphone to Mr Trump. Read More Trump claimed the Durham probe would uncover the 'crime of the century.' Here's what it really found Trump says AOC ‘went crazy’ over CNN town hall as he slams Democrat’s relationship Rudy Giuliani said he and Trump were selling pardons for $2m apiece, ex-aide claims Trump tells former adviser Michael Flynn: 'We’re going to bring you back'

The day after the state’s Republican governor signed the ban into law, a judge in South Carolina has blocked a measure outlawing abortion at roughly six weeks of pregnancy. Abortion rights advocates and civil rights groups filed a lawsuit moments after Governor Henry McMaster announced his signature on the bill. South Carolina’s latest law – which could extend the sweeping restrictions and outright bans on abortion care across the entire US South, and threaten legal access to care for millions of Americans – is nearly identical to a bill that was blocked by the state Supreme Court last year. The decision on Friday means the state’s abortion regulations revert to previous rules that allow for abortion care up until about 20 weeks after after fertilization. “The status quo should be maintained until the Supreme Court reviews its decision,” Judge Clifton Newman said. “It’s going to end up there.” His decision on 26 May comes just four months after the state’s Supreme Court permanently struck down a similar measure, which the court determined ran afoul of the state’s constitution. Restrictions on abortion care “must be reasonable and it must be meaningful in that the time frames imposed must afford a woman sufficient time to determine she is pregnant and to take reasonable steps to terminate that pregnancy,” Justice Kaye Hearn wrote in the majority opinion on 5 January. More than a dozen states, mostly in the South, have outlawed most abortions or severely restricted access within the year after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which revoked a constitutional right to abortion care that was affirmed by the decision in Roe v Wade for nearly half a century. South Carolina remains the only state south of Virginia without severe restrictions or outright bans on abortion care past the 12th week of pregnancy. Most of those states have moved to ban abortion in nearly all cases with limited or no exceptions. Last year, lawmakers in South Carolina failed to adopt an anti-abortion law that would ban nearly all abortions in the state, but a six-week ban took effect shortly after the Supreme Court’s ruling on 24 June. In a statement following the governor’s signature on the latest six-week ban, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre lambasted Republican lawmakers who are “dismantling women’s rights across the South, putting their health and lives in jeopardy. “ South Carolina’s ban will cut off access to abortion for women in the state and those across the entire region for whom South Carolina is their closest option for care,” she added. This is a developing story Read More North Carolina Republicans approve 12-week abortion ban as sweeping restrictions spread across US South Senator who voted for anti-trans bill that passed by one vote admits she wasn’t paying attention From the Civil War to today's mattress sales, Memorial Day is full of contradiction GOP leaders in Kansas back off threat to sue Democratic governor over education funding DeSantis pushes past embarrassing campaign start, outlines travel schedule for early state visits

The Israeli government has approved the construction of 5,700 new homes in the occupied West Bank.

A man in his 20s dies after a gun attack that is said to be gangland related.

The far-right and anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders is heading for a massive parliamentary election victory

Max Scherzer is set to pitch another Game 7 in Houston with visiting teams undefeated in the series

A new species of ancient whale might be the heaviest animal ever found

Salman Rushdie has written a memoir about the horrifying attempt on his life that left him blind in his right eye and with a damaged left hand

A Canadian bill that will require Google and Meta to pay media outlets for news content that they share or otherwise repurpose on their platforms is set to become law

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenksy will return to Capitol Hill Thursday for his second visit since his country was besieged by Russia. Only this time, the political landscape has shifted.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said Sunday that she does not believe voters will give GOP front-runner and former President Donald Trump a pass for skipping the Iowa State Fair events that candidates usually entertain.