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Control of the Senate and House of Representatives, both currently held by the Republicans, is at stake

National Transportation Safety Board says discovery of parts confirms plane was breaking apart before it crashedInvestigators looking into the fatal crash of a Learjet in Florida have said they found pieces of the horizontal tail section more than a mile from where the aircraft made impact, killing all nine aboard and leaving a fiery crater in the ground.National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member Tom Chapman said during a news conference on Tuesday that the discovery of tail parts broken into three pieces confirms the plane was breaking apart before it hit the ground. Continue reading...

Residents are sending a clear message about the violent deportations taking place across the US this midterm cycleMinnesota voters left I Voted" stickers on memorial sites for Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, the two US citizens killed by federal immigration officials earlier this year.Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse at the Veterans Affairs medical center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Good, a writer and mother of three, were killed during a large-scale immigration enforcement operation in the Minneapolis region in January. Continue reading...

It will take decades to rebuild trust in a country that removed a tyrant once - and then reinstated him four years laterWhen Joe Biden entered the White House in 2021 it was possible to believe that Donald Trump's reign had been an aberration. America is back. The transatlantic alliance is back," the new president declared to relieved European leaders shortly after winning the 2020 race. It was true, but not for long.Trump's defeat proved that US democracy was mechanically operational, not culturally robust. His supporters tried violent subversion to prevent the inauguration of a successor. A second term should have been unthinkable. Republicans who failed to denounce the 6 January insurrection should have been unelectable. Instead, within four years, US voters reinstated the champion of a failed coup against their cherished constitution as commander-in-chief.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Cleveland Meredith arrested after allegedly posting a call to execute all judges involved in 2021 US Capitol attack trialsA man pardoned by Donald Trump for participating in January 6 attack on the US Capitol and threatening to kill the then house speaker, Nancy Pelosi, is facing new charges for threatening to kill federal judges that presided over his and other cases arising from the violent anti-government clash.Cleveland Meredith, from North Carolina, was arrested on Monday over a Facebook post in April that allegedly read: ALL J6 Federal JUDGES will be EXECUTED!" Continue reading...

US president makes surprise election day announcement, saying country does not need' $4bn annual paymentDonald Trump has said that the US will end military aid to Israel at the end of this year in a surprise election day announcement that appeared to be targeted at voters sceptical of US support for Israel and the war in Gaza.In a phone interview with Fox News as voting began on Tuesday morning, the US president said the US would cut nearly $4bn (2.96bn) in military aid to Israel because they don't need it". Continue reading...

Person arrested after fire at police department where officer who shot and killed one-year-old Kohen Wiley had workedIn the early hours of 31 October, a fire broke out at the Senatobia police department in Mississippi, which has been embroiled in controversy recently after one of its officers shot and killed Kohen Wiley, a one-year-old. Though the cause of the fire has not been reported, it is being investigated as arson by agents with the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.In June, then Senatobia police sergeant Hunter Foster shot Kohen as he sat in his mother's arms in a Walmart parking lot. Foster, who is white, was responding to a report of an alleged shoplifting; Kohen, his mother and the driver of the vehicle, are Black. Continue reading...

Endorsing his opponent while the US risks plummeting into fascism, she reveals the one issue that triggers her to take destructive actionDid you talk to anyone? Did you have a long night of the soul? Were you up all night? ... Did you have a dream?"Interviewing the Michigan US representative Haley Stevens on CNN on Sunday, Anderson Cooper was casting about for explanations. What caused the Democrat's radical change of heart between a Saturday night promise to her House colleague Debbie Dingell that she would stand with the Democratic Senate candidate Abdul el-Sayed and a public endorsement Sunday morning of his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers? Continue reading...

These resource-guzzling centres drive up utility bills and are hated across the political spectrum. Cue a clunky, but potentially influential, new name for themJesus may have turned water into wine, but Donald Trump has done one better: he turned Lake Ontario into Lake America and the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America. And then, for his next trick, he insisted we all stop talking about artificial intelligence (AI) and call it superintelligence (SI) instead.Those, of course, are only a few of the name changes the president has ushered in. When he's not golfing or commenting on senators' buttocks, president Trump loves a rebranding project. Which makes sense: coming up with a new name is far easier than making meaningful improvements to people's lives. Continue reading...

The US has seen plenty of terrible speeches over the centuries. But Trump's midterm rallies are a new lowIn a sense, history has already been made. We do not know the result of the election yet, but over the last two months, Americans have endured the worst speeches ever given by a president of the United States.It is far from a simple matter to adjudicate - there have been so many bad speeches over the years, going back the founders, some of whom dreaded speaking in public. George Washington's inaugural address did not begin promisingly, with a halting first sentence: Among the vicissitudes incident to life, no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month." Continue reading...

Christians in the south of the state seek to vote their values - but a common faith does not mean a common politicsA few days before the Fourth of July, Ron Peterson, the 38-year-old pastor of Longview United Pentecostal church, stood beneath a large white tent in a parking lot in Longview, Washington.Surrounded by church members selling fireworks for a fundraiser, Peterson remembered watching area residents rally after an industrial accident at the local paper mill killed 11 people in May. We can all come together," he said. There's not going to be sections in heaven." Continue reading...

Federal court says group likely to win its free speech claim and tells officials to approve application within seven daysA federal judge ordered state officials in Iowa on Monday to permit a local Satanic Temple organization to hold a holiday event in the rotunda of the state capitol after years of denying the group's application.The religious organization and Iowa Republican state officials have been in a legal battle over the group's applications to hold a holiday event at the state capitol in recent years. Continue reading...

Americans are voting in midterm elections with control of the House and the Senate at stake for the remainder of Donald Trump's second term in office, while voters are also electing governors and other state and local officials Continue reading...

A decision could reshape the relationship between religious freedom and nondiscrimination laws in the USThe US supreme court will hear arguments on Tuesday over a challenge brought by two Catholic preschools in Colorado, arguing that they should be admitted to the state's free education system despite their rejection of children with LGBTQ+ parents.A decision in the case, St Mary Catholic Parish v Roy, could reshape the relationship between religious freedom and nondiscrimination laws in the US. Continue reading...

These graphics explain what the Democrats would need to do to flip the Senate and House of RepresentativesA turning point in Donald Trump's second term has arrived. Voters across the US are deciding whether to keep the president's Republican allies in control of Congress, or return Democrats to the majority.Many indicators of voter sentiment suggest the Democrats are favored to take back control of the House of Representatives, and potentially the Senate. Winning either would be a significant victory for the party and give it the power to block Trump's legislative agenda and more aggressively investigate his administration. Continue reading...

From Hamilton to the Epstein class', we have long been fascinated by a charismatic yet shadowy set of power brokers. American aristocracy is alive and wellAmericans remain awed by the extravagance of the super-rich, oddly enticed and generally accepting of the fact that the monied elite have privileges that they use to their own advantage.After the Hollywood celebrity and the professional athlete, the figure who invites the most curiosity is what is colloquially termed powerbroker". We're talking about the dealmaker, the inside player - or in the words of Sade's song, a smooth operator". Continue reading...

Compared to infants in the state's low-pollution areas, the odds were 4.3 times higher for babies from toxic hotspotsA study looking at babies hospitalized in New Orleans found that babies born to mothers from neighborhoods in south-east Louisiana with high levels of industrial pollution were four times more likely to suffer from severe congenital heart defects.Published last week, the study in the Environmental Health journal looked at medical records for 454 infants hospitalized at the two major Louisiana hospitals that can provide surgery for heart defects in babies. Researchers traced back where the mothers of these infants lived, examining the levels of industrial toxic pollution in their communities using the US Environmental Protection Agency's risk-screening database. Compared to infants from low-pollution areas in the region, the odds of congenital heart defects were 4.3 times higher for infants from toxic hotspots, and 3.1 times higher for infants from places with intermediate levels of pollution. Continue reading...

Stopgap measure does not solve fundamental problem that millions can't afford the healthcare they need, experts saySome of the millions of Americans who collectively owe billions of dollars for medical expenses have seen their debt forgiven in recent years, and there has been a dramatic uptick in aid this year.But the relief still only covers a small fraction of the outstanding balance and is just a stopgap measure that does not solve the fundamental problem: people in the US get into serious financial trouble because they can't afford the healthcare they need, experts say. Continue reading...

One motion considers reining in political spending while another proposes to municipalize the grid in sign of anger with datacenters and high billsTwo citizen-led ballot initiatives seek to rein in Michigan's powerful electric utilities as residents say politicians have failed to address pressing issues around controversial datacenters, high energy rates and poor electric reliability.On Tuesday, voters statewide will consider a nation-leading ban on political donations by the state's deeply unpopular regulated utilities. At the same time, organizers in Ann Arbor, one the state's largest cities, are proposing to banish utility giant DTE Energy by municipalizing the grid. It would establish a public power company to deliver energy. Continue reading...

Democrats are hoping to seize control in the Capitol and rein in the president's power. Plus, a peacock that loves admiring itself in the mirror a little too much

It is polling day in the US, so Jonathan Freedland is chatting to the humour writer Alexandra Petri of the Atlantic to run through this election cycle's most effective ad campaigns, surprising alliances and embarrassing gaffes Continue reading...

Affordability and small businesses' economic woes feature heavily in the House race for Wisconsin's third districtAfter 18 years in business, Erin Klaus is closing her storefront, a handmade artisan market in downtown Eau Claire, Wisconsin, at the end of the year.She opened Tangled Up in Hue amid a recession, during a time when downtown was kind of a ghost town", weathering construction and the pandemic. But the current economic crisis proved too much. She's seen a downward trend in sales for two years, and was dipping into her own pocket from her other job, as the executive director of business non-profit Downtown Eau Claire Inc, to pay staff. Continue reading...

The president has spewed vulgar and hateful rhetoric even as he reveals his disdain for his followersFar from veering off his track, Trump in his ceaselessly vile midterm campaign statements has attained an optimal level of Trumpism. He has distilled the raw elements of misogyny, racism and nativism to the purified essence of his political philosophy.The Republican candidates and his vice-president have followed him down the trail of defining deviancy down", as explained by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, in his essay in The American Scholar in 1993, about lowering the bar to make abnormal criminal behavior seem normal, coping through denial of its obvious presence, and through that process trivializing the manifest decline of American civic life". Continue reading...

Reports have suggested a vulnerable president could start a new bombing campaign. But that wouldn't bring a deal any closerWill Donald Trump decide to resume a large-scale war against Iran after the US midterm elections?That question has loomed over the campaign for weeks, as officials leaked plans for a new round of joint US-Israeli military strikes that would target Iran's underground nuclear facilities, missile arsenals and civilian infrastructure. Continue reading...

The 2026 US midterm elections feature firebrand progressives trying to stake out new territory, moderate Republicans struggling in the shadow of Donald Trump, and a host of scandals that have made races closer than they should be.These candidates could shape not only power in Washington, but public and political understanding of what works - and wins votes - in different places across the country. Can a Democrat win in red Kansas? Could Texas finally flip away from Republicans? Will abuse allegations or absenteeism tank incumbents? How important is capturing online attention?And how can Republicans run away from Trump, their party's leader, and modern architect, as his popularity wanes?The lessons learned - and the candidates who teach them - will play into the 2028 presidential election and alter the makeup of Congress at a critical time for both parties Continue reading...

Here's an hour-by-hour rundown of when polls close around the US, and some of the key races taking placeIn the 2026 US midterm cycle, there are 35 Senate seats up for election, 36 governors' races and all 435 seats in the House of Representatives up for grabs. There are also several ballot measures across the country on issues ranging from election administration to abortion access.Democrats are looking to reclaim control of both chambers of Congress. They'll need to gain four seats in the Senate to secure a 51-seat majority, and win at least 218 seats to take back the House. Continue reading...

Around the world, virtues such as compassion and kindness are gathering dust, like old hymn books in a long-deserted churchTowards the end of the summer, the Tory-Reform defector Robert Jenrick authored an op-ed piece for the Daily Telegraph about the seemingly impossible economics of rising benefits bills because of mental ill-health. In his capacity as Reform's Treasury spokesman, his task was to big up its plans to cut 25% of so-called welfare spending by 2030, and thereby tackle what he called the state's suicidal empathy".Straight away, I wondered where this most opportunistic politician had borrowed that phrase from, and instantly found out: a book with the same title, published this year by the Canadian academic Gad Saad, whom the dust jacket describes as having particular expertise in the use of evolutionary psychology in marketing and consumer behaviour". It comes with an endorsement from Elon Musk. Western civilisation is doomed unless the core weakness of suicidal empathy is recognised and actions are taken that are hard but necessary for survival," says the world's richest man. All of Gad's books, including this one, are great." Continue reading...

As results roll in Wednesday Australian time, keen election-watchers can tune in to see whether red seats flip blue - or if we're in for a long week of vote counting

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Footage from prosecutors shows aftermath of shooting of Tyrin Johnson, 20, shot and killed by national guard in JulyTennessee national guard troops in Memphis last summer trained their handguns on a man as he lay dying on a sidewalk after a guard member shot him in the back, video released Monday by county prosecutors shows.A Memphis police officer can be heard in the footage from an officer's body camera calling for an ambulance and then asking the troops: Hey, you guys got a medical kit or anything?" Continue reading...

Justice department had ordered state to segregate and not count 20,000 ballots from people it claims are non-citizens

The Texan could pull off a historic victory in the Lone Star state, which hasn't elected a Democratic senator since 1988When a young, untested former school teacher stood up to address a modest gathering of local donors in Austin, the state capital of Texas, Wendy Davis felt sorry for him. Poor kid," she remembers thinking.Then James Talarico began speaking. He was like five or six sentences in and I knew that something was different about him," recalls Davis, a former Democratic state senator. He was as articulate and unique then as he is now. From that day, I started calling him Baby Obama'." Continue reading...

Stevens's decision sparked fierce backlash from members of the party, while Donald Trump praised the sudden switchDemocrat Haley Stevens's shocking last-minute endorsement of Mike Rogers, the Michigan Republican Senate candidate, in the run-up to Tuesday's midterm elections has sparked fierce backlash from members of her party.Stevens, who narrowly lost in the Democratic primary for Senate to Abdul El-Sayed, announced her support for Rogers after a feud with the El-Sayed campaign over an outside group's advertisement, which blamed the high cost of living on US support for Israel. Continue reading...

Latest arrests come after DoJ unsuccessfully fought to force state election officials to set aside about 20,000 ballots

Individual, who also had underlying conditions, was hospitalized after being exposed to avian influenzaA Washington state resident has died after being hospitalized with severe illness" after contracting bird flu, local health officials said on Sunday.The individual was exposed to avian influenza, also known as bird flu, at a dairy with infected cattle in Yakima county, according to a news release. The person was subsequently hospitalized with severe illness and died on Sunday. Health officials said that the individual, whose identity had not been released, had underlying health conditions. Continue reading...

Family of four, two close friends and nanny also died in crash as pilot identified as 55-year-old Jeff GregoryFamily members on Monday identified a young Florida pilot as one of nine victims of a plane crash in Palm Beach county that occurred during a heavy thunderstorm.Nathalia Filgueiras, 20, was co-pilot of the private Learjet 60 en route from Austin-Bergstrom international airport in Texas to North Eleuthera airport in the Bahamas on Sunday when it suddenly plummeted out of the sky, killing all onboard, her mother told the New York Times. Continue reading...

Lawyers for Massachusetts mother who killed children argue new trial would violate double jeopardy rulesLindsay Clancy returned to court on Monday in an attempt to dismiss the charges that she murdered her three young children.The hearing Monday was the second time the Massachusetts mother has been in court since her trial ended with a deadlocked jury in September after jurors were unable to agree on a verdict. Continue reading...

Democrat Mary Peltola's campaign reportedly recruited a second Dan Sullivan in the race in what Republicans call a ploy to split votesRepublican officials have called for an investigation into an alleged ballot-stacking scheme in Alaska's competitive Senate race by Democrat Mary Peltola's campaign.For months, Donald Trump and others accused Peltola and Democrats of recruiting candidates with the same name as her Republican opponent, Dan Sullivan, to purposefully confuse voters when they cast their ballots in November's midterms. Continue reading...

Douglas DePodesta says he was made scapegoat' after collapse of case against Broadview Six anti-ICE protestersThe former head of the FBI in Chicago has accused the Trump administration of pressuring him to investigate the president's political opponents and making him a scapegoat" after a major federal case against anti-ICE protesters fell apart.Douglas DePodesta, who served as FBI special agent in charge from 2024 until July 2026, alleged in a federal lawsuit filed on Monday that the Department of Justice (DoJ) had engaged in misconduct" and malfeasance" in its pursuit of unjust prosecutions - and that he was wrongly blamed for the DoJ's missteps and unlawfully forced out of his job. Continue reading...

Democratic congresswoman Haley Stevens has endorsed the Republican candidate for the Senate after a spat with her party's own candidate in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed. The endorsement stunned Stevens' Democrat colleagues, with one calling it a despicable betrayal' on the eve of the midterm elections. So what will it mean for the race? Lucy Hough speaks to US southern bureau chief and host of Anywhere but Washington Oliver Laughland Continue reading...

US voters will decide whether Republicans will retain control of Congress or whether Democrats will rise up to stymie Trump's agendaDonald Trump will still be US president on the morning of 4 November. But he could be facing a very different political landscape, depending on the results of the US midterm elections held the previous day.As the name implies, midterm elections fall nearly halfway through a president's term. They are often a telling referendum on the sitting president's performance, something Trump is actively encouraging by telling voters pretend I'm on the ballot". In this case, voters will decide whether Trump's Republican party can retain its grip on Congress.All 435 seats in the House of Representatives. Republicans are defending a narrow majority, with Democrats needing a net gain of four seats to take control.35 seats in the Senate. Thirty-three seats are up in regular elections, along with two special elections in Florida and Ohio to fill the remainder of terms that were vacated early. Republicans currently hold 53 seats, against 47 held by Democrats and independents who caucus with them. Democrats need to gain four seats to secure a majority.39 governorships. Voters will choose governors in 36 states and three US territories.Thousands of state legislative seats, as well as local offices, judicial contests and ballot measures on issues including taxes, abortion rights and voting rules. Continue reading...

The two FBI agents were charged with making false statements to Congress while testifying about the bureau's role in investigating Biden's laptopA federal judge dismissed criminal charges against two former FBI officials who were accused of lying about their involvement in the investigation into Hunter Biden, the son of former president Joe Biden, on Monday.Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said prosecutors failed to show probable cause that the two former officials, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, had knowingly made false statements. Continue reading...

Lawyers file opposition to Trump's request, telling supreme court justices they do not need to bail out this president'E Jean Carroll's lawyers are fighting Donald Trump's efforts to toss her $83m damages verdict in the US supreme court, telling the justices that they do not need to bail out this president from the consequences of his repeated litigation choices".Jurors delivered Carroll the huge award on 26 January 2024, less than one year after the journalist and author won $5m in her sexual abuse and defamation case against Trump. The president has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing in relation to Carroll. Continue reading...

Former US representative, health secretary and state attorney general is a shoo-in after a stunning comeback victory in primaryIt was Tuesday, and the man poised to be the next governor of California wanted to talk about Donald Trump.Xavier Becerra had come to Guelaguetza restaurant in Los Angeles to talk about Trump's attacks on voting in the state, but instead found himself answering questions about a presidential provocation of a different order. Continue reading...

Sunday's win at Liverpool showed the Gunners are deeper, more experienced, and are playing against a weaker class of contenders than last season