US news | The Guardian

Andy Burnham's accusation against the Kremlin tells half the story. Domestic extremists amplified by US big tech are part of the same problemIn November 2020, Barack Obama warned of an epistemological crisis" facing western democracies. Polarisation and radicalisation were corroding trust in established information sources. If we do not have the capacity to distinguish what's true from what's false, then by definition the marketplace of ideas doesn't work," the former US president said.That vulnerability has grown since then. Democracy's enemies have become more determined to exploit it. This is the threat that Andy Burnham highlighted in a speech at the United Nations this week. The prime minister accused Russia of waging an industrial-scale assault" on the UK's information environment using bot armies and fake websites to spread falsehoods, interfere in elections, foment discord and poison inter-community relations.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...

As the secretary general, Antonio Guterres, prepares to step down, the general assembly is highlighting the scale of the organisation's challengesThe United Nations was created, its charter states, to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war". Donald Trump used his address to the general assembly to threaten Iran, another member state, with annihilation again. The charter also speaks of the obligations of international law. On Venezuela, MrTrump gloated that to the victor belong the spoils". His speech in New York on Tuesday might be regarded as an improvement on last year's only in that it was not an explicit, full-scale attack on the UN itself, merely on its founding principles.The absences this year are perhaps as telling as the US president's hostile presence. Vladimir Putin has not attended for more than a decade. Nor has Xi Jinping - but the snub is more striking as he is in Washington to meet the US president. India's Narendra Modi is not present; nor are Cyril Ramaphosa, BolaTinubu or Abdel Fatah al-Sisi - the leaders of Africa's three giants,South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt. While their reasons are various, the gaps speak collectively to Mr Trump's wrecking capability and the broader challenges faced by the UN.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...

It is sad and dangerous that at such a perilous moment, the United States is saddled with a president like TrumpDonald Trump's speech on Tuesday to the United Nations general assembly was an object lesson in his lawless rule and remarkable capacity for self-delusion. Disregarding the UN charter's emphasis on the peaceful resolution of disputes, he doubled down on his violent unilateralism while denigrating the global issues that the UN is designed to address.For many, the headline remark was his musing about whether to annihilate the Islamic Republic" of Iran. Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?"Kenneth Roth is a Guardian US columnist, a senior fellow at Yale University and a former executive director of Human Rights Watch. He is the author of Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments Continue reading...

Phil Knight and wife, Penny, make largest known donation to a public university to fund a new engineering schoolNike cofounder Phil Knight, and his wife, Penny, have donated $1bn to the University of Oregon in what the university described as the largest gift ever made to a comprehensive public university".The donation is intended to be used to establish a new engineering school in Eugene. In a news release, seen by the Guardian, the university said the new school will educate engineers and applied scientists in bioengineering and other high-demand disciplines, attract faculty and researchers to a growing campus, and accelerate the university's ability to move discoveries out of the laboratory and into products, therapies, technologies and companies". Continue reading...

First such storm of fall could have wind gusts of 70mph in places, flooding and power outages, forecasters warnNew York, Boston, and much of New England could face a weekend nor'easter storm with wind gusts of 70mph in places, and significant" impacts including beach erosion, flooding, and power outages, forecasters warn.Effects from the season's first such storm since Tuesday's official start of fall could last through the weekend, especially if the system sits swirling off the coast, a scenario experts say is looking increasingly likely. Continue reading...

The news organizations, which sued the US president, are claiming the ban violates the first amendment

Administration is holding back Covid vaccines for all children in at least 11 states and one US territoryThe Trump administration is holding back Covid vaccines for all children in at least 11 states and one US territory, and officials have not indicated when or whether the shots will become available.It's the latest step by top officials to restrict vaccines in America - and it sets a precedent for holding back other immunizations, experts said. Continue reading...

Osiris, one of 30 belugas removed from Ontario's shuttered Marineland, struggled to acclimate to her Illinois homeAn Illinois aquarium has said that a third beluga whale it rescued from a closed marine park in Canada this summer has died after it struggled to acclimate to its new environment.Osiris, a 26-year-old female, was one of 30 belugas removed from Ontario's shuttered Marineland amusement park, and among 10 rehomed at the Shedd aquarium in Chicago, which said the whale died there on Monday. Continue reading...

Criminal investigation could include manslaughter or negligent homicide charges after 27 flood deaths last yearCamp Mystic faces a criminal investigation that could include manslaughter or negligent homicide charges in the deaths of 27 girls amid devastating flooding in Texas last year, court documents show.In applications for search warrants executed last week, investigators sought to obtain the electronic communications of the camp's owners, saying they could provide evidence of manslaughter, negligent homicide, child abandonment or other crimes. No charges have been brought, and a representative of the camp did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Continue reading...

US-Iran meeting takes place on sidelines despite president's threat to annihilate' Tehran regime. Plus, one man's month-long pilates odysseyGood morning. Donald Trump has used the platform of the UN general assembly in New York to threaten to annihilate the Islamic republic" of Iran, and do it quickly". He called on countries to unite to isolate Tehran and bring down global energy prices.Despite his bombastic rhetoric, Trump also said Iranian officials held three hours of talks with the US special envoy Steve Witkoff on the sidelines of the meeting. Witkoff said he felt very good about the meeting, the first such contact since the US vice-president, JD Vance, met an Iranian delegation in Switzerland in June. A senior Iranian official also indicated that Iran was prepared to reopen the strait of Hormuz within a week.What else did Trump say at the UN? The president doubled down on his defence of AI development, saying warnings about runaway agents were a hoax"; announced the US would build new military bases in Greenland; attacked the international criminal court as a rogue organisation"; and prompted the Cuba's delegation to stage a walkout when he described the country as a failed state".Did he continue his attacks on US media networks? Trump scolded a CNN anchor for covering him at the UN, saying I'm surprised that CNN is here covering me. You should not be here covering me. You said you weren't going to cover me." Last week, the president announced he was banning CNN, Politico and MS Now from the White House.Follow UN proceedings live today here.Where else is the president seeing dissent from Republicans? Another prominent Florida Republican has publicly distanced himself from Trump, days after Maria Elvira Salazar called out the president's immigration-enforcement policy targeting law-abiding undocumented immigrants. Byron Donalds, the Republican nominee for governor in November's midterm elections, launched an updated campaign website on Tuesday that was stripped of almost every mention of Trump. Continue reading...

The PM's shiny newness could explain the easy ride he got this time. But who would dare predict the ever-shifting weather in the president's head?Watching footage of Andy Burnham at the UN general assembly on Tuesday was like watching your child from behind a tree in the playground. Are they making friends? How normal do they seem relative to the average? How will they react when they come into contact with that hulking great child who seems to be running things? Burnham's first face-to-face with Donald Trump was billed as a knife-edge encounter that, due to the latter's capriciousness, could go either way. In the event, it was drama-free, leaving observers to ask: was it Burnham's brilliance or simply the weather in Trump's head?To viewers at home, Burnham's performance at the press conference looked like that of a man who had worked out his best approach was to go for the sheepish, slightly cheeky air of the junior partner. Burnham is 24 years younger than Trump, on top of everything else - which can afford a certain licence to the less powerful person in any exchange. At the last minute, the meeting had been moved behind closed doors and afterwards, in a windowless room at the UN, the two men appeared side by side, mirroring each other's body language: just two guys, legs akimbo, shoulders hunched, hanging on a bench in the locker room.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Brandon Herrera, a YouTuber known for making outrageous pro-gun statements, is the frontrunner to represent a district devastated by mass shootingsThe video begins with Brandon Herrera staring intently into the camera. He is filming himself in a hotel room seated between twin beds, his black hair slicked back and beard neatly trimmed. He is wearing a T-shirt branded with his trademark nickname, The AK Guy", above the image of a semi-automatic rifle primed for action.Three days earlier, on 3 August 2019, a white nationalist armed with a semi-automatic firearm not dissimilar to the one stamped across Herrera's chest entered a busy Walmart store in the Texas border city of El Paso and opened fire. Continue reading...

One of the largest labor unions in the US targets eight battleground states in workers v billionaires' campaignThe International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), one of the largest labor unions in the US, has launched a workers v billionaires" political campaign tour targeting members in eight battleground states and encouraging them to support pro-worker candidates in the midterms.IAM has nearly 700,000 active and retired members in North America, covering workers at corporations that include Boeing, Lockheed Martin, United Airlines and Harley-Davidson. The union is targeting members and voters in Maine, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Texas, Ohio, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Illinois. Continue reading...

Trump says further talks possible as barrel of Brent crude falls to below $100 for first time in two weeks

There is hope in solar power. As the UN meets, we are urging leaders to pursue a clear goal: clean energy for all by 2030

In an interview before the White House's media ban, Carlson called on reporters to push back against Trump's misogynyDonald Trump has achieved something rarely seen in Washington: uniting rival television networks against him. When he banned CNN and MS Now - along with Politico - from the White House, their competitors suspended shared coverage of the US president's events.Gretchen Carlson, a journalist, author and former Fox News host, hopes this will not be the only example of solidarity from a White House press corps facing what she describes as an outright onslaught" from the administration. Continue reading...

As the UN gathers, signatories from Bernie Sanders to Yeb Sano issue an open letter calling for clean power for all

Larry Pickett Sr and his son, a US army cadet, pulled David Denton from vehicle fire in upstate New York in 2025A North Carolina man who helped his son - a player for the US army academy college football team - pull a wrecked car's driver out of the vehicle moments before it burst into flames has earned the highest honor for civilian heroism in the United States and Canada.Larry Pickett Sr earned the Carnegie medal for heroism for a daring rescue alongside his son, Larry Pickett Jr, on 31 August 2025 outside Fort Montgomery, New York, that was captured in headline-grabbing cellphone video, according to a recent announcement from the non-profit organization that administers the award. Continue reading...

On 23 September 1926, two of the best heavyweights in American history met in front of 120,000 fans in Philadelphia. The fight drew in a nationThe two fights between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney rank with boxing's most-storied championship bouts and are among the greatest sports spectacles ever seen in America. Wednesday marks the one hundredth anniversary of their first encounter.Dempsey bridged boxing's old and modern eras and was one of the most charismatic fighters in history. When Dempsey was young, biographer Randy Roberts recounts, he lived in mining camps and hobo jungles, rode the rods, and more than once begged for food. What separated him was his willingness, even eagerness, to work. He accepted any type of employment from washing dishes, cutting lawns, and scrubbing floors to the harder work of coal-mining, digging ditches, and picking fruit." Continue reading...

In today's newsletter: The PM's first facetoface with the US president marks a fragile resetGood morning. In the early hours of Tuesday a plane carrying Andy Burnham, a handful of UK ministers, an excited group of British political journalists, and Burnham's wife, Marie France, landed at a New York airport for one of Burnham's first major outings as prime minister: a face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump.Considering the president once described Burnham as the mayor of a town," and the prime minister once said Trump wouldn't be welcome in said town (Manchester), the meeting yesterday afternoon went remarkably well.UN general assembly | Donald Trump has called on nations to unite to isolate Tehran and bring down global energy prices, as he gave a bellicose defence of his administration's foreign policy and decision to strike Iran.The far right | Charities have condemned footage of a far-right activist using a blade to slash an inflatable dinghy in the Channel while a rescue worker was onboard, in a further escalation of organised anti-immigration protest.UK news | Children as young as 13 in the UK have been referred to a specialist clinic for a devastating" bladder condition linked to sustained use of ketamine.West Bank | British banks and financial institutions are receiving warnings from MPs that they should not invest in Israel's E1 settlement project.UK politics | Andy Burnham has opened the door to fighting the next election on the UK rejoining the EU, but said his immediate priority was continuing to rebuild bridges with European allies. Continue reading...

Fears persist about Trump sucking up' to Xi on Taiwan, but few concrete outcomes anticipated from US meetingWhen Xi Jinping, China's leader, touches down in Maryland on Wednesday, he will step out into the arms - perhaps a hug, if Donald Trump's wishes come true - of a US president who has shown China more bonhomie than any of his recent predecessors.The meeting between Xi and Trump this week will be the second time that the leaders of the world's two biggest economies have talked face to face this year. At the previous summit, held in Beijing in May, there was much talk of building a strategic stability" between the two powers. But there was little by way of concrete outcomes: the countries remain at loggerheads over trade, export controls and geopolitics. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed.

Cuban delegates left the room during the US president's speech to the UN general assembly, where he called Cuba 'a failed state' and said the country 'will fall'. The US has maintained a trade embargo on Cuba for more than 60 years, and Trump's administration has stepped up pressure on the communist-controlled island nation. Continue reading...

Surrogate who rejected abortion request had asked justices to halt court order recognizing LA couple as legal parentsThe supreme court has refused to get involved with a custody dispute between an Alaska surrogate and a California couple whose child was born with a rare and serious heart defect.On Tuesday, Justice Elena Kagan denied an emergency request from McKenna West, an Alaska nurse and surrogate who had asked the US's highest court to halt a California court order recognizing the couple, Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar, as the boy's legal parents. Continue reading...

Former VP, who lost state to Trump in 2024 elections, is lending her popularity to unite fractured partyKamala Harris returned to Michigan on Tuesday to campaign for Abdul El-Sayed, lending her popularity among Black voters to a progressive Senate nominee still working to unite a party fractured by a bruising primary - and the former vice-president's loss to Donald Trump in the state.Appearing with El-Sayed at a Detroit birth center, Harris used a roundtable on Black maternal health to frame that November's contest against the Republican Mike Rogers as a fight over women's access to care. Continue reading...

Lawyers for James Fergie' Chambers, wanted over alleged support for Hamas, say client is being persecutedThe Spanish government has decided to allow the Trump administration's controversial extradition request to extradite wealthy activist James Fergie" Chambers to continue in the country's courts.Chambers, a US citizen and wealthy donor to leftwing and humanitarian projects, is currently imprisoned in Madrid. It is the first known case 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...

Carnival spokesperson confirms onboard cameras captured male passenger going overboard on way from MexicoA 56-year-old man is missing after he reportedly jumped off a Carnival cruise ship on Saturday.A Carnival spokesperson confirmed in a statement that cameras on the ship captured a male passenger going overboard the Panorama, according to several news reports. Continue reading...

US officials have begun to buy back wind leases as president seek to block renewables in favor of fossil fuelsDemocratic attorneys general from California and New York have sued the Trump administration over its plans to buy back offshore wind leases as Donald Trump seeks to discourage the expansion of wind energy in favor of fossil fuels.California attorney general Rob Bonta said he was suing over removal of a project off his state's coast planned by Chicago-based Invenergy. The Trump administration said in June it was buying back the company's US offshore wind leases for four wind projects on the east and west coasts. Continue reading...

Gone was any shred of US idealism. It was a spectacle of raw power - a power that is likely to only diminish in the years aheadExpectations were low for Donald Trump's address to the UN on Tuesday, and yet somehow it was even worse than expected. He does not perform well in formal settings, like chambers of government, preferring a blingier room, like Mar-a-Lago, or an outdoor rally. For years, he has made no secret of his hostility to the UN, and the very principles of international order that define it.In recent years, that hostility has deepened into something more like a full-on assault, with frequent attacks on the international criminal court (perhaps out of fear that he will someday be indicted), on the UN's climate agenda, and on Unesco (which the US decided to withdraw from in July 2025). Continue reading...

Amid show's major overhaul by Bari Weiss, Sunday's episode draws third-smallest audience for a second episode in the past 25 years60 Minutes' blockbuster interview with Patrick Clancy, the ex-husband of Lindsay Clancy, failed to provide a major ratings boost for the Sunday show, according to audience figures released Tuesday.Sunday night's episode of the newsmagazine show drew an average of 6.77m total viewers, the third-smallest audience in the past 25 years for the second episode of a season, adding to a disappointing debut for Bari Weiss, who, as CBS editor-in-chief, rewired the show, firing several high-profile correspondents in the run-up to the new season. Continue reading...

But industry trade group says plan would backfire and lead to even higher prices for gasoline

GOP nominee for governor Byron Donalds removes multiple mentions of president from his campaign website

Houthi militants have made a lightning advance along the Red Sea coast, capturing strategically important territory in Yemen.Hundreds of civilians have been killed and more than 100,000 people have been forced to flee their homes.The Guardian's Oliver Holmes explains why this conflict has world governments on edge Continue reading...

President chided Kaitlan Collins for asking him question at UN after White House ban on CNN, MS Now and PoliticoDonald Trump has scolded a CNN anchor for covering him at the UN in New York after banning the network and two other media outlets from the White House.Kaitlan Collins asked the US president on Tuesday when the Iran war would end, citing a poll that claims two-thirds of Americans don't think the US is winning. Continue reading...

US president threatens to annihilate' Tehran and dismisses threat from AI as a hoax' in bellicose address

Officials say one pilot safely ejected as F-16 believed to have crashed on approach to Spangdahlem after training drillAn F-16 fighter jet assigned to the US air base Spangdahlem in western Germany crashed on Tuesday, the US military said, adding that one pilot had ejected safely and was receiving medical treatment.The cause of the incident is under investigation, the military said in a statement, with emergency response personnel at the scene of the crash. Continue reading...

The US president spoke about the war with Iran during the UN general assembly on Tuesday, threatening to 'annihilate' the country and 'drive them into hell' if the regime didn't agree to a deal with the United States

Jake and Logan Paul were invited to give a motivational speech. Just don't let them get involved with military policyWe're now approaching month seven of a war against Iran that Donald Trump repeatedly assured us would be over in a matter of weeks. Prices are rising, troop morale is plummeting, and there is little evidence things will improve.The situation is so desperate that the decision makers at the Pentagon have decided to bring out the big guns. I'm not talking about nuclear weapons, although Trump recently threatened to blow the entire nation [of Iran] up". No, I'm talking about influencers Jake and Logan Paul, who are famous for doing idiotic stunts on YouTube and getting hit in the face during boxing matches. Last Thursday, Pete Hegseth's Department of Defense or whatever they're calling it these days (the Department of War Crimes?) welcomed the Paul brothers to Washington DC to meet with our warriors" and deliver a motivational speech. In response, former Republican congressman and air force officer Adam Kinzinger wrote, We aren't a serious country at the moment." That about sums it up. Continue reading...

Jury report says no credible evidence' points to criminal conduct related to death of Mississippi teen after boat outing with friends on 4 JulyA grand jury made a unanimous decision late Monday night to not bring criminal charges against anyone in the mysterious death of Nolan Wells, a Mississippi teen who died after a boat outing with friends on 4 July.The Jackson county, Mississippi grand jury, which met from 14 September to 18 September, issued 132 subpoenas during its investigation, considered evidence from 43 witnesses and investigators, and reviewed an independent investigation by Wells' family. They also considered physical and digital evidence, including mobile phone data and forensic reports, photographs, videos and GPS data. Continue reading...

South Carolina medical examiner says no signs of trauma' and the manner of death has been ruled accident'Hayden Panettiere died from a fentanyl overdose, according to the Greenville county coroner's office.Medical examiners in South Carolina confirmed the 36-year old actor's cause of death on Tuesday, saying: The cause of death has been ruled as toxic effects of fentanyl, 4-ANPP, Alprazolam, Methocarbamol and Quetiapine." Continue reading...

Mark Rutte has the right idea - go beyond Washington and make the case for the transatlantic alliance to the public. They may well have a willing earAt a moment when Europe is focused on persuading Donald Trump to remain committed to Nato, it needs to convince Americans, too. So the presence this evening of the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, in front of a public audience in Des Moines, Iowa, is significant. This is the home town of Trump's ambassador to Nato, Matthew Whitaker, and the visit brings the debate over Nato's future directly to a midwestern audience in a red state that operates far from elite foreign-policy circles in Washington. Rutte's appearance is long overdue.Russia's war in Ukraine and uncertainty over the US commitment to European security have forced European leaders to confront their dependence on Washington. While some are pressing for building European capabilities as a means to separate from the US, others see greater European defence spending as essential to keeping the US engaged. Either way, European governments can't rely solely on meetings with Trump to secure the alliance's future. Continue reading...

Son of supermodel Cindy Crawford and entrepreneur Rande Gerber died at a rehabilitation facilityThe death on Sunday of Presley Gerber, the 27-year-old son of supermodel Cindy Crawford and entrepreneur Rande Gerber, is being investigated as a suspected overdose, according to police.Gerber died at a rehabilitation facility, Los Angeles county medical examiner records show. An autopsy was performed, but more testing was required before investigators could give a cause of death for Gerber, which the medical examiner did not immediately do.The Associated Press contributed Continue reading...

Ashleigh Boyd died in a car crash months after Adan Manzano, a TV reporter, was killed in Louisiana while preparing to cover the Super BowlA Kansas school teacher's fatal car wreck on Monday reportedly led to a vehicular homicide conviction for the motorist who crashed into her - a verdict delivered just four days after a Louisiana jury found a woman guilty of the drugging death of the educator's widower while he prepared to cover the 2025 Super Bowl for Telemundo.Todd W Armstrong's one-day bench trial in an 11 April 2024 traffic collision that killed Ashleigh Boyd in Topeka, Kansas, resulted in the judge, Andrew Holmes, finding him guilty of vehicular homicide, driving on the wrong side of the road and speeding, according to the victim's father, Brian Hinck. Continue reading...

President's decision to ban three news organisations from White House prompts backlash. Plus, a new resource to help trace the history of enslaved people in the 19th centuryGood morning. The row over media access to the presidency has deepened, with major US television news outlets agreeing to suspend their video coverage of Donald Trump after the administration banned journalists from several outlets from entering the White House grounds.The president had abruptly announced his ban against CNN, MS Now and Politico, saying he had had enough of purposely negative stories" about him. On Monday the ban against CNN meant no broadcaster was covering Trump's midday ribbon-cutting for a new White House helipad. The White House provided its own livestream but the president's remarks were inaudible over the sound of a helicopter's engine.How have CNN, MS Now and Politico responded to the ban? A lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order that would immediately lift the ban. In a statement, the organizations said: We are filing a lawsuit today to protect our first amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes."What other significant media developments have there been? Paramount has reached a settlement with California and several other states that sued over its proposed $81bn merger with Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), the California attorney general announced, clearing the way to consolidate some of Hollywood's most recognizable TV networks and studios under one owner.What else is Trump expected to say at the UN? The US ambassador to the UN said Trump would speak about how he had confronted complex problems head-on around the world". Our writer Robert Tait notes in this analysis, however, that thanks to Trump's recent social media blitz and self-proclaimed 25 top achievements", the chances of an uplifting speech appear slim. Continue reading...

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention refuses to count four measles deaths in the state though doctors are seeing new forms' of diseaseThe US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its measles dashboard on Friday - but it's still not counting four measles deaths in Pennsylvania, where the outbreak appears to be accelerating and cases are appearing in ways providers have never seen before.Members of Congress on Monday requested an immediate briefing" on the decision to change how measles deaths are reported as cases continue to rise throughout the United States, reaching levels not seen in decades. A possible measles exposure was reported in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia last week. Continue reading...