by Jason Burke International security correspondent on (#78CYM)
Trump administration undermining rule of law at home and worldwide, according to intergovernmental reportKey indicators of democracy in the US have fallen to their lowest levels in 50 years, with the global rule of law significantly undermined by the Trump administration's threats and actions", data from a leading thinktank shows.Around the world, judicial independence, credible elections and freedom of expression, press freedom and access to justice are all at their lowest levels for at least 30 years, according to the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International Idea). Continue reading...
Officers were instructed to search state voter databases and create federal records on suspected non-citizen voters despite concerns over the processDepartment of Homeland Security (DHS) lawyers told officers investigating voter fraud they would not be held responsible for violating state laws around accessing voter registration information, an anonymous whistleblower revealed on Monday. DHS officers also had concerns about the reliability of the data they were working with, the whistleblower said.The Trump administration has ramped up its investigation into noncitizen voting ahead of the midterm elections. Noncitizen voting is extremely rare and the effort has only turned up a handful of cases so far. Continue reading...
CDC announces changes to how it reports measles deaths as Pennsylvania continues to confirm more casesThe Trump administration has changed the way it counts measles deaths amid an outbreak in Pennsylvania, which on Sunday saw the third apparent measles-related death in the state reported by a local coroner.The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is now using data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), which is a way to track mortality trends over time, according to a note published to the agency's website on 4 September. Continue reading...
Lawsuit accuses university of deliberate indifference' and failure to respond to persistent and coordinated harassment'Mahmoud Khalil announced on Monday that he's sued Columbia University, accusing the New York City school he attended of a years-long history of anti-Palestinian discrimination, indifference to harassment, and retaliation.Khalil, a US green card holder of Palestinian descent, was a graduate student at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) when he was arrested at his university apartment by federal immigration agents in March 2025, the first of a number of foreign nationals that the Trump administration has detained and sought to deport over their pro-Palestinian advocacy. Continue reading...
Office of inspector general's report says practice at Florida immigration jail is not aligned with humane treatment'Before the facility was shuttered, detainees at Florida's Alligator Alcatraz" federal immigration jail were frequently locked in outside metal cages no bigger than a phone booth, according to a damning government watchdog report that said the practice does not align with standards for humane treatment".The findings from the office of the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were published on its website - and offer rare criticism of the Trump administration by one of its own agencies. Continue reading...
The policy allows immigration officers the authority to deny green cards to those using public benefitsA coalition of 22 states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration on Monday over a new policy that would allow individual immigration officers to deny green cards based on use of public benefits.The new policy changes a long-established public charge" rule, which dates back to the Immigration Act of 1882, established to ensure that newcomers to the country would be able to provide for themselves without relying on governmental benefits. Continue reading...
Donald Trump's blithe comments at the weekend were characteristically unhelpful. A careful and considered discussion on the subject has yet to beginA decade ago, the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) viewed Brexit as a potential gamechanger in the struggle to resist future pressure for a united Ireland. As the author and journalist Fintan O'Toole wrote in anessay published last year, the DUP hoped that the 2016 referendum would deliver a double exit. Brexit would not simply mean the UK's departure from the EU. It would also be an act of separation fromthe Republic. It would reverse the slow drift towards integration." That proved to be, to put it mildly, adeeply flawed judgment.The direction of travel since 2016 has instead been the opposite. Rather than leading to a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, which would have disastrously undermined the Good Friday agreement, the UK's divorce agreement from Brussels eventually placed one in the Irish Sea. The logic of further economic integration between north and south within the EU's single market was reinforced. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Currently under federal law, up to 25% of a worker's take-home earnings can be collectedHouse Democrats introduced a bill Monday that would prevent workers from having their wages garnished for medical debt collection.The bill would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to include a ban on wage garnishment for medical debt and prohibit any state or court from issuing or enforcing such wage garnishments. Continue reading...
Zohran Mamdani, the New York mayor, announced on 14 September that New York City, alongside several other major cities, will sue the Trump administration over a new rule that would make it more easy to deny green cards and visas to immigrants based on their need of public benefits Continue reading...
Subpoena is among a flurry issued in recent weeks as part of DoJ inquiry into alleged conspiracy against TrumpThe former CIA director John Brennan has been subpoenaed to testify next month before a Florida grand jury as part of a Department of Justice investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against Donald Trump, one of his lawyers said Monday.Ken Wainstein, an attorney for Brennan, disclosed in a court filing that prosecutors last Thursday presented him with a subpoena for Brennan to appear before a grand jury in Fort Pierce, Florida, on 15 October. Continue reading...
Families have asked Trump to declassify records that could shed light on Saudi Arabia's alleged role in the 2001 attacksDonald Trump said on Sunday that he will look into requests from families of 9/11 victims to release records that could shed light on Saudi Arabia's alleged role in the attacks 25 years ago.Several families have long alleged that a group of extremist religious leaders in Saudi Arabia gained influence in the kingdom's government and aided the hijackers. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, but the Saudi government has long denied any involvement in the attacks. Continue reading...
Center's Trump-installed leaders also say it is on brink of bankruptcy and could close as early as TuesdayLeaders of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts say it is reportedly on the brink of bankruptcy and could close as early as Tuesday.The center's Donald Trump-installed leaders argued that putting the president's name on its facade may be the only way to avoid imminent and certain fiscal collapse", the Washington Post first reported, citing documents it obtained. Continue reading...
Woman, her daughter, her son and his girlfriend identified as victims in incident that also critically wounded a childA Louisiana woman, her daughter, her son and his girlfriend have been identified as the four victims killed in a stabbing spree on Saturday that also left a young child critically wounded in the southern part of the state, according to a relative and family advocate.Verna Mae Verdin, her daughter Letha Verrett, her son Paul Verret, and his girlfriend Krissy Lynn Parfait were stabbed to death at their home in the community of Houma, the relative and advocate, Brandon Thiel, told Louisiana television news station WVUE and said on an online campaign raising funds in part for the victims' funeral expenses. Continue reading...
The actor's latest promotion has stirred outrage but will no doubt be good for the prediction markets hoping to lure in young menPrediction markets are a cynical business.Many customers will lose money, and the real product may just be the delightful dopamine hit that comes in that brief window between placing a bet and its outcome - which is statistically more likely to be a disappointment than a victory. So the bettor has to think they are buying more than their own fleecing. Continue reading...
by Andrew Lawrence at Flushing Meadows on (#78CEK)
Alexander Zverev was simply too good for the home hope at the US Open on Sunday. Andy Roddick's record may stand for some time to comeOn a Sunday afternoon set up for Ben Shelton to play national hero, the US Open final debutant suffered a four-set defeat to Alexander Zverev, a result that deflated the partisans at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The match compounded Shelton's miserable head-to-head record against the German, who claimed a second career grand slam title without having to face final bosses Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz. The defeat also extended a long drought - the last win by an American man at a grand slam was Andy Roddick at the 2003 US Open, when Shelton was still a month off his first birthday.After the final, Shelton wore a hangdog expression as he thanked his team and the capacity crowd in New York, tucking the silver runner-up tray under his arm as if shunted off to high school detention. Disappointed with how today went," he said in his press conference afterward. Excited with the progress that I feel that I've made. But, yeah, this one stings 100%." Continue reading...
Until Pierre Damas Bel's death on 31 August, the story of Haitian adolescents in Springfield was one of triumphAt a pavilion west of downtown Springfield, Ohio, 32 high school students dressed in black T-shirts stand silently at a vigil in the warm fall evening air.Some are holding signs depicting the number 11, as worn on the soccer field by Pierre Damas Bel, the 20-year-old Haitian student and athlete who died in an apparent suicide on 31 August. Other students hold signs that read live like Pierre" and Pierre was selfless". Continue reading...
Workers should start with a moratorium against building until our livelihoods and communities are protectedFor the surging number of Americans who now live alongside constantly humming computer-filled mega-warehouses, it is clear AI datacenters come with significant drawbacks.Opposition to datacenters grows on both sides of the political aisle as developers plan to invest $8tn to build them in the coming years. The bet is massive - roughly a quarter of our country's entire GDP - but AI CEOs think it will pay off because they believe this technology will allow businesses across industries to rake in profits by cutting out their largest expense: labor. If all goes according to their plan, AI data centers will enable corporations to redistribute workers' salaries to themselves. Continue reading...
But their habitat is threatened by bottom trawling in the region and Trump's plan to expand seafloor miningScientists have discovered nine new deep-sea sponge species off Alaska, offering new insights into the region's largely unexplored marine biodiversity.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) announced the discovery on Thursday, saying the species were found in the Gulf of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. The findings bring the total number of known sponge species in Alaska to 232. Continue reading...
Recent social media lawsuits have addressed concerns about mental health. But what about its cognitive effects?A few years ago, when I'd just started graduate work, I was waiting with a grandmother finishing a questionnaire I'd handed her about her 19-year-old granddaughter who was in the testing room next door. They were participating in a study that used brain imaging to look at adolescent development. The older woman had a soft southern accent and a warm laugh.What's funny?" I asked. Continue reading...
Some of the everyday struggles animating voters have a climate link lurking in the backgroundWhen Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a law erasing the words climate change" from state statutes in May 2024 - colloquially known as the don't say climate change" law - Democrats were outraged. Just six months later, many liberal politicians began to go quiet on the issue themselves. After Donald Trump won the 2024 election, mentions of the climate crisis started to disappear from Democrats' rhetoric. As the 2026 midterms approach, that retreat is still shaping how some candidates talk about climate on the campaign trail.The trend, known as climate-hushing", may reflect the limitations of Joe Biden's climate policies, said Daniel Aldana Cohen, assistant sociology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies climate politics and inequality. Green jobs and housing investments fell short of the climate movement's desires, consumer incentives disproportionately benefited wealthier households, and Democrats struggled to effectively communicate their accomplishments. The president has since rolled back many Biden-era clean energy incentives and regulations. Continue reading...
We take a look at some of our favourite snapshots from New York as Elena Rybakina and Alexander Zverev both triumphed in the final grand slam of the year Continue reading...
Forget the bombing: the Trump administration keeps insisting this isn't a war. But it's not just a matter of semanticsI will not send you to fight and die in stupid foreign wars that never end," Donald Trump promised a crowd in Pennsylvania in 2024. While the disastrous conflict in Iran, which has escalated in recent days, may make it seem like the president has reneged on that promise, that's inaccurate. It would be wrong to say that the president has dragged the US into yet another disastrous forever war in the Middle East because, as government officials keep insisting, what's happening in Iran isn't actually a war.I wouldn't call it a war," JD Vance told reporters early this month, for example, after being asked whether the fighting in Iran might be over by the November midterms. Right now, there is no active shooting." Continue reading...
The Bills quarterback produced his usual thrills: a galloping touchdown run, a near game-ending mistake and a brilliant throw. Buffalo fans better hold onHaving Josh Allen as your quarterback is a bit like owning a high-performance sports car with an odd mechanical flaw that can't be repaired. Most of the results are amazing - perhaps unprecedented - but there are also times when you wonder if a safer ride would get you farther.In Buffalo's 36-31 Sunday win over the Houston Texans, Bills fans saw all sides of the Allenmobile. The quarterback completed 20 of 29 passes for 334 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 130.5. He also ran the ball six times for 23 yards and two more touchdowns, the first a typical romp through the opposing defense. Continue reading...
Progressive politicians such as Zohran Mamdani offer answers to the bitter post-9/11 legacy of failures at home and abroadTwenty-five years after 9/11, two pieces of journalism, describing two different phenomena in contemporary New York, tell us a great deal about a city, and indeed a world, caught between two eras. In one, New York Magazine dives into Habibi City", a New York where a cultural shift is underway, led by a generation of New Yorkers coming into its own". This new generation is labelled as originating in SWANA" - south-west Asia and north Africa, a region that includes countries from Palestine to Iran to Sudan". In the other, Vanity Fair describes calls for Zohran Mamdani to not attend the 9/11 memorial ceremony as partly founded in inchoate, emotional" impulses, that see the city's first Muslim mayor as a stand-in for the 19 Muslims who hijacked four planes and turned them into deadly weapons, part of the them' who attacked us'."Together they capture what has changed over a generation, and what remains stubbornly the same. Members of a diaspora of Muslim background are indeed breaking through and accumulating, as New York Magazine says, clout". They are no longer simply a fixture of bodegas and halal carts, but of Saturday Night Live, upmarket dining, entertainment and politics too. Mamdani is both the expression of that cohort and the catalyst of its recognition as an emerging force. They care deeply for their local communities but also for those in Gaza and beyond. Continue reading...
With the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback on leave after his arrest in July, CBS brought a dependable presence into the booth with Jim NantzIf you were looking for insight from the CBS team broadcasting Minnesota's 39-22 comeback win over Green Bay on Sunday afternoon, you were rewarded even before the first snap.Asked by his play-by-play partner, Jim Nantz, what he was focusing on with new Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray, JJ Watt told viewers that Murray was playing against his former head coach Jonathan Gannon. The now-Green Bay defensive coordinator was dismissed from the head coaching job in Arizona at the end of last season. Continue reading...
Craig Berg was hypothermic but alert when located on Isle Royale by Michigan police and officials during solo hikeA 70-year-old hiker who had been missing for a week on a Michigan island was rescued on Saturday, according to the US Coast Guard.Craig Berg was located on Isle Royale with the help of backpackers, Michigan state police troopers and local officials. Even though Berg was found injured and hypothermic, he is alive and alert", according to a statement posted to the Isle Royale national park's Facebook page. Continue reading...
The top-seeded German secured his second grand slam title with a 6-3, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-2 win over the American in New YorkAs at every US Open final, the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd will be full of famous faces. For any eagle-eyed tennis/soccer fans wondering if Trinity Rodman will be in attendance (as she has for all of boyfriend Ben Shelton's matches at this tournament): we probably won't see her today.The American soccer star is at a match of her own. Her Washington Spirit, locked in a chase for first place in the National Women's Soccer League, are about to start the second half of their game against the Boston Legacy about five hours south in DC.We're not done here. The job is not finished. Super excited to get another opportunity to go out there and show my best on Sunday.This whole tournament now at this point has been unchartered territory. I'm in positions I've never been in before. I've beaten guys - beaten a guy or guys that I have never beaten before. I'm just excited to put it all out on the line. Continue reading...
The 8ft statue, installed in Phoenix last week to mark one year since Kirk's killing, was found painted redA newly unveiled statue of the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk was vandalized at the Turning Point USA headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona.The statue was found with red spray-paint. A nearby poster memorial in front of the statue was vandalized with red paint as well. Continue reading...
Police officer shared location of a woman with his relative who is accused of abusing womanA San Jose police officer was fired for using his department's Flock license plate tracking system to share the location of a woman with the suspect accused of abusing her, Chief Paul Joseph told NBC Bay Area on Friday.The firing marks another in a growing number of cases of misuse of a controversial surveillance technology that has expanded rapidly over the last several years. Continue reading...
Vice-president wears religion on his sleeve but winding spiritual path could alienate evangelicals and CatholicsUS vice-president JD Vance has worn his religion on his sleeve since converting to Catholicism in 2019. He recently published a book, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, and memorably met the late Pope Francis at the Vatican on Easter Sunday in 2025, a day before the pontiff died.But his religious identity could take on new weight as he positions himself for a presidential run in 2028, in which a successful campaign would make him only the third Catholic president in US history. Vance's winding spiritual path - combined with his avowed evangelical roots - have the potential to stymie him, as he seeks to retain the Christian nationalist voters that have sustained Donald Trump's Make America Great Again (Maga) movement while wooing fellow Catholics. Continue reading...
Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany and pilot swim to safety after plane made emergency landing in lakeA Republican congressman said he had to swim to safety after a plane he was traveling in made an emergency landing in a lake late Saturday.Representative Tom Tiffany says he was returning from the La Crosse county Lincoln Day Dinner when the light aircraft lost power as it approached Wausau downtown airport. The pilot made an emergency landing in Lake Wausau. They both ended up in the water and swam to safety. Continue reading...
Europe got off to a fast start in the singles before holding off an attempted American comeback to regain the Solheim CupCharley Hull lets go of her club - a wet grip? - while sending her second at the par-five 2nd into a fairway bunker. She whips into the green and makes par, but Megan Khang set up a six-foot birdie chance to level the match. However she repeats the error of the 1st hole, leaving a dribbler short, failing to take into account the slowness of the wet greens. A let-off for Hull.1UP Hull v Khang (2)
As Muslims win historic victories, experts describe rise in anti-Islamic sentiment that rivals post-9/11 climateWithin hours of Abdul El-Sayed's victory in Michigan's Democratic US Senate primary, Republican senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama declared that the party had just voted to send a TERRORIST" to Washington.El-Sayed - or Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed", as Tuberville called him on X - was a RADICAL ISLAMIST" who would do everything he can to destroy America", he claimed. Continue reading...
Former vice-president and her husband were not home when person entered their property, no arrests were madeLaw enforcement officials and a spokesperson for former vice-president Kamala Harris said a trespasser was stopped at her Malibu home in California on Friday night.Neither the former vice-president nor her husband, Doug Emhoff, were home at the time. Continue reading...
The government apparently has an issue with paths for cyclists. Take it from someone who can't ride a bike: this makes no senseI'm out of gas. Not metaphorically. Literally, my car has the barest minimum amount of fuel in it. This is not because I like to live dangerously, a la the great literary hero Austin Powers, but because gas is more expensive than ever. I have nowhere to be today, so I'm allowing my car to sit idle, empty and alone, lest my bank account disappear into the Phantom Zone of negative balance. If things get sticky, I can take public transit or, God forbid, ride a bike.Except I can't ride a bike, thanks to my parents, who were too busy doing more important tasks than teaching me, like arguing or falling asleep. But for many Americans, riding a bike is a perfectly normal thing to do. Am I humiliated that one of the many basic skills for life that I don't know is considered so simple that it became a common idiom for something that's easy? Yes, of course. I don't live dangerously, I live humiliatingly. Humiliation is my middle name. Dave Humiliation Schilling. Go on, point and laugh at the photo of me in this article. Get it out of your system so we can move along.Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist Continue reading...
Policies enacted by RFK Jr have not delivered the expected results, but have instead hindered people's ability to eat healthyCyclospora in leafy greens, E coli in frozen blueberries, salmonella in jalapenos - multiple food-borne illness outbreaks in the US, alongside massive cuts to food assistance programs and to the federal agencies charged with food safety, are showing the limitations of the Make America Healthy Again (Maha) movement, experts say.The policies that we're enacting are the exact opposite policies one might look to to help people eat healthier," said Jessica Knurick, a science communicator and registered dietitian with a PhD in nutrition science. Continue reading...
President has hyped growth of federal investment accounts to help US children - for his own political gainSince returning to the White House, Donald Trump has scrapped rules that made childcare more affordable and pushed to cut funding for the nation's public schools. But with midterm elections fast approaching and his approval ratings very low, the US president has repeatedly trumpeted a two-month-old program designed to help the nation's children. That program, unhumbly named Trump accounts", calls for the federal government to give a one-time $1,000 seed deposit to every newborn whose family applies.In campaign speeches this summer, Trump has sought to milk these accounts for maximum political advantage, making big promises about how much these accounts will help the nation's children. In a speech in Las Vegas last month, Trump hailed the program, saying: It's really giving [children] a head start on the American dream... They start off with $1,000 ... and they can end up with $100,000, $200,000, $300,000" and if the stock market booms, you'd end up with $1m". Continue reading...
This type of training is needed now more than ever, as the American workplace gets more and more diverseAs a certified public accountant, I'm required to earn at least 80 hours every two years of continuing professional education credits. Many other professions and trades, including lawyers, healthcare professionals, engineers, electricians, plumbers and certain contractors, have similar requirements. It's a good idea.These professional requirements often also include ethics training. That's a good idea too. But just getting a refresher on ethics isn't enough. Something else is needed - something that's even more important: etiquette. Continue reading...
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