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Stephen Bryant, 44, convicted over 2004 murder, was shot dead despite growing backlash against barbaric' methodSouth Carolina executed a man by firing squad on Friday, marking the third time the state has used gunfire to kill a person on death row despite growing backlash against the method.Stephen Bryant, 44, had been sentenced to death for the October 2004 killing of Willard TJ" Tietjen and pleaded guilty to two other murders. Bryant's lawyers had argued in final appeals that the sentencing judge had been unable to consider his brain damage from his mother's alcohol and drug use during pregnancy, but South Carolina's supreme court declined to halt the execution on Monday. Continue reading...

Reaction follows Wall Street's worst day in a month and unprecedented slump in investment in China

Move diverges from July memo negating need for further inquiries, and comes amid intense Trump campaign to block filesPam Bondi announced on Friday afternoon that she had assigned Jay Clayton, the interim US attorney for the southern district of New York, to lead the investigation into Donald Trump's political adversaries and their ties to Jeffrey Epstein, hours after the president directed her to do so.Jay Clayton is one of the most capable and trusted prosecutors in the country, and I've asked him to take the lead," the US attorney general said of the lawyer, who also served as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) during Trump's first administration. As with all matters, the department will pursue this with urgency and integrity to deliver answers to the American people." Continue reading...

We want to hear from people in the US about how Donald Trump's economic policies may be affecting their plans for holiday shoppingWe'd like to find out more about your holiday spending plans this year. The New York Times reported on Friday that the Trump administration is pivoting to an affordability message and considering lowering some tariffs rates.The administration has floated policies that would lower prices for coffee and fruit, spoken about a 50-year mortgage proposal, and Trump has mused on social media about giving Americans $2,000 funded by tariff revenue. Continue reading...

In attacking a vital broadcaster, the US president is once again holding others to standards he flouts. But the Maga faithful might not let his links to the disgraced financier goTo confront Donald Trump is to engage in asymmetric warfare. It is to enter a battlefield that is not level, where he enjoys an immediate and in-built advantage over those who would oppose him or merely hold him to account. That fact has cost Democrats dearly over the past decade - exacting a toll again this very week - but it has now upended an institution central to Britain's national life: namely, the BBC.The key asymmetry can be spelled out simply. Trump pays little or no regard to the conventional bounds of truth or honesty. His documented tally of false or misleading statements runs into the tens of thousands: the Washington Post registered 30,573 such statements during Trump's first term in the White House, an average of 21 a day. In a single interview with CBS's 60 Minutes earlier this month, Trump spoke falsely 18 times, according to CNN.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnistGuardian newsroom: Year One of Trumpism: Is Britain Emulating the US?

The child sex offender and the former US treasury secretary shared personal views about politics and relationships

Marine Mammal Center in Morro Bay and local harbor patrol teamed up for mission to reunite pup with its motherIt was a foggy October afternoon on the central California coast when the Marine Mammal Center got a call on their public hotline: there were distressed cries coming from the frigid waters in Morro Bay.The center's experts were able to determine that the calls - which sounded almost like a human baby screeching - were coming from a roughly two-week-old sea otter pup that had been separated from its mother. Continue reading...

Wall Street endured its worst day in a month on Thursday as fears that tech companies are now overvalued loom largeWall Street came under pressure on Thursday, enduring its worst day in a month as a sell-off of technology stocks intensified.After an extraordinary rally around hopes for artificial intelligence that propelled global stock markets to record highs, fears that tech firms are now overvalued loom large. Continue reading...

Text messages released by US House show convicted sex offender coaching Maga influencer on political messaging. Plus, readers' favourite photo booth moments 100 years after its inventionGood morning.The convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein apparently served as a behind-the-scenes adviser to the former Trump official and Maga influencer Steve Bannon during an August 2018 media campaign to defend Trump and his agenda, and to promote Bannon's media ventures.What else has been released in the flood of recent Epstein emails? Among many, many other things, one email shows an exchange between him and an associate in which they discuss girls" and travel. The justice department continues to downplay the possibility that other men were involved in Epstein's abuse of teen girls.What's happening with rest of the Epstein files? Trump is facing the prospect of a politically damaging congressional vote to release the files, after attempts to press two members of Congress to withdraw their backing for it appeared to have failed.What exactly is climate finance? Who pays it? And who gets it? Sixteen years ago, at the climate summit in Copenhagen, rich and polluting countries pledged to provide $100bn (76bn) each year by 2020 so that poorer countries could cut their emissions and adapt to a hotter world. Last year, they set a new target of $300bn (227bn) a year by 2035. Continue reading...

Documents include emails depicting coordinated effort to influence online search results and journalistsJeffrey Epstein and his associates worked to suppress negative press and rebuild his image in the years after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to state charges in Florida of solicitation of prostitution and of solicitation of prostitution with a minor, newly released documents reveal.The documents, among 20,000 pages released on Wednesday by Republican members of the House oversight committee, include emails and memos that depict a coordinated effort to influence online search results and journalists, and restore Epstein's reputation. Continue reading...

The world of soccer throws up no shortage of questions. Today, Graham Ruthven endeavors to answer three of themPep Guardiola has done a lot with his 1,000 matches as a manager. At Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City, he has lifted 40 trophies (including three Community Shields, because why wouldn't you count them?), yet not even this fact quantifies the way Guardiola has defined an entire era (or two) of the sport. Continue reading...

In Brooklyn, workers walked off the job in search of fair pay and conditions - and said many customers were in supportAt a popular Starbucks in Brooklyn's Clinton Hill, hundreds of people - including workers, union allies, and community supporters - filled the sidewalks. In 40F (4.4C) weather, picketers held signs, marched, and chanted What's disgusting? Union-busting!" and No contract, no coffee!"More than a thousand Starbucks workers across the US walked off the job on Thursday in over 40 cities, marking one of the largest coordinated actions yet by the rapidly-growing union movement inside the world's largest coffee chain. Continue reading...

Ben Wright and Rosemary Admiral say UTD severely restricted campus access after arrests at peaceful protestAs the Trump administration and Texas governor Greg Abbott restrict free speech on college campuses, two professors at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) are suing the university for retaliation stemming from 2024 arrests at a peaceful campus protest.History professors Ben Wright and Rosemary Admiral argue they should not have been arrested in the first place at the 1 May 2024 demonstration, where they were standing between their students and heavily armed law enforcement. Continue reading...

Claim, by election deniers, would signal latest step by DoJ in moving away from protecting Americans' voting rightsMembers of Georgia's election denial movement have claimed in recent weeks that the justice department is investigating debunked fraud claims in the state stemming from the 2020 election.The development would be just the latest in a series of moves by Trump acolytes at the DoJ who are transforming the voting section of the agency from an office focused on protecting Americans' voting rights to one that is in lockstep with an election denial movement that incessantly demands investigations and drastic reductions in access to the polls based on Donald Trump's lies about elections. Continue reading...

Head of Nexus Project says ADL's plan to monitor' mayor-elect for antisemitism deepens divisions and plays into far-right agendaThe head of an antisemitism watchdog has come out against the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and other groups for their divisive, hyperbolic and aggressive response" to Zohran Mamdani's election, warning that a combative stance towards the New York City mayor-elect is a gift to the far right.The instrumentalizers of antisemitism are cheering on the divisions being created in New York City, because that's their goal: divide people, divide Jews from each other," said Jonathan Jacoby, the director of the Nexus Project, which works to combat antisemitism and its political abuse. Continue reading...

Democrats finally had bargaining power and they caved. It's nothing new - but it's proof voters must make our demands clearChuck Schumer couldn't hold his senators together at a time when their unity and toughness were essential. And at a time when they were winning: most of the public was blaming Republicans for the shutdown, and pressure was growing to reopen the government (flight delays were mounting).Does this mean Schumer should go? Yes.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now Continue reading...

Text messages released by US House show convicted sex offender coaching Maga influencer on political messagingThe convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein apparently served as a behind-the-scenes adviser to the former Trump official and Maga influencer Steve Bannon during an August 2018 media campaign to defend Trump and his agenda, and to promote Bannon's media ventures.Text messages released by the House oversight committee on Wednesday detail a six-day exchange between the men from 17 to 23 August, and show Epstein coaching Bannon on television appearances and political messaging. Continue reading...

The broadcaster was once attacked by critics for being too progressive. But that stance appears to have changed for good in Trump's second termWhat happened to the Redskins, by the way?" Donald Trump asked in an interview on the Pat McAfee Show that notably did not stick to sports. His call-in appearance on Tuesday's program to mark Veterans Day was meant to be a major coup for ESPN, the first time Trump had been interviewed on the network as a sitting president. But viewers could have just as easily been mistaken into believing they were watching Fox News.Trump took his usual shots at Joe Biden, claimed credit for the Department for Veteran Affairs' high approval ratings and declared victory over the Democrats in a government shut down that dragged on for a depressing 43 days. Rather than push back against the political self-promotion, McAfee cheered Trump on before opening the floor to his lackeys to ask him which NFL coach would make a great president. It was all delivered live from South Carolina's Parris Island, the US's oldest Marine depot, which gave McAfee further excuse to goad the commander-in-chief into barking oorah" - a Marine battle cry that the recruits present were duty bound to respond to in kind. The only thing missing from the jingoistic scene was a monument to ESPN's fallen integrity. Continue reading...

Between 1934 and 1936, artist Dorothy Waugh was commissioned to create 17 posters for the National Park Service, a groundbreaking opportunity for a female designer at the time. Her designs, which were both accessible and avant-garde, are being celebrated in an exhibition for the first time at New York's Poster House. Blazing A Trail: Dorothy Waugh's National Parks Posters is on display until 22 February 2026 Continue reading...

With the season more than halfway done, we look at the outstanding figures from the 2025 campaign so farSam Darnold, QB, Seahawks. With apologies to Jonathan Taylor, we know how this story goes. MVP doesn't stand for Most Valuable Player anymore. It stands for Most Valuable Quarterback on a 12-win team with a nice storyline. That gives us three frontrunners: Matthew Stafford, Drake Maye and Darnold. Continue reading...

Midfielder is preparing for NWSL semi-final on her latest loan and hopes road will lead her to Gunners' first teamThe headline on Arsenal's website in early August 2023 was short and sweet. Teenage trio to join Watford on dual agreement," it read. That trio included Michelle Agyemang and Katie Reid, two players whose names were known to the keenest of fans then and who have since become part of mainstream conversation for hugely positive reasons. More recently they have hit the headlines for a more devastating reason, having both sustained anterior cruciate ligament injuries.In any footballer's career a bit of good fortune is needed, alongside a manager being brave enough to take a chance on you. The knee injury that led to Leah Williamson missing the start of the Women's Super League season created the space for Reid to be given an opportunity in the first team, while an Alessia Russo ankle knock led to Agyemang's first England call-up in April. Both subsequently shone, making the forced interruptions to their respective professional journeys especially cruel. Continue reading...

Sami Hamdi was detained after a pro-Israel group released a video purportedly showing him praising the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks on IsraelA British political commentator who was detained by immigration authorities in the US over his pro-Palestinian advocacy said shortly after returning to the UK on Thursday that his detention was less an attack on me and more an attack on Americans and the rights of Americans themselves".Sami Hamdi arrived in London on Thursday , three weeks after he was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at San Francisco international airport while on a speaking tour in the US. He agreed to leave the country after being guaranteed the right to apply for a new US visa, which he says he plans to do. Continue reading...

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A wildlife photographer out on a whale watching trip in waters off Seattle captured dramatic video and photos of a pod of killer whales hunting a seal that survived only by clambering onto the stern of her boat. Charvet Drucker was on a rented 20-foot (6-meter) boat near her home on an island in the Salish Sea about 40 miles northwest of Seattle when she spotted a pod of at least eight killer whales, also known as orcas. Drucker used the zoom lens on her camera to spot a harbor seal that was trying to flee from the pod Continue reading...

Attempts to persuade two female members of Congress to withdraw backing for petition appear to have failed - key US politics stories from Thursday 13 November at a glanceDonald Trump is facing the prospect of a politically damaging congressional vote on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files after attempts to press two female members of Congress to withdraw their backing for it appeared to have failed.The reported refusal of Lauren Boebert, a Republican representative from Colorado, and Nancy Mace, from South Carolina, to remove their names from a discharge petition to force a vote leaves Trump exposed on an issue that carries the possibility of turning segments of his Maga base against him. Continue reading...

Bryan Frederick Jennings, convicted over rape and murder of young girl in 1979, given three-drug lethal injectionA man found guilty in the 1979 rape and murder of a six-year-old girl was executed in Florida on Thursday.Bryan Frederick Jennings was pronounced dead at 6.20pm local time after being administered a three-drug lethal injection. Jennings was sentenced to death for the killing of Rebecca Kunash, whom he drowned in a canal, according to reports. Continue reading...

Move escalates legal battle over a redistricting effort designed to help Democrats flip House seats in 2026The justice department on Thursday joined a lawsuit brought by California Republicans to block the state's new congressional map, escalating a legal battle over a redistricting effort designed to give Democrats a better chance of retaking the House of Representatives next year.The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California, challenges the congressional map championed by Gavin Newsom, the state's Democratic governor, in response to a Republican gerrymander in Texas, sought by Donald Trump. The justice department's intervention in the case sets up a high-profile showdown between the Trump administration and Newsom, one of the president's chief antagonists and a possible 2028 contender. Continue reading...

Lewis was fined $5m and given three years probation by New York judge over brazen' insider trading schemeJoe Lewis, the British billionaire and former owner of Tottenham Hotspur FC, has been pardoned by Donald Trump over a 2024 conviction for his part in a brazen" insider trading scheme.Lewis, 88, was fined $5m (3.8m) and given three years probation by a New York judge last year but was spared jail time after pleading guilty to involvement in a plan that prosecutors said was designed to enrich his friends, lovers and employees. Continue reading...

Latest target of Trump's retribution campaign says only thing I am surprised about is that it took him this long'The Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell is the latest target of Trump's retribution campaign against his critics, the congressman confirmed on Thursday.NBC News reports that Swalwell is facing a federal criminal investigation for alleged mortgage fraud, just as three other Democratic officials have faced in recent months. The outlet says the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency sent a letter to the attorney general claiming Swalwell may have committed mortgage and tax fraud. Continue reading...

Donald Trump signed order creating Foster the Future' to develop opportunities and online hub for resourcesMelania Trump, the first lady, is spearheading a new initiative aimed at improving career and education opportunities for children raised in foster care.Her husband, Donald Trump, signed an executive order on Thursday that creates a Fostering the Future" program that brings together federal entities, non-profits, educational institutions and the private sector to develop those opportunities for foster youth. Continue reading...

Guardian reporter Hilary Andersson reports from the Oklahoma state penitentiary in McAlester where Tremane Wood, 46, was scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Wednesday. In an extraordinary turn of events, Kevin Stitt, the state's Republican governor, accepted the Oklahoma pardon and parole board's recommendation that Wood's sentence be commuted to life in prison without parole. Wood was convicted of felony murder in the stabbing death of Ronnie Wipf, a 19-year-old migrant farm worker from Montana, during a botched robbery in 2002

Even after Snap benefits return, damage will have been done: scarcity leaves trauma in its wakeWhen I was 13, a pair of foster siblings, Carla and Rodrigo, came to live with my family. For the two of them, the move brought a period of much-needed stability - and, for the very first time, reliable access to food.Yet scarcity had already left its mark.Priya Fielding-Singh is the director of policy and programs at the Global Food Institute at the George Washington University and the author of How the Other Half Eats: The Untold Story of Food and Inequality in AmericaThis article was updated on 13 November 2025 to reflect the end of the US government shutdown. Continue reading...

Senator released humorous health update after he was released from hospital, suggesting he was doing well

The disclosure of emails from the paedophile financier has fuelled calls for the full release of FBI files on his caseIt is 20 years since Florida police first investigated the financier Jeffrey Epstein for the sexual abuse of underage girls; six years since he killed himself in prison following his arrest on federal sex-trafficking charges; and more than a year since Donald Trump said that he would have no problem" with releasing the FBI files on the offender.As the Democratic politician Ro Khanna noted, releasing the files was core to Trump's promise ... It was his central theme that the American corrupt elite had betrayed forgotten Americans". The question is notonlywhat Epstein's associates did, but also what they knew and what they did not do. It is not only about their own behaviour, but about any knowledge or suspicion of his crimes, and willingness tooverlook them.Do 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...

Britain was always going to prefer homegrown technology for the SMR reactors at Wylfe. The US would have done the sameIt had all been so harmonious two months ago. Together with the US, we're building a golden age of nuclear that puts both countries at the forefront of global innovation and investment," purred the prime minister about the new landmark" UK-US nuclear partnership.Now there's an atomic split over the first significant decision. The UK has allocated Wylfa on the island of Anglesey, or Ynys Mon, to host three small modular reactors (SMRs) to be built by the British developer Rolls-Royce SMR. The US ambassador, Warren Stephens, says his country is extremely disappointed": he wanted Westinghouse, a US company, to get the gig for a large-scale reactor. Continue reading...

The writer who features prominently in newly released Jeffrey Epstein emails has achieved extraordinary access but faced questions about his journalistic ethicsIn 2003 David Carr, the New York Times's late, great media columnist, disclosed a $50m bid to buy New York Magazine that had been orchestrated by the writer and journalist Michael Wolff.Among the big hitters whom Wolff helped assemble for the deal was the billionaire media tycoon Mort Zuckerman, the not-yet-convicted sex offender and Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, and the not-yet-convicted sex trafficker and financier Jeffrey Epstein. Continue reading...

Week by week, key moments from the 43-day shutdown that disrupted flights, food benefits and federal workWhen Senate Democrats decided in September to use the government funding bill to put up a fight over expiring healthcare subsides, it set the stage for a 43-day federal government shutdown marked by turmoil for hundreds of thousands of federal workers, a battle over food benefits, thousands of cancelled flights, and a rare Democratic stand against Donald Trump's second-term agenda that progressives had been demanding since the election.Each week brought new disruptions and frustrations, until a group of seven moderate Democrats and one independent struck a deal to reopen the government in exchange for a promised - but not guaranteed - vote on the healthcare subsidies by mid-December. Continue reading...

President's attempts to press two female members of Congress to withdraw backing for vote appear to have failedDonald Trump is facing the prospect of a politically damaging congressional vote on releasing the Jeffery Epstein files after attempts to press two female members of Congress to withdraw their backing for it appeared to have failed.The reported refusal of Lauren Boebert, a Republican representative from Colorado, and Nancy Mace, from South Carolina, to remove their names from a discharge petition to force a vote leaves Trump exposed on an issue that carries the possibility of turning segments of his Maga base against him. Continue reading...

Convicted sex offender said Trump knew about the girls' and called president a maniac'The public disclosure of more than 20,000 pages of newly released documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has reignited a long-running scandal over his relationship with the rich and powerful.Democratic politicians released three emails obtained from Epstein's estate, saying they showed Donald Trump may have known more about Epstein's crimes than he has publicly acknowledged. Continue reading...

President's family business requested at least 184 foreign workers for Mar-a-Lago, Virginia winery and two golf clubsDonald Trump's family business increased the pace at which it hired foreign workers on temporary visas this year, even as his administration was placing obstacles in the way of other businesses that wanted to do the same, a report published Thursday claimed.According to Forbes, which analyzed data from the US Department of Labor, the Trump Organization sought to bring in at least 184 foreign workers in 2025 for temporary positions at the US president's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, two golf clubs and his Virginia winery. Continue reading...

A proposal touting 50-year mortgages could double interest payments and worsen inequalityWould you like to buy a crumbling shack for $2m dollars? Well then, you're in luck, because that just about sums up the state of the housing market right now. Housing, particularly in places with a decent job market, has become increasingly unaffordable in the US. That's partly thanks to quantitative easing during the pandemic, which supercharged housing inflation. The median American home price in January was $418,000, about a 45% increase from $289,000 five years ago, per Redfin data. Wages haven't gone up at the same rate, and housing prices compared to income have reached an all-time high.In post-pandemic America, there are three groups of people. First, there are those who own their home outright and those who bought a house before the pandemic, then refinanced during the historically low interest rates we saw in 2020 and 2021. Many of those homeowners are now sitting on large piles of equity. Continue reading...

For centuries, the US government tried to erase Indigenous identity, with boarding schools, adoptions and a chilling mission: Kill the Indian in him, and save the man."In 1978, a law was passed to protect Native American families. But it didn't fix the system. Today, Native children are still being removed at shocking rates. In South Dakota, they're 13% of the child population but 74% of the children in the foster system.Neelam Tailor investigates why, and how a system built on separation is still failing Indigenous families Continue reading...

Former FBI director and New York attorney general say the prosecutor in their cases was unlawfully appointedJames Comey, the former FBI director, and the New York attorney general, Letitia James, will ask a federal judge on Thursday to drop the criminal charges against them, arguing that Donald Trump's hand-picked US attorney, who obtained the indictments against them, was unlawfully appointed.The hearing at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia in front of judge Cameron Currie will mark the first time a judge will consider one of several efforts James and Comey have made to dismiss the indictments before trials. Continue reading...