Trump had told Mike Johnson that he would not spend $4.9bn in congressionally approved foreign aid

Health secretary claims Biden officials twisted the data' despite research showing mifepristone is safe and effectiveThe US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has suggested that Biden-era regulations expanding access to abortion pills could be rolled back because the Biden administration had twisted the data" behind the pills.Kennedy made the remark more than an hour into a tense interrogation by members of the US Senate judiciary committee over his chaotic tenure at the health department, which has been marked by thousands of layoffs and the promotion of leaders with little background in public health and medicine. Continue reading...

Lower amount would have allowed Stanley Burkhardt, an ex-child abuse detective, to secure release pending case outcomeFormer New Orleans police child abuse detective and convicted child molester Stanley Burkhardt is the worst kind of offender" who always tries to find ways around the terms of his conditional releases from custody, a Louisiana state prosecutor said in court on Wednesday.The comment from William Dieters, the assistant New Orleans district attorney, came as the prosecutor successfully argued against the 74-year-old Burkhardt's request for a bond reduction in a parole violation case that would have allowed him to secure his release from custody pending the case's outcome. Continue reading...

Weapon valued up to $3m and items from movies including Alien and Armageddon for sale in three-day online auctionIconic movie props from a galaxy far, far away, and from a search for the Holy Grail much closer to home, are for sale in a blockbuster auction in California featuring a trove of silver screen history.Darth Vader's lightsaber from the final two films of the original Star Wars trilogy is the most valuable lot in the three-day online auction hosted by Propstore, a Los Angeles company specializing in movie memorabilia. Continue reading...

Former Senate leader likens administration's fixation with tariffs to isolationist policies of the US in the 1930s

After New Orleans was ravaged 20 years ago, two places of worship teamed up to offer a space for devastated residentsBefore the floods from Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city of New Orleans 20 years ago, Franklin Avenue Baptist church was booming.We had three morning services. We had a gymnasium, overflow rooms. Next door was the family center. There was an exercise room and library," said the Rev Fred Luter Jr, pastor of Franklin Avenue. We had just bought 90 acres of property. We were the talk of the town." Continue reading...

The president is targeting Chicago in his latest bid to assert authority over Democratic governance and racial pluralismWe're going in," Donald Trump said on Tuesday, when asked whether national guard troops would be sent to invade Chicago. The comment came as reports emerged that national guard troops from Texas - not yet federalized under direct presidential control - were preparing to deploy to Chicago in the coming days, in defiance of the opposition repeatedly and forcefully expressed by the Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson, and the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, both Democrats.The White House and the president's allies have claimed that the deployment is a response to violent crime in Chicago. This is a lie. Crime in Chicago has dropped dramatically over the past decades, as it has in every major American city - including Los Angeles, where Trump deployed the national guard and the marines earlier this year, and Washington DC, where armed federal agents have patrolled the streets for much of the past month. The deployment of armed forces to American cities - serving at his pleasure even when they are not officially under his direct command - has nothing to do with crime", except insofar as the administration has sought to redefine the term to mean Democratic governance, racial pluralism or the presence of immigrants. There is no violent crime in Chicago, or in any of these cities, that federal troops can be usefully deployed to quell.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Report links Arizona-Sonora smuggling to rising homicide and overdose deaths in both countriesA new golden triangle" of fentanyl and gun trafficking between Mexico and the US ties together the homicide and overdose crises of the two countries, according to a a new study.The triangle spans Baja California, Sinaloa and Sonora - the three states where almost all fentanyl seizures in Mexico take place - and connects to Arizona through a quieter part of the US-Mexico border that has become a hotspot for trafficking in both directions. Continue reading...

One sheriff calls surprise use of deputy email list offering $50,000 hiring bonus unprofessional and unethical'The White House's aggressive push to hire federal immigration agents is causing friction with local sheriffs - even those who back Donald Trump's deportation agenda.More than a dozen US sheriffs and law enforcement associations have complained that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has tried to poach local deputies and officers as Ice rapidly expands. Continue reading...

Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem says she hopes it will encourage people in the US illegally to self-deportThe Trump administration purposely chose a notorious Louisiana prison to hold immigration detainees as a way to encourage people in the US illegally to self-deport, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary, Kristi Noem, said on Wednesday.A complex inside the Louisiana state penitentiary, an immense rural prison better known as Angola, will be used to detain those whom Noem described as the worst of the worst" Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detainees. Noem was speaking to reporters as she stood on the grounds of the facility near a new sign reading, Louisiana Lockup". Continue reading...

The president seeking to overhaul the Smithsonian has a dark vision of the past that he's using to advance his agendaOf all the presidents, Donald Trump - the man who would remake the Smithsonian and alter its presentation of how bad slavery was", as he put it - is surely the most ignorant of American history itself.What Trump doesn't know fills the Library of Congress, whose chief librarian he has fired, along with driving out the heads of the National Archives and the National Portrait Gallery, as well as dissolving programs of the National Endowment for the Humanities and defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which as a result has paused the acclaimed American Experience documentary series. Continue reading...

Children, sick and disabled people among 6,000 imprisoned without charge or trial. Plus, Portugal mourns after deadly funicular crash in Lisbon

Unless this dangerous precedent is condemned and curtailed, it will enable US authorities to summarily shoot anyone they chooseThe US military's killing of 11 alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers traveling by boat in international waters in the Caribbean is an illegal use of war powers to address what should have been a situation of law enforcement. Unless this dangerous precedent is condemned and curtailed, it will enable US authorities to summarily shoot anyone they choose by simply declaring a war" against them.Last month, it was reported that Donald Trump had signed a secret decree authorizing the Pentagon to use military force against certain designated Latin American drug cartels, claiming that they were terrorist" organizations. On Tuesday, Trump wrote that on his orders the military had targeted Tren de Aragua narcoterrorists", accusing them of operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro", the Venezuelan leader, and being responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere".Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch (1993-2022), is a visiting professor at Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs. His book, Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments, was published by Knopf and Allen Lane in February. Continue reading...

Cabin crews across North America are not paid for work done before takeoff, but a new Canada deal has raised hopeAs you board the plane, the flight attendant welcomes you on board. They point you to your seat and help with your luggage, before giving the safety demonstration, and preparing the plane for take-off. And there's a good chance they've done it all for free.But a tentative deal between Air Canada and thousands of flight attendants has sparked hope more airlines will end a little-known reality for many North American cabin crews - and pay flight attendants when planes are not moving. Continue reading...

This is not a partisan issue. The American people - and Epstein's many victims - deserve transparencyIn 1986, my life went from black-and-white to color. It was the year I taped a Duran Duran poster to my rural Pennsylvania high school locker, and then months later hung out with band members backstage at the Paris runway shows. It was the year I went from cleaning bathrooms for $3.35 an hour to making $50k in a day for a Maybelline shoot. Modeling opened a door into a gorgeous, creative, elite world - a dream born of a biological accident.It is also what led me, decades later, into the very uncomfortable position of speaking out about the horrific legacy of child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whom I briefly dated in 1993.Stacey Williams is a former model Continue reading...

Larry Pickett Jr and his father pulled the driver out shortly before it erupted in flames after colliding into utility polesA member of the US army academy's college football team has been hailed as heroic" after he and his father pulled the driver of a wrecked car out of the vehicle shortly before it erupted in flames over the Labor Day weekend, according to officials and video of the daring rescue.The video shows Larry Pickett Jr and his father, Larry Pickett Sr, as they take a man out of the driver's seat of the car and then carry him to safety across a four-lane highway early on Sunday. Continue reading...

At one point not long ago, the world governing body at least tried to look like it cared about growing the game worldwide. Not any moreIf there's the tiniest sliver of an upside to the latest news about ticketing for the 2026 World Cup, it's that we can finally dispense with the pretense that Fifa is interested in growing the game any more.Fifa confirmed on Wednesday that it will, for the first time, use a dynamic ticket pricing model for the tournament, which will be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada. While tickets will initially range from $60 for the cheap seats in some group-stage matches to $6,730 for the best vantage point at the final, those prices will then be algorithmically handed over to the market to respond to demand, which will probably cause them to skyrocket. After all, the first tranche of tickets goes on sale through an application and lottery system next week, but the World Cup draw will not take place until December. The gap between ticket sales and the assignment of teams to those actual matches all but guarantees a surge of demand for a diminished supply. Continue reading...

Nigel Farage has appeared before a US congressional hearing on censorship. In an opening statement, the Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin accused the British politician of ingratiating himself with Donald Trump and tech companies. The Reform UK leader was also criticised over his relationship with Vladimir Putin. The House judiciary committee questioned Farage on whether he truly backed free speech, with one Democrat asking why journalists from hostile publications had been banned from Reform events

The NFL season kicks off on Thursday night. Which rookies will impress? Will Dallas regret the Micah Parsons trade? And who will win it all?The Micah Parsons revenge tour. Ignore the nonsense coming out of Dallas. Jerry Jones's claim that Parsons hurt the Cowboys' run defense is laughable. So is the idea that Parsons' ego was an issue. NFL history is filled with game-breaking pass-rushers with big egos or, umm, personality quirks. What matters is production, and Parsons is a one-of-a-kind pass-rushing force, capable of detonating the pocket from any alignment. No defender has generated more pressures since Parsons entered the league. With him on the field, the Cowboys had the No 1 defense in the league; when he was off the field, they fell to the second-worst unit in the league. If he needed any extra motivation, the Cowboys booting him on the way out should provide it. OC Continue reading...

This blog is now closed. You can read our latest story hereAs part of the Trump administration's campaign of mass deportations, the defense department will soon have hundreds of military judges work on immigration cases, the Associated Press reports:The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has approved sending up to 600 military lawyers to the federal justice department to serve as temporary immigration judges, according to a memo reviewed by the Associated Press. Continue reading...

If Greg Abbott signs, state would become first to try to crack down on the most common abortion methodA measure that would allow Texas residents to sue out-of-state abortion pill providers advanced to the desk of the governor, Greg Abbott, on Wednesday, setting up the state to be the first to try to crack down on the most common abortion method.Supporters say it's a key tool to enforce the state's abortion ban, protecting women and fetuses. Continue reading...

US army accused of repeatedly violating its own policies' over 2023 shooting by reservist that left 18 people deadSurvivors and family members of victims of the 2023 mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, are suing the US government, alleging that the US army could have stopped the attack carried out by an army reservist but failed to intervene.The suit, filed on Wednesday in Maine district court, alleges that despite decades of knowledge about the risks posed by soldiers in crisis, the policies and procedures the army has developed around dealing with service members who are struggling with severe mental health challenges were not used to disarm the shooter, a sergeant with a 21-year history in the army reserve. Eighteen people were killed in the attack. Continue reading...

Mark Warner says officials rescinded invitation because of campaign of baseless attacks' by extremist Trump backerSenator Mark Warner said on Wednesday that a meeting he had scheduled at the headquarters of a US intelligence agency was cancelled following online attacks by the far-right activist and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer.Warner, the Democratic vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, was set to visit the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in Virginia in what he described part of his responsibility to provide oversight and support to our intelligence community". Continue reading...

Several survivors of the deceased sex offender signalled their support for a bipartisan resolution to release all the files related to him. Key US politics stories from 3 September 2025Donald Trump has labelled the continuing Epstein scandal a Democrat hoax" and told reporters I think it's enough", a day after his administration released more documents as part of the investigation, the majority of which contained information that was already public.The president said on Wednesday that thousands and thousands of documents" had been released but no matter what you do it's going to keep going." Continue reading...

Will Thilly danced, backspun and moon-walked at Cranford meeting while raising questions on local tax hikesA man from New Jersey has gone viral after breakdancing at a local town hall meeting.Will Thilly, a resident of the township of Cranford, just outside New York City, on Tuesday took to the podium by performing a wordless robot dance. As he made his way up the aisle, he spun around and danced without music, leaving the room in an awkward silence. Some attendees looked away while others buried their faces in their hands. Continue reading...

Decision marks major victory for school after White House accused it of not addressing harassment of Jewish studentsA federal judge on Wednesday ruled Donald Trump's administration unlawfully terminated about $2.2bn in grants awarded to Harvard University and can no longer cut off research funding to the Ivy League school.The decision by US district judge Allison Burroughs in Boston marked a major legal victory for Harvard as it seeks to cut a deal that could bring an end to the White House's multi-front conflict with the country's oldest and richest university. Continue reading...

Proposed consent order and agreement to allow voters to provide information while voting with provisional ballotDemocrats notched a victory against the civil rights division of the Department of Justice, negotiating an agreement to keep about 98,000 North Carolina voters from being prevented from voting.The justice department, which under Donald Trump has moved away from its historical focus on expanding voting rights, sued the North Carolina state board of elections earlier this year, demanding that the state deny a ballot to voters who had not provided a driver's license number or the last four digits of their social security number when they registered, as required under the Help America Vote Act. Continue reading...

Democrats decry creation of subcommittee as attempt to rewrite narrative and shift blame from Donald TrumpHouse Republicans have voted to establish a new subcommittee to reinvestigate the January 6 attack, a move that comes as Donald Trump has tried to rewrite the history of the most violent incident in US Capitol history.Language to set up the Republican-led subcommittee was folded into a larger rule that passed along party lines. The new subcommittee follows Republican claims that the previous Democratic-led committee was biased against Trump. Continue reading...

Felix Auger-Aliassime saw off Alex de Minaur and Amanda Anisimova avenged her Wimbledon thrashing by Iga Swiatek, to reach the semi-finalsNow an easy hold for Demon, and though it's possible one of these takes three tight sets, the sense is that we're settling in for a good few hours. Let's hope so: we've had too many one-sided matches these last 10 days and we're due a classic. That said, I really enjoyed the beating Osaka put on Gauff, with Muchova v Kostyuk probably my most enjoyed match so far. Meantime, Felix nails an ace for 40-30, then spanks a forehand into the corner. But De Minaur hoists a moon-ball of a lob and the overhead goes into the net; at 1-1 deuce, here comes pressure ... quickly alleviated with a monstrous serve and follow-up overhead. That's a really good sign, given what happened in the previous point, and when the Demon nets, he leads 2-1 in the first, on serve.Auger-Aliassime holds to 15, looking pretty good while doing it. He's into the match and looks good and businesslike. And for extra points, he's got Daffy Duck on his shirt. Continue reading...

Larry Pickett Jr and his father rushed to pull a man out of his car after he crashed into a utility poll in Fort Montgomery, NY, on Sunday. Pickett Jr had played his first football game of the season for the Army college football squad at its home stadium earlier in the evening. The family spotted the wrecked vehicle on their way home. The driver of the car appeared confused as they dragged him out of his white sedan before it caught fire Continue reading...

Co-author says bill almost has signatures needed to bypass leadership as survivor says this legislation really matters'

Fifth circuit says Alien Enemies Act can not justify removal of Venezuelans accused of gang ties in peacetimeA court ruling that blocked Donald Trump from invoking the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans he alleged were part of a criminal gang has been hailed as a victory for the rule of law".In a 2-1 decision on Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the fifth US circuit court of appeals issued a preliminary injunction that prevents the Trump administration using the 1798 law to justify rapid deportations. Continue reading...

Democrats accuse Reform leader of being a Trump sycophant' as he missed prime minister's questions to give evidence before House committeeNigel Farage has been accused of being a Putin-loving free speech impostor" whose main motivation is ingratiating himself with Donald Trump and tech companies, during a sometimes difficult appearance before a US congressional hearing on censorship.The Reform UK leader, who missed prime minister's questions to appear as a witness before the House judiciary committee, was invited by its Republican leadership, who quizzed him about what Farage called the awful authoritarian" situation for free speech in the UK. Continue reading...

Three Democratic governors create West Coast Health Alliance amid growing turmoil at HHS under RFK Jr

Jared Wise, a DoJ senior adviser, urged fellow rioters to kill police officers during the 2021 Capitol attackA January 6 defendant who urged fellow rioters to kill police officers should be fired from his job at the justice department, three senate Democrats wrote in a letter to US attorney general Pam Bondi on Wednesday.Earlier this year, the defendant, Jared Wise, was hired as a counselor to Ed Martin, a prominent January 6 defense lawyer who is leading a so-called weaponization working group inside the justice department that is targeting Trump's political rivals. The scope of Wise's role remains unclear. Continue reading...

Company removed image on website that appeared to show Mangione in a white shirt reportedly priced just under $10The clothing company Shein said it has opened an internal investigation after its website briefly displayed a shirt listing featuring an image resembling Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, in New York last year.The image appeared to show Mangione in a short-sleeved white shirt, and the top was reportedly priced at just under $10. Continue reading...

Video taken outside Epstein's cell on night he died is part of new materials released by House oversight committee

Deputy's rape case highlights alleged failures in youth programs run by Scouting America, formerly Boy ScoutsIn May, prosecutors in Seattle charged a sheriff's deputy with raping a 17-year-old girl. The deputy met the teenager while he was an adviser in his department's youth mentorship program known as Explorers.The victim, now 24, came forward in May to report the abuse, which she alleges took place in 2017 and 2018. The assaults allegedly began after King county sheriff's deputy Ricardo Arturo Cueva told her she was cute and that he liked her while they were alone on a ride-along in his police SUV. Cueva - who is 15 years her senior - later kissed the teenager while they were on a separate ride-along at night. Continue reading...

Letter says Kennedy endangered installed ideologues, US health and ignored pleas as resignations mounted at CDC

Russian national who applied for asylum on political grounds describes inhumane treatment while in US custodyUS immigration authorities have deported dozens of Russian asylum seekers to Moscow, including a serviceman wanted for desertion who has since been detained, the Guardian can reveal.At least two deportation flights operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) departed from the agency's major detention hub in Alexandria, Louisiana and landed in Cairo, Egypt, where the asylum seekers were transferred to flights bound for Moscow with the cooperation of Egyptian and Russian authorities, according to interviews with passengers and human rights campaigners. Continue reading...