Police officers gave them flowers, fathers gave their blessing and locals marked the moment with humour as Saudi women took to the streets in their cars after the ban on driving was lifted.

As the clock ticked past midnight on Saturday, a group of women who had been granted licences started their engines, some with fathers or brothers alongside, and others in new cars bought for the occasion. Several women shouted with delight. Others cried, and many more took videos of their first forays at the wheel.

The celebratory mood was mostly confined to pockets of Riyadh and Saudi Arabia’s second city, Jeddah, where the few women who have so far been granted licences were being feted as celebrities. Among them was Fadya Basma, a driver for a ride-sharing company, who is one of the first in Saudi Arabia to legally shepherd men around. “It’s a wonderful day,” she said. “And it will change things. Saudi will never be the same again.” Samar Almogren, a talkshow host and writer, said: “I always knew this day would come. But it came fast. Sudden. I feel free like a bird.”(theguardian)…[+]

The Trump administration says it knows the location of all children in its custody after it separated them from their families at the southern border and is working to reunite them. On Wednesday, in the face of fierce international opprobrium, Donald Trump ordered an end to the practice of separating parents and children held after entering the US without documentation.

According to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) fact sheet, 2,053 minors who were separated at the border are being cared for in facilities run by the Department of Heath and Human Services (HHS). On Saturday, groups of Democratic lawmakers toured detention facilities in Texas and elsewhere. Some said there was no clear plan for the reunification process.

The fact sheet on “zero-tolerance prosecution and family reunification” was released that evening. It said any parent must request that their child be deported with them. In the past, DHS said, many parents have elected to be deported without their children. That may be a reflection of violence or persecution they face in their home countries.(theguardian)…[+]

A tweet by White House press secretary Sarah Sanders about her ejection from a Virginia restaurant broke federal ethics rules, a leading expert said. On Saturday, using her official White House account, Sanders posted: “Last night I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington [Virginia] to leave because I work for POTUS and I politely left. Her actions say far more about her than about me.

“I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so.” Walter Shaub, federal ethics chief under Barack Obama and briefly Trump and now a fierce critic of the administration, responded: “Sanders used her official govt account to condemn a private business for personal reasons … she can lob attacks on her own time but not using her official position.”

The controversy came at the end of a week of fierce debate over a Trump policy which mandated the separation of children from their parents when such families entered the US illegally. Between April and early June, according to federal statistics, more than 2,300 children were taken. On Wednesday, amidst international condemnation and with even Republican supporters in Congress beginning to waver, Donald Trump signed an executive order nominally – but not conclusively – stopping the practice.(theguardian)…[+]