US news | The Guardian

Trump again congratulated Ohio senator's rear end before his cheeky comment about rapper being hard to miss'Donald Trump reiterated his apparent love for buxom bums during a rally in Michigan on Sunday where he encouraged the crowd to compliment rapper Nicki Minaj's behind.Trump's cheeky comments about Minaj's derriere came as he explained his recent observation on the Republican Ohio senator Jon Husted's rear end. Earlier in October, Trump said of the former college football player: I don't do this with men very often. I started examining his body, because I didn't know he was a great athlete. And I looked and I watched up and down. I looked at his ass and I looked at the whole - and then I looked at his hands. Look at his hands. He's got these, like, claws. Continue reading...

Peltola and her family sustained minor injuries after a driver struck the car transporting group to campaign stopMary Peltola, a Democrat who is running for Alaska's lone US Senate seat, and her family suffered minor injuries in a car crash while driving to a campaign stop on Saturday, her campaign said.The family was on its way to the Alaska Federation of Natives annual banquet when another vehicle crashed into the one transporting Peltola and her family, her campaign said in a statement on Sunday. Peltola required medical attention after the collision. Continue reading...

How will the Kansas City and Seattle fare today? Here is what to know, including kick-off time, TV channels and live stream optionsSunday Night Football this week is a blockbuster. The Chiefs take their undefeated record to Seattle, where the defending-champ Seahawks should have an early sense of urgency. Mike Macdonald's team enter at 3-3, already a full three games (plus, for now, a tiebreaker) behind the gangbusters 49ers. To have any real shot at a home playoff game - a critical edge in last year's Super Bowl run - the Seahawks need to get a win against a resurgent Chiefs squad who nothing like the husk they appeared to be down the stretch last season.In addition to a clash between two marquee franchises, the evening is a homecoming for one of the most important players of the young season: Kenneth Walker III. The Seahawks-turned-Chiefs running back has been key to KC's offensive revitalization after signing as a free agent following his Super Bowl MVP nod with Seattle. The Chiefs were in the bottom half of the league in rushing yards per carry last year but this season hold a whopping lead over the second-place team, averaging 5.5 yards to the Bills' 5.1. The 26-year-old Walker is having a career year and has worked his way from good player" to maybe the Offensive Player of the Year." Continue reading...

Man accused of shooting teen who was driving to a party is also linked to shooting of a vehicle days earlier, police sayA man accused in the shooting death of a Missouri teen has been charged in a second shooting incident - both of which involve firing into cars on the highway.Alyssa Wilson, 17, was shot and killed as she drove down Interstate 170 in Overland, Missouri, on 14 October. The teen was on her way to a Halloween party at St Louis Zoo, called Boo at the Zoo, when a suspect fired a single shot into the back of Wilson's Buick Encore. Continue reading...

More inclement weather forecast in rain-soaked Four Corners region after evacuations and rescues last weekAnother round of heavy showers and thunderstorms were expected to hit the south-west US on Sunday after the region endured days of rain that forced evacuations, water rescues and multi-million-dollar damage.The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for much of the Four Corners - the meeting point of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah - even as local officials forecast further receding of swollen rivers that surged since rains picked up on Wednesday. Continue reading...

US attorney general calls CNN crazy' for suggesting Trump's attempt to overturn election could lead to January 6 repeat

Police say altercation at a homecoming party escalated into gunfire and they are working to identify those responsible'A shooting near a Florida university campus in Tallahassee has left 11 people with gunshot wounds and another person injured, authorities say.The shooting took place near the Florida Agricultural + Mechanical University's campus on Perry Street on Saturday night, the university said, while police counted six adults and six juveniles among the injured. Continue reading...

Democratic and independent candidates stump the US midwest and prairie states, hoping to win over Republican strongholdsIn this final stretch of the US midterm elections, Democrats and independents could win back communities and towns across America's rural heartlands through a combination of resurgent prairie populism", local despair over the impact of Donald Trump's agenda and an old-fashioned tenet of shoe-leather politics: showing up everywhere.When Dan Osborn rolled into one of the most rural counties in Nebraska earlier this month, he started walking into businesses in the tiny main drag of Arthur, ready to meet whomever he could in the town of about 100. Continue reading...

How a rebuilt, historic California baseball diamond embodies the contradictions in America's legacy'When Dan Kwong first dreamed of staging baseball games at the Japanese American concentration camp where his family was held captive during the second world war, he thought of it as an exercise in living history, an eye-catching way to convey the trauma of 120,000 men, women and children who were locked up in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.Baseball was a passion for Kwong, a 71-year-old performance artist from Los Angeles. He knew that the wartime internees had played the game not just as a distraction from their predicament, but as a quiet expression of their loyalty to the United States. He wanted to stage an event that would cast the game as an act of resistance, and teach new generations about the damage governments do when they strip a whole segment of the population of their constitutional rights. Continue reading...

VW investment, creating 4,500 jobs in Georgia, comes amid Trump's damaging tariffs, intense Chinese competition and costly shift towards EVsAudi has said it will spend $4bn (3bn) to build its first factory in the US, as its parent company, Volkswagen, struggles with the impact of steep tariffs imposed by Donald Trump.The German brand's chief executive, Gernot Dollner, joined Trump on stage at a campaign rally on Saturday night to announce the factory in Macon, Georgia, in an unusual move by a big European brand just days before the US midterm elections. Continue reading...

Shasta has embraced the Maga movement with gusto - can Democrats ever win back the rural, working-class voters they once relied upon?A crucial election was approaching and the country was desperate. Despite promises that economic conditions were improving, nearly a quarter of the US was out of work as voters headed to the polls in 1932.It was the darkest time since the civil war, a period so dire that in California's capital people fought each other for work. In early 1931, a crowd of 200 men scuffled over a handful of temporary jobs moving back-breaking loads of granite, the Sacramento Bee reported. Continue reading...

To understand where Trump is trying to take the US, we should look to the authoritarian playbook of his favorite ally: El Salvador's Nayib BukeleOne afternoon last year, Donald Trump welcomed a friend" to the White House - El Salvador's Nayib Bukele, the world's most popular authoritarian. I knew him as a very young man," the US president said before the cameras. He's done a fantastic job. Mr President, it's an honor to have you."Since March 2022, when gangs in El Salvador murdered 87 people over a weekend, Bukele has maintained a state of emergency in which key civil liberties are suspended and 2% of the adult population has been jailed - about 100,000 people, at least half of whom are probably not gang members, say local rights groups. The narrative of the Bukele miracle" - that he swiftly dismantled fearsome gangs and restored order - has made him an icon across Latin America, where a new host of rightwing leaders have sought to replicate his heavy-handed tactics. And in the US, Bukele's overnight success as a strongman has made him a hero of the American right. Continue reading...

The Dream and Valkyries are tied at 2-2 after four absorbing games. Many in America would rather we revisited the national anthem debateWhen Tyler Perry leading lady Crystal Renee took center stage at State Farm Arena to sing the national anthem before the Atlanta Dream's WNBA finals clash with the Golden State Valkyries on Saturday afternoon, a smattering of photographers, game officials and event security took their familiar places around her as the capacity crowd stood for the flag. The teams, as is now customary, spent that time in their locker rooms. As soon as the lights went back up, the teams returned to the floor to resume their shootarounds. Anyone genuinely invested in the finals would have been unfazed by them briefly stepping away - if they remembered it at all after the Valkyries' 67-62 win tied the series at two games apiece. But for many watching the game, basketball is beside the point.Seven years ago, Jay-Z declared that the culture had moved past kneeling" and similar national anthem protests, seemingly sounding the death knell for an era of sports activism that had helped raise awareness of racial disparities as a broader social movement gathered force. The line cemented his partnership with the NFL as the league bowed to political pressure to crack down on anthem protests, with other major US sports eventually following the NFL's lead. But rightwing media and politicians never got the memo. They're still making sports a battleground for patriotism, with basketball as the war's chief casualty. Continue reading...

This gives the company an advantage in tracking objects in orbit, raising national security concerns and fears of greater control over the space industryThe US military has given Elon Musk's SpaceX access to restricted space tracking data, raising a new round of questions about whether the Trump administration is attempting to hand over traffic control in Earth's orbit to a controversial donor.The access also raises new national security questions, industry observers say. Continue reading...

State veterinarian attempted to get help from federal government but was told USDA didn't regulate mink farmsAn outbreak of bird flu at a mink farm in Utah - and the response from its owner and regulators - have sparked concerns from infectious disease experts about the Trump administration's ability to manage such viruses.While the mink becoming sick is unlikely to produce a tidal wave of human infections", an apparent lack of transparency from government officials about the infections is very troubling, said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiology professor and director of the pandemic center at Brown University School of Public Health. Continue reading...

James Blair's data-driven approach delivered victory in 2024 but president's unpopularity and idiosyncratic style do not bode well this timeThey are both young, bald and fathers of four. They are also the brains behind Donald Trump. But while Stephen Miller is infamous as the US president's ideological enforcer, James Blair could, in the words of Time magazine, be the most important person in Donald Trump's Washington you've never heard of".That imbalance is deceptive, however. Blair has sufficiently impressed Trump to earn the nickname Brilliant James". And a well-positioned source told the Guardian: I would say that James is probably twice, five times, 10 times more effective than Stephen Miller." Continue reading...

I can't say I'm enjoying my new gig as a would-be creator. But these days, I don't have much choiceI recently started posting videos on Instagram. Like, actual videos.Reels, as they call them. Where I say things, with one of those obnoxiously tiny microphones with the fuzzy head on top. I remember when microphones were gigantic tubular monstrosities that you couldn't accidentally swallow without a pretty substantial effort and a handful of God-given talent.Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist Continue reading...

James Fergie' Chambers, in prison in Spain, has applied for asylum as US seeks extradition over alleged Hamas supportUS authorities seized wealthy activist James Fergie" Chambers's cellphone at some point after Spanish police arrested him in July without notifying him or his attorneys, the Guardian has learned.Chambers, a US citizen and wealthy donor to leftwing and humanitarian projects, is imprisoned in Madrid. His case is the first known instance of the US seeking to extradite a citizen over alleged support for Hamas, an accusation tied to money Chambers has donated to support Palestinians, including the Sameer Project, in Gaza. Continue reading...

State attorney general said Trump's justice department's directive to verify 20,000 ballots is completely improperCalifornia's attorney general on Saturday rebuked the Trump administration's efforts to quash alleged noncitizen voting, calling it politicizing and weaponizing the law".Rob Bonta, the state's attorney general, said the justice department acted at Donald Trump's direction. Continue reading...

Former president speaks to crowd of thousands in support of Abdul El-Sayed for US Senate and Democratic ticketBarack Obama told a Detroit crowd on Saturday that Abdul El-Sayed was fighting for change, real change, that will get money out of politics and put money in your pocket", as he threw his weight behind the Democratic Senate candidate and the rest of the ticket on the first day of early voting in Michigan.Obama said in front of thousands of onlookers at Cass technical high school in Detroit that El-Sayed would finish the job we started with the Affordable Care Act and guarantee quality, affordable healthcare to every single American". Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. For more on the rally, read our full report:

Death inside Folkston facility comes as officials allegedly threaten hunger strikers there with force-feedingAn immigrant detained at a sprawling detention center complex in Georgia died on Friday, local and federal officials confirmed, after the facility has already faced national scrutiny for its response to an ongoing hunger strike inside.The death inside the D Ray James facility in Folkston, Georgia, comes as federal immigration officials and private contractors are allegedly threatening hunger strikers there with force-feeding, a detained hunger striker, his wife, attorneys and advocates all said this week. Detainees are refusing food to protest prolonged captivity and bad conditions. Continue reading...

But Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX owns Starlink, accuses Ukrainian military of violating the company's termsUkraine's military has a stable connection to Starlink", the Ukrainian government said, 10 days after its ability to use the satellite communications system was suddenly restricted.But hours after the announcement, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, whose company owns Starlink, accused the Ukrainian military of violating the company's terms. Neither Musk nor the US government, which operates Starshield using Starlink technology, took responsibility for imposing the curbs. Continue reading...

Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem fell from ride earlier this month, spurring amusement park to temporarily shut it downSix Flags will install seatbelts on its Goliath rollercoaster in Georgia, after a rider plummeted to his death earlier this month.Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem, a 42-year-old father and educator, was thrown from his seat on the Goliath, a coaster that plunges riders down 165ft, before a second drop of 180ft. On his way down, he collided with the ride's other cars. Continue reading...

Baseball's two best regular-season teams are also among its lowest spenders. But their unlikely World Series comes with a warning about the sport's futureThe best pitcher in baseball led the best team to victory over the second-best team? Weird.A World Series that makes the logical feel novel began on Friday as the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 in Game 1. Of course the Brewers, with their MLB-topping 103 regular-season victories, should be facing the 98-win Rays on the grandest stage. But of course, since these are two of the smallest and lowest-budget franchises in the sport, they shouldn't. Continue reading...

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 4,588 cases across the country, more than double the tally in 2025Federal health authorities reported an additional 178 cases of measles in the US this week, as the vaccine-preventable illness continues to sicken people across at least 43 outbreaks.The new data reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) comes as experts criticize the agency for lack of transparency, and as health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr takes steps to further upend US vaccine infrastructure. Continue reading...

Other voter concerns have prevailed but return of Congress likely to see renewed focus on late sex offender's activitiesAs US voters head to the polls for crucial and fraught midterm elections, some survivors' advocates in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation have expressed concern that the scandal could recede into the background.Political experts believe, however, the Epstein issue is not going away permanently and that many voters can balance day-to-day concerns such as affordability and AI with the scandal involving the late financier and accused sex trafficker whose social circle was widespread among America's elite. Continue reading...

The basketball star seems proud to leave the job to his partner. That's so last centuryNobody can accuse the basketball star LaMelo Ball of being bad at his job. That said, the Minnesota Timberwolves point guard doesn't seem to be a huge fan of dribbling.Ball has a nine-month-old son, LaOne, with his partner Ana Montana (real name: Analicia Chaves) and is apparently uninterested in dealing with all the body fluids that come with a baby.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Nazhat Shameem Khan claims some staff are facing banking difficulties' but their work is unaffectedThe deputy prosecutor of the international criminal court has said new US sanctions are beginning to take effect on its staff but insisted they have not hindered the court's work.The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, announced the sanctions this month, accusing the ICC - a frequent target of the Trump administration - of being a rogue court" and declaring: Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC." Continue reading...

Critics decry Trump administration rule that lets hunters lure bears with human foods on federal lands in AlaskaA new Trump administration rule allows hunters to bait bears on federal lands in Alaska with bacon, doughnuts, meat scraps or other human foods typically used to help kill the trophy animals at close range.Opponents say the practice will cause bears to be more aggressive around humans, and allege that the rule change is a political gift to largely rightwing trophy hunters. The rule replaces a 2024 Biden administration rule that banned the practice, and environmental groups criticized the move as indefensible and inexcusable". Continue reading...

New details of IV team's attempts to find a vein shared by Pike's lawyer shocked and disturbed' practitionersMedical experts have expressed shock at the apparent incompetence shown by Tennessee's execution team during the failed lethal injection of Christa Pike, the prisoner who survived a normally fatal dose of pentobarbital, which they say would be considered medical malpractice in any other setting.New details emerged on Thursday of how Tennessee's intravenous (IV) team struggled for almost an hour to set up a line into Pike's arms through which she would be administered the fatal dose of sedative. A blow-by-blow account was released in legal proceedings from Pike's lawyer, Randy Spivey, who was present inside the death chamber at her 30 September failed execution. Continue reading...

Ultra-endurance swimmer Catherine Breed navigated waves, wildlife and pollution to become the first person to swim from state's northern-most tip to Mexico borderNearly four months ago, Catherine Breed, a 33-year-old from the San Francisco Bay Area, set out to become the first person to swim the entire coastline of California - from its northern-most tip to the border with Mexico. She and her support team prepared for encounters with sharks and storms. They hadn't anticipated completing the marathon swim during a year of historic super El Nino weather.But after dodging hurricanes, wildlife and 8ft waves in an unusually volatile Pacific Ocean, Breed finally celebrated the end of her journey on a beach in San Diego on Monday. Continue reading...

Even with a multimillion-dollar war chest, the US representative faces a stiff fight for his seat from Democrat Rebecca BennettThe stars above New Jersey seemed aligned for Tom Kean Jr.The Republican congressman had a war chest of more than $2.4m in February, an endorsement from Donald Trump and a district whose lines were redrawn in 2022 to benefit his party. He was an established political figure with widespread name recognition, thanks to his father's stint as a well-regarded governor of New Jersey. Continue reading...

Ebro Ahmed, who acted after driver's medical emergency, said he hopes incident will show Eritreans in a good way'A man who hopped on to a school bus full of terrified children that was careering down a Minnesota street after its driver had a medical emergency and manually halted it says he was motivated to act by a Qu'ran verse about how saving one life is equivalent to saving all of humanity.I'm a numbers guy, and those numbers make sense to me," Ebro Ahmed, 27, said on Friday during an interview about his actions four days earlier in front of his family's convenience store in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I didn't do it for me. It was selflessness in the name of God." Continue reading...

Vice-president's visibility has risen as Trump's popularity wanes, but path to inherit Maga throne is more complicated than it may seemA day after JD Vance suggested Donald Trump would endorse him if he runs for president, the vice-president shifted awkwardly in the Oval Office as his boss was asked about the remark.He's a very talented person, and he's a very good person," Trump said of the man standing behind him, with a forced smile this week. But we've literally - I don't think we've ever talked about," the president claimed, leaving the assertion unconfirmed. Continue reading...

Former USA team doctor Larry Nassar's 2018 conviction sparked a global reckoning in gymnastics, yet gymnasts say they are still being let downIt has been 10 years since the Indianapolis Star published allegations of sexual abuse by Larry Nassar, the former team doctor for USA Gymnastics, setting off a chain of events that would lead to a reckoning for the sport. Hundreds of women came forward with their own allegations against Nassar, who also worked at Michigan State University, leading to his conviction and jailing.The exposure of his crimes sparked a wider investigation into how gymnastics had allowed predators to abuse young athletes around the world. While Nassar was the worst recorded case, it emerged many other countries had questions to answer about the failure to protect victims from not only sexual but physical and emotional abuse. But a decade later, on a large houseboat moored in Rotterdam three tram stops away from the Ahoy Arena, where the World Gymnastics Championships are taking place this week, survivors and advocates raised fears about the slow pace of change. Continue reading...

We've heard much about the end of the west. At the proposed summit between Trump, Putin and Xi, those fears could crystalliseIn the final two years of a US presidency, when Congress has been lost, approval ratings have sunk like a stone and their party has started to think about who's coming next, the person occupying the Oval Office can feel their power draining away. Domestic legislation, particularly in an era where bipartisan cooperation is almost nonexistent, grinds to a halt. But as the days tick by until the end, and as presidents begin to think about their legacy, there is one part of the job where they still have power: the rest of the world.In the final weeks of his presidency in 1992 George HW Bush sent 28,000 American troops to Somalia to help end a famine. For Bill Clinton, it was a quixotic attempt to bring peace to the Middle East by ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Barack Obama restored diplomatic ties with Cuba, making a historic visit to Havana, as well as a final, successful push on the Iran nuclear deal. Continue reading...

The Senate candidate denounced opponent Ken Paxton, calling out corruption allegations and support from MuskJames Talarico, the Democratic candidate for the US Senate in Texas, has taken aim at Elon Musk, warning that the tech mogul is trying to buy political influence and declaring: Texas is not for sale."Talarico held a campaign rally on Friday at the University of Texas at Austin, packing an auditorium at his alma mater with hundreds of students and other supporters, who cheered, whooped and waved campaign signs. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed.

Letters from federal prosecutors represent latest escalation as Trump continues to make claims of voter fraudFederal prosecutors sent letters to county registrars across California on Friday demanding that local officials set aside and verify ballots that the Department of Justice said may belong to noncitizens, according to the Los Angeles county registrar and a letter obtained by the Associated Press.The letters are the latest escalation in a legal battle between California and Donald Trump's Department of Justice, which has recently focused on the state in its efforts to root out noncitizen voting ahead of the midterm elections. Continue reading...

Defense secretary Pete Hegseth alleges Confucius Institutes operating in disguise on US university campusesThe US defense department has designated Chinese-funded cultural centers on university campuses known as Confucius Institutes as a threat to US national security, defense secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday.Washington has long accused Confucius Institutes of being Chinese propaganda tools and has taken steps to crack down on them. Continue reading...