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Trump says all hostages to be released and Israel to withdraw troops to an agreed line. Plus, shutdown deadlock deepens as senators reject competing bills

Artificial intelligence endangers democracy - but it's less about specific deepfakes and more about a bigger transformationWe study AI and democracy. We're worried about 2050, not 2026.Half of humanity lives in countries that held national elections last year. Experts warned that those contests might be derailed by a flood of undetectable, deceptive AI-generated content. Yet what arrived was a wave of AI slop: ubiquitous, low quality, and sometimes misleading, but rarely if ever decisive at the polls. Still, given the outcome of the US presidential election, few observers concerned about democracy felt relief. The immediate, prolonged challenges brought by the second Trump administration make it difficult to do much more than react to crises as they happen.Samuel Woolley is the author of Manufacturing Consensus: Understanding Propaganda in the Era of Automation and Anonymity and co-author of Bots. He is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Dean Jackson is a senior fellow at the University of Pittsburgh's CTRL Lab, a contributing editor at Tech Policy Press and the principal of Public Circle LLC, a research consultancy on technology and democracy issues Continue reading...

The club will finally begin playing in Miami next season. For local fans near Chase Stadium there are mixed emotionsFrom an abandoned and derelict symbol of failed efforts to establish professional football in south Florida, to the arena where Lionel Messi has dazzled MLS while attracting visitors from around the globe. It has been a unique journey for the site where Fort Lauderdale's Lockhart Stadium once stood.Even after all these years it's so funny to me that Lionel Messi, one of the most famous faces in the history of mankind, is not only playing for our club but playing in this stadium that was abandoned," said Nico Abad, a member of The Siege supporters' group and a native of Broward County, where Chase Stadium stands on the former site of Lockhart. It's where kids would go to do doughnuts and to smoke and drink." Continue reading...

Colorado Republican congresswoman kicks off fourth term run with email to potential donors: They tell us we're crazy'Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert has kicked off her run for a fourth term in the US House by pledging to pursue the truth about UFOs", said an email from the Colorado politician's re-election campaign to potential donors.For decades, our government has shrouded the truth about UFOs in a veil of secrecy," the Boebert campaign's message on the topic read. Strange crafts have been spotted soaring through our skies, defying the laws of physics, and yet the bureaucrats in Washington act like we're too NAIVE to handle the facts." Continue reading...

Exclusive: Republicans Against Perry are relaunching their campaign to oust Trump ally Scott Perry in 2026A group of Republicans in Pennsylvania are relaunching their efforts to unseat Congressman Scott Perry, the fervent Trump ally who represents the state's 10th congressional district, according to plans first provided to the Guardian.The Republicans Against Perry" (Rap) group began in late 2023, backing the congressman's Democratic opponent, Janelle Stelson, who ended up losing by less than two points in the 2024 election. Now, Rap is restarting their grassroots campaign on Thursday, which includes a slew of electronic billboards throughout the district. Continue reading...

A southern hockey feud has morphed into a clash of styles, politics and privilege that mirrors America itself and exposes how deeply the NHL's power still skewsThe Florida Panthers-Tampa Bay Lightning rivalry was once a regional sideshow, a quirky matchup between two southern expansion teams playing to half-empty arenas and polite indifference. But in the space of just a few years it has mutated into the nastiest, most revealing feud in hockey: one that's exposed the NHL's double standards, cronyism and cultural divide.Preseason hockey is meaningless by design, a handful of perfunctory tune-ups that even hardcore fans barely notice in the run-up to opening night, when the games finally start to count. Yet in the past week the Panthers and Lightning turned a pair of exhibition contests into three-hour fever dreams of violence: 114 penalties totaling nearly 500 minutes in the box, 16 game misconducts and one ejected player who somehow picked up an assist on an eighth goal that shouldn't have counted. It was all-out bedlam before the season even began, but the uneven fallout has raised uncomfortable questions around the sport. Continue reading...

Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen have former an axis of excellence. But which player will break that cycle?There has been a trend in recent NFL seasons. Around Week 8, the MVP race starts to follow a predictable script: Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson (if the Ravens are rolling) will almost certainly feature.Between 2015 and 2019, the NFL had four first-time MVP winners - Cam Newton, Matt Ryan, Mahomes and Jackson. But in the last five years, only Allen has been a first-time winner (Aaron Rodgers, Mahomes and Jackson were the other victors). Continue reading...

Relatives of Israeli hostages who are currently residing in Washington DC spoke over the phone with US president Trump, who told them that their loved ones will all return on Monday (October 13). Continue reading...

Trump announces first steps' to durable peace'; Kristi Noem compares Antifa to MS-13. Key US politics stories from 8 October at a glance

Politicians, poets and academics make posts on social media to laud the US president or share concerns

Witnesses at White House describe being assaulted by leftwing protesters but fail to mention they often confront people and film the responses they provoke. This blog is now closed.

Jonathan Rinderknecht allegedly started blaze that destroyed over 6,800 structures in CaliforniaA 29-year-old man has been arrested and charged with igniting the fire that days later became the devastating Palisades blaze, which killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,800 structures in one of the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles history.Jonathan Rinderknecht was arrested near his Florida residence on federal charges of destruction of property by means of fire, acting US attorney for the central district of California, Bill Essayli, announced on Wednesday. No motive was presented. Continue reading...

The plan attempts to thread the needle between creating the conditions for a ceasefire and negotiating a lasting end to the war but hard questions remainFor Donald Trump, a peace deal - or even a durable ceasefire between Israel and Hamas - could be the biggest diplomatic achievement of his presidency.The details and sequencing of a deal to end Israel's war in Gaza remain murky but the statement of purpose by both Israel and Hamas is meaningful. In agreeing to a deal with political backing from Arab states and other regional powers, this is the best chance for an end to the war since a ceasefire broke down in March, returning Gaza to a grinding war that has left nearly 68,000 people dead, most of them civilians. Continue reading...

First vote in Congress on military campaign that White House says has hit four vessels and killed at least 21 peopleSenate Republicans voted down legislation Wednesday that would have put a check on Donald Trump's ability to use deadly military force against drug cartels after Democrats tried to counter the administration's extraordinary assertion of presidential war powers to destroy vessels in the Caribbean.The vote fell mostly along party lines, 48-51, with two Republicans, Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski, voting in favor and the Democrat John Fetterman voting against. Continue reading...

Purpose of Friday checkup at US military medical center unclear for oldest man to be inaugurated presidentDonald Trump, the oldest man to be inaugurated US president, will visit Walter Reed national military medical center on Friday for what the White House said was a routine yearly check up".On Friday morning, President Trump will visit Walter Reed Medical Center for a planned meeting and remarks with the troops," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on Wednesday. While there, President Trump will stop by for his routine yearly check up. He will then return to the White House." Continue reading...

During a White House roundtable, secretary of state Marco Rubio handed Donald Trump a handwritten note with the words 'very close' underlined. 'I was just given a note by the secretary of state saying that we're very close to a deal in the Middle East, and they're going to need me pretty quickly,' said the US president

Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego hold press conference at speaker's office over his refusal to swear in Adelita GrijalvaArizona's Democratic senators pressed Mike Johnson on Wednesday to swear in their state's newest representative, Adelita Grijalva, but the Republican House speaker refused to budge until funding for the government was restored.Grijalva, a Democrat, last month won a special election to replace her late father, Raul M Grijalva, in a southern Arizona House district. However, she has been unable to assume her new role because Johnson has not administered the oath of office. Continue reading...

Homeland security secretary calls loosely affiliated network of anti-fascist street activists just as dangerous'The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, on Wednesday compared antifa to MS-13, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamic State, calling the loosely affiliated network of antifascist street activists just as dangerous" as designated terrorist organizations during a White House roundtable discussion.They are just as sophisticated as MS-13, as TDA [Tren de Aragua], as Isis, as Hezbollah, as Hamas, as all of them, they are just as dangerous," Noem said. They have an agenda to destroy us, just like the other terrorists we've dealt with for many, many years." Continue reading...

Move comes after White House memo suggests workers may not get back pay, despite law Trump signed in first termThe Internal Revenue Service said it will furlough nearly half of its employees - about 34,000 workers - due to the government shutdown, making it significantly harder for US taxpayers to receive assistance.In a statement on Wednesday, the IRS said that due to the lapse in appropriations", it would begin its furlough on 8 October for everyone except already-identified excepted and exempt employees". Continue reading...

Authorities say they found convicted killer Derrick Groves after a standoff at a home in south-west AtlantaThe last fugitive from the high-profile, 10-man New Orleans jailbreak in May has been captured, according to authorities.In an announcement on Wednesday, Jason Williams, the New Orleans district attorney, said that authorities had captured four-time convicted killer Derrick Groves after a standoff at a home in south-west Atlanta. Continue reading...

UK ministers preparing to raise payments to end standoff with pharma industry, cited as reason for firms axing British investmentsMinisters are preparing to raise the amount the NHS pays pharmaceutical firms for medicines by up to 25% after weeks of intensive talks with the Donald Trump administration and drugmakers.Labour has drawn up fresh proposals to end a standoff with the industry over drug pricing, including changing the cost-effectiveness thresholds under which new medications are assessed for use on the NHS, according to industry sources. Continue reading...

State attorney general Ken Paxton claims cabal of abortion-loving radicals' practiced medicine without a licenseEight people linked to a Texas midwife accused of performing illegal abortions have been arrested, Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, announced on Wednesday.The midwife, Maria Rojas, earlier this year became the first person to be charged under Texas laws that outlaw virtually all abortions. She is now facing three counts of performing an abortion and 12 counts of practicing medicine without a license. The new arrests were all of people indicted for practicing medicine without a license under Rojas, who operated three clinics in the Houston area, according to Paxton's office. Continue reading...

Proposals from both sides fail to receive enough support as no senators change their votes from recent days

Katie Porter grows testy when CBS reporter asks about 40% of voters who went for Trump, saying: I'm going to call it'Former California representative Katie Porter, a leading Democratic candidate for governor, threatened to walk out of an interview with a local news outlet after the reporter pressed her on whether support for a redistricting measure would alienate Republicans who voted for Donald Trump.The on-camera exchange between Porter and the CBS News reporter Julie Watts has gained widespread attention, drawing a sharp rebuke from her rivals and potentially shaking up the stagnant race to replace the term-limited Gavin Newsom. Continue reading...

Air traffic controllers warn of escalating delays and stress as the government shutdown enters its second week

Suit filed by Republican congressman challenges state law allowing late-arriving mail-in ballots to be countedThe US supreme court heard arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit challenging an Illinois law governing how the state counts mailed-in absentee ballots received after election day, meeting a sympathetic bench.Arguments center on who has standing to challenge the law, not whether the practice itself is constitutionally valid. Justices asked questions about whether they should view a political candidate as an object" of the law - an entity for whom a regulation bears a direct consequence, and whether the odds of mail-in ballots tipping an election had bearing on whether a candidate had a right to challenge the law. Continue reading...

Case marks significant step in Trump's efforts to politicize the justice department and punish political enemiesThe former FBI director James Comey pleaded not guilty in court on Wednesday in connection with federal charges that he lied to Congress in 2020.Comey entered the federal courthouse shortly before 10am through a private entrance. He was joined in court by his legal team, as well as his wife and daughter, Maurene, who was fired last month as a federal prosecutor in the southern district of New York. Troy Edwards Jr, Comey's son-in-law who resigned as a prosecutor in the eastern district of Virginia immediately after Comey was indicted, was also seen at the courthouse. Continue reading...

Mobile county sheriff, Paul Burch, faces backlash after skeletons in sombreros and ICE' shirts spotted in his yardA sheriff in Mobile county, Alabama, is facing criticism for putting up a Halloween display that featured two fake skeletons in sombreros and traditional Mexican ponchos being chased over a fence by three skeletal figures dressed in ICE" T-shirts.The display outside sheriff Paul Burch's home has drawn ire online, from neighbors and from Hispanic interest groups. Continue reading...

President accused Brandon Johnson and JB Pritzker of failing to protect Ice officers as troops deploy to ChicagoDonald Trump on Wednesday called for the imprisonment of Brandon Johnson, Chicago's mayor, and JB Pritzker, the Illinois governor, accusing them of failing to protect US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers.Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers!" Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday morning. Governor Pritzker also!" Continue reading...

Memphis lawmaker to go up against Steve Cohen, joining wave of younger candidates calling for generational changeJustin Pearson, a Memphis state lawmaker who rose to prominence in 2023 as part of the Tennessee Three" gun control advocates, on Wednesday launched a primary challenge against Democratic congressman Steve Cohen, joining a wave of younger candidates calling for generational change in the party.For too long, our district has been told to keep going' with the same leadership and the same outcomes, even as Memphis's poverty rate at 22.6% is nearly double the rate for all Tennesseans," Pearson, 30, said in a statement, announcing his candidacy. We can't afford more of the same." Continue reading...

Every year players are pushed to their limits in a sport that chases the sun. But the number of retirements, withdrawals and injuries this season has been shockingJannik Sinner had tried everything but after baking for two and a half hours inside the suffocating sauna of Shanghai's stadium court, he was finished. Even around midnight, the humidity was still so oppressive that Sinner had spent the final 20 minutes of his third-round match against Tallon Griekspoor cramping, panting and in considerable pain. Eventually, he could not even walk properly. Midway through the final set, the 24-year-old hobbled slowly to his chair using his racket as a crutch and terminated the match.Those scenes were representative of the Shanghai Masters so far as, throughout the past week, so many players have wilted in brutal conditions. Terence Atmane and Hamad Medjedovic both retired after struggling with the heat. Francisco Comesana appeared close to collapsing and he had to be helped mid-match by his opponent Lorenzo Musetti. Despite the benefit of competing at night, Novak Djokovic repeatedly vomited in two consecutive matches and there were times in his fourth round win over Jaume Munar where he too looked as if he had reached his limit. Continue reading...

For NWSL and WNBA players' unions, collective actions have been key to their successes in wholly different sportsAs the WNBA's biggest stars warmed up for the All-Star Game on 19 July, the message came through loud and clear. All wore shirts reading Pay Us What You Owe Us," with the Women's National Basketball Players' Association (WNBPA) logo prominently displayed below. The visual immediately went viral, drawing attention to the union's ongoing negotiations with the league for a new collective bargaining agreement.Had the messaging started and ended with those shirts, it would have been notable, but limited in scope. Instead, a continuing campaign became just one example of the ways the two most prominent women's players' unions in the US have worked together to advance their causes. Continue reading...

The Blair-Trump fantasy for postwar Gaza shows the former PM still thinks that free enterprise can solve all the world's illsThere are two types of politician," Tony Blair observed in 2012. Reality creators and reality managers." While postwar politics was generally a matter of steady management, he claimed, the emerging order called for more creativity, both in the economy and foreign policy". Only a particular type of visionary leader was fit for the task.More than a decade later, Blair has now joined forces with the pre-eminent reality-creator, Donald Trump, to draft a hallucinatory 20-point plan for Gaza. It aims to turn the devastated Strip into what seems to resemble a colonial protectorate: cleansed of armed conflict, buzzing with development projects and a special economic zone" through which foreign capital can flow, and overseen by an international board of peace" with Trump himself as chair. Continue reading...

Residents in Michigan city on edge as threats against their community rise, and some are reassessing their support for TrumpAmirah Sharhan recalls it being a regular fall afternoon in October 2024.The Yemeni American, who had been living in the Dearborn and Detroit area for four years, was preparing dinner while her mother took Amirah's seven-year-old daughter, Saida, to a nearby playground to play with her friends. Continue reading...

Drew Scanlon, a resident of San Francisco, said the case was close to him as a friend and his mother are affectedThe man whose befuddled facial expression on a recorded video live stream in 2013 birthed what the internet collectively dubbed the Blinking White Guy meme has managed to convert his online notoriety into more than $300,000 for multiple sclerosis research, he said in a new interview.Drew Scanlon explained to ABC News that donating to the US's National Multiple Sclerosis Society is important to him because a friend of his and her mother both have the chronic, autoimmune disease that attacks people's central nervous systems. Continue reading...

Exclusive: employees would be reimbursed for fees paid to childcare facilities under plans initiated by Ilhan OmarCongressional Democrats are introducing a bill that would provide childcare relief to federal workers affected by the shutdown of the federal government, as it drags on through a second week.Parents would be reimbursed for fees paid to childcare facilities during the shutdown under plans initiated by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Continue reading...

When Weiss was named editor-in-chief, it was the latest turn in the network's confounding departure from its rootsIf you're old enough to have admired CBS in its heyday, watching its decline has been painful.Decades ago, it was dubbed the Tiffany Network - home of the great journalist Walter Cronkite (the most trusted man in America"), and innovator of the top-flight magazine program, 60 Minutes. Continue reading...

This liveblog is now closed. You can find more of our politics coverage hereBefore we turn our attention to Capitol Hill, we're also keeping an eye on Illinois today. On Monday, a federal judge did not immediately block the president's move to deploy national guard troops, including hundreds from Texas, to Chicago.Instead, the judge set a hearing for Thursday, leaving room for the military to make their way to the windy city as soon as today. Continue reading...

CEO Elon Musk touts SUV and sedan, with starting prices of $39,990 and $36,990, as way to tap wider swath of buyersTesla rolled out affordable" versions of its best-selling Model Y SUV and its Model 3 sedan, but the starting prices of US$39,990 and US$36,990 were too high, some said, to attract a new class of buyers to the electric vehicle brand.CEO Elon Musk has touted the car as a way to tap a wider swath of buyers, saying last year that a price below $30,000, after incentives, was the key. Continue reading...

Military presence comes after US district judge declined to immediately block troops from entering city - key US politics stories from 7 October at a glanceTexas national guard troops have arrived in the Chicago area, marking an escalation of Donald Trump's crackdown on the city.Chicago has already seen a ramping up of immigration enforcement in the past few weeks, as well as increasingly violent altercations in the suburb of Broadview, where law enforcement has been filmed deploying teargas and pepper gas against protesters. Continue reading...

New York City's mayoral candidate sits in with Brad Lander after commemorating Israeli and Palestinian victimsThe New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday evening attended a vigil in Manhattan convened by Israelis for Peace, an anti-occupation group of Israelis in New York who have rallied weekly since 2023 to call for a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages.Sitting in Union Square alongside New York City comptroller Brad Lander, his one-time rival for the Democratic nomination who has been campaigning for him, Mamdani listened as speakers at the event - which marked the two-year anniversary of the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel - called for an end to the killing and to Israel's occupation, and for equal rights for Palestinians. Continue reading...

President has threatened to invoke 19th-century law as a means to control mobilization of national guard troopsDonald Trump has once again threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, a law authorizing the president to deploy military forces on US soil, as a means to control the mobilization of the national guard as courts and governors in Democratic-led cities continue to stymie his attempts.But can he do that, and what does it mean? Here's what to know about the centuries-old law. Continue reading...

Oregon governor, Tina Kotek, accuses Ice of antagonizing protesters with teargas and by inviting influencers to filmKristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, toured the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) facility in Portland, Oregon, on Tuesday, getting a first-hand look at a small protest outside, which is entirely unlike the fiery siege" Donald Trump claims is taking place there.Noem, whose department has produced increasingly belligerent social media content of federal officers conducting immigration raids and firing teargas at protesters, was accompanied by a trio of conservative influencers who were whisked from the airport to the facility in her motorcade. Continue reading...