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The US president, JD Vance and Nigel Farage seem to believe that checking facts is a form of censorship. Nonsense: speech is only free when it is anchored in truthFacts are becoming less sacred by the day in Donald Trump's US, where many of his supporters now deny the very existence of truths. To them, inconvenient evidence is by definition bias". His followers and those who fear his fist are falling into line: media, universities and that infamous regiment of tech zillionaires who stood right behind him on inauguration day. The day after Trump's election victory was certified by an electoral vote tally in Congress, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg announced that, starting with the US, the company would get rid of factcheckers and replace them with community notes similar to X".A similar hammer blow has just struck Full Fact, the exceptionally valuable UK factchecker whose word is a gold standard for honesty. Google has pulled its 1m funding. Along with the ending of sizeable donations from Meta, the charity tells me this amounts to a loss of a third of its funding.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

From Jack Johnson to Larry Bird, American sport has grappled with the racial myth of the Great White Hope. Now the Mavericks' new phenom, 18-year-old Cooper Flagg, inherits the mantle - whether he wants it or notEvery time Jack Johnson's big Black fists smashed into a white fighter's face, he wasn't just breaking the bones of his opponents, but the spirit of White America. Blow after blow after blow. Out of this shame, a mythos was born. One after another, white fighters propped up like scarecrows. One after another, collapsing. As cultural critic Gerald Early has argued, Johnson's fights became less about sport and more about the drama of race in America, with every knockout symbolizing a direct challenge to white supremacy. For the next 100 years, across multiple sports, whites have tried to find the next champion to return them to glory. This myth-making even inspired Howard Sackler's Pulitzer-winning play The Great White Hope.In basketball, figures like Jerry West and Pistol" Pete Maravich represented Anglo excellence before the NBA's full desegregation revealed the overwhelming superiority of African-American players. By the time Larry Bird rose in the 1980s, the Great White Hope narrative had simply been repackaged for a new generation. Bird was a badass hick from Indiana. Bird was a godsend to Boston's white working class. Bird was Magic's equal. Bird was the Great White Hope disguised as the Great White Hope denier.I don't want to be seen as the Great White Hope. I just want to be a great basketball player, period. Continue reading...

Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo tried to knock each other down while Curtis Sliwa took shots at bothZohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and current frontrunner for New York City mayor, faced off with Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor now running as an independent, and Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate, at the first New York mayoral election debate on Thursday night.Here are some key takeaways from the evening. Continue reading...

The Democratic nominee and the former governor of New York clashed repeatedly, while Sliwa criticized them bothNew York City's three mayoral candidates faced off on Thursday night in the first of two televised debates, less than three weeks before voters head to the polls.On stage were Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, former governor Andrew Cuomo - now running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani in June - and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. Mayor Eric Adams, who dropped out of the race several weeks ago, did not participate. Continue reading...

John Bolton, who served in Trump's first administration, faces charges of mishandling and transmitting classified information. Key US politics stories from Thursday 16 October at a glanceJohn Bolton, a former national security adviser in Donald Trump's first administration, has vowed to defend his lawful conduct" after a federal grand jury indicted him on charges of mishandling and transmitting classified information.The indictment, filed in Maryland, appears to ultimately have been signed off on from prosecutors in the US attorney's office despite initial reluctance to bring a case before the end of the year. Continue reading...

This blog has now closed. Read our latest politics story hereA reminder that my colleagues are covering the latest developments out of the Middle East, as Israel and Hamas continue to carry out various aspects of the US brokered ceasefire deal.This includes the news today that Israel returned the bodies of 30 Palestinians to Gaza, bringing the total number handed over to 120, according the Gaza health ministry and Nasser hospital in Khan Younis. Continue reading...

Refiled complaint, after judge tossed initial suit last month, also targets individual reporters and book publisherAfter a federal judge tossed Donald Trump's $15bn defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, book publisher Penguin Random House and two Times reporters last month, the US president filed a 40-page amended complaint on Thursday.US district court judge Steven Merryday in Florida gave Trump 28 days to refile and amend the action he threw out on 19 September. Continue reading...

Alvin Holsey just took over the US southern command late last year for a position that normally lasts three yearsAmid escalating tensions with Venezuela and US military strikes on suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean, the US admiral who commands military forces in Latin America will step down at the end of this year, the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, announced on social media.Adm Alvin Holsey's abrupt departure comes less than a year after he took over as head of the US military's southern command, which oversees operations in Central America, South America and the Caribbean. The posting typically lasts three years. Continue reading...

President says plans will lead to many more beautiful American children' but unclear if companies will sign upThe Trump administration announced on Thursday that it is urging US employers to create new fertility benefit options to cover in vitro fertilization (IVF) and other infertility treatments.In an announcement from the Oval Office, Donald Trump also said his administration had cut a deal with the drug manufacturer EMD Serono to lower the cost of one of its fertility drugs and list the drug on the government website TrumpRx. Continue reading...

A network of former intelligence and security officers says democratic decline is accelerating under Trump's ruleThe United States is on a trajectory" toward authoritarian rule, according to a sobering new intelligence-style assessment by former US intelligence and national security officials, who warn that democratic backsliding is accelerating under the Trump administration - and may soon become entrenched without organized resistance.The report, titled Accelerating Authoritarian Dynamics: Assessment of Democratic Decline, was released on Thursday by the Steady State, a network of more than 340 former officers of the CIA, the NSA, the state department and other national security agencies. Continue reading...

Second vote on Pentagon funding also failed meaning process to begin military operations becomes a non-starter

Pritzker, a billionaire, says he plans to donate winnings from playing blackjack on Las Vegas tripThe Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, made more than $1.4m while gambling in Las Vegas last year, according to federal tax filings released by his campaign team.Pritzker, already a billionaire with a family net worth of $41.6bn, who is widely seen as a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, won the money after playing blackjack at a Las Vegas casino while on vacation with his wife and friends, according to his campaign spokesperson. Continue reading...

Meet the content creators whose videos from Portland and Chicago shape the president's distorted view of reality

Hawks want regime change. Democrats and others are right to warn against illegal and unauthorised use of forceThe drumbeat is growing louder. Covert operations are supposed to remain just that, but on Wednesday Donald Trump confirmed that he had approved secret CIA actions in Venezuela and suggested that he was considering strikes on its territory. These comments follow the administration's extrajudicial killings at sea: attacks on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean that have left at least 27 dead - a frightening new precedent denounced by UN experts as illegal. The US has already built up forces in the region, with about 6,500 troops now stationed there. No to war in the Caribbean ... No to regime change ... No to coups d'etat orchestrated by the CIA," railed Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela's dictator, after Mr Trump's remarks.The US president's repeated claim that each boat strike saves 25,000 American lives is even more preposterous than it first sounds. The fentanyl that killed 48,000 people in the US last year did not come from Venezuela; most of it is from Mexico. But MrMaduro's regime looks increasingly isolated. The US has designated Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang as a terrorist organisation that has invaded" the US, claiming that Mr Maduro is personally responsible. It has used that posturing to justify deportations and to boast - against the evidence - that Mr Trump has cut violent crime in cities. Continue reading...

Rishi Samaroo and Chad Charpo' Joseph believed to have been on boat Trump alleged was carrying drugs to USFamily members and neighbours have identified two men from Trinidad and Tobago who are believed to be among six people killed in a US airstrike on a boat allegedly transporting drugs from Venezuela.Without providing evidence, Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the strike in international waters had killed six narcoterrorists" and claimed that intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics" and said that it was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks". Continue reading...

At the South Louisiana Ice Processing Center in Basile, detainees say they were forced into hard labor - and sexually assaulted and stalked by an assistant wardenQueer and trans immigrants at a detention facility in south Louisiana have alleged that they faced sexual harassment and abuse, medical neglect and coerced labor by staff at the facility, and that they were repeatedly ignored or faced retaliation for speaking out.In multiple legal complaints, immigrants detained at the South Louisiana Ice Processing Center (SLIPC) in Basile, Louisiana, said they were recruited into an unsanctioned work program that forced them to perform hard manual labor for as little as $1 per day. Detainees also alleged that queer people were targeted by an assistant warden who stalked, harassed and sexually assaulted them. Continue reading...

Resignation, coinciding with Hegseth's partisan speech, was over Trump flouting constitution, Doug Krugman writesA former US Marine Corps colonel and combat veteran has said that after 24 years of service he resigned from the military because of Trump", citing what he described as the US president's contempt for the constitution.Doug Krugman left his role in the military on 30 September, coinciding with the day that Donald Trump and the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, delivered controversial, partisan addresses to US military leaders brought to a special meeting in Virginia from across the world, about military priorities and the administration's agenda. Continue reading...

In addition to a new ballroom, flagpoles, gilding the Oval Office and paving over the Rose Garden, the US president proposes an archMore than two centuries have passed since France celebrated the emperor Napoleon's birthday by laying the foundation stone of the Arc de Triomphe. Now Donald Trump has imperial ambitions of his own.On Wednesday, the US president unveiled plans for a grand arch in Washington that has already been dubbed the Arc de Trump". Continue reading...

Police thought bottle contained drugs and arrested Kapil Raghu, who was then taken into custody by IceAn Arkansas man who was detained for a month by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) after authorities mistook his bottle of perfume for opium is seeking to have his visa status restored after the charges were dropped.Kapil Raghu, an Indian national married to an American woman and working towards American citizenship, was detained on 3 May after police officers in Benton, a suburb of Little Rock, pulled him over for having a non-moving traffic violation, according to his attorney, Mike Laux. Continue reading...

Suit comes after Guardian investigation found administration rolled back efforts to combat human trafficking while Trump officials deny retreatA lawsuit by a national coalition of more than 50 organizations that fight human trafficking charges that the Trump administration's bans on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts amount to unlawful censorship and undermine the US's landmark anti-trafficking law.The lawsuit alleges that two anti-DEI executive orders issued by Trump in January harm the ability of anti-trafficking groups to zealously advocate for survivors" and violate the intent of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), a quarter-century-old law designed to eradicate sexual slavery and forced labor. Continue reading...

Indian-American Ashley Tellis allegedly obtained US military data and passed envelopes to Chinese officialsA prominent Indian-American academic and former US government adviser has been arrested and charged with the unlawful detention of national security information, including thousands of pages of top secret documents that were found at his home in Virginia.Ashley Tellis, 64, who served on the national security council of the former US president George W Bush and is credited for helping to negotiate the US-India nuclear deal, was arrested and charged over the weekend. Continue reading...

The NFL's great tactician was meant to elevate North Carolina football. Instead, his rigid ways, fraying staff and tone-deafness have made the Tar Heels a cautionary taleIt used to be that there was no stronger brand in football than a Bill Belichick-coached" outfit. For most of his nearly 50 years in the pros, the phrase connoted teams that prepared for every scenario, executed directions to perfection and met all the moments in between to secure victory time and again. But since the NFL turned its back on Belichick, who stepped down to the college ranks and took the head job at North Carolina seemingly for appearances, the Belichick-coached team slogan has become less of a mark of excellence than a bright warning label for a program run amok.The concerns at this juncture, still short of midway through Belichick's freshman season, are overwhelming. The misleading record, the stark images of home fans deserting a blowout loss to Clemson before half-time, the dramatic talent deficit - those were predictable outcomes for a septuagenarian taskmaster trying his hand at coaching college kids. Belichick isn't simply out of his element. He looks for all the world to be asleep at the wheel, too. Continue reading...

Proposition 50 is part of the Democratic governor Gavin Newsom's plan to counter Texas's gerrymandered mapsCalifornia is set to vote on a new congressional map in November, part of a plan by the governor, Gavin Newsom, and state Democrats to deliver up to five new Democrat-held seats in the US Congress.The plan is a direct effort to counter a Republican-led push in Texas, which will give the GOP a five-seat advantage in the upcoming midterms. Continue reading...

The Titans' firing of Brian Callahan has kicked off the annual bloodletting. With several clubs' playoff hopes already in peril, there are toasty seats across the leagueThe Tennessee Titans' firing Brian Callahan this week signaled the unofficial start of the coaching carousel.Six weeks into the season, a league built for parity is finding there is little to go around. Nearly half (14) of the league's teams this season are two games over .500. Three others have winning records and another three (the Chiefs, Panthers and Commanders) are 3-3 with an upward trajectory. Continue reading...

Overhaul of $1bn post-9/11 program would shift funds to states that voted for Trump in 2024 electionThe Trump administration plans to shift terrorism prevention funding from Democratic-led states toward those led by Republicans, government records show, as it overhauls a $1bn program created after the 9/11 attacks.Twelve Democratic-led states are suing to block the cuts, alleging that the Trump administration is trying to punish them for not cooperating with federal immigration agents. Continue reading...

Vice-president downplays messages such as I love Hitler' in chat by 24- to 35-year-olds as stupid jokes'. Plus, Virginia Giuffre on her abuse at the hands of Epstein and Maxwell

Court has repeatedly expanded states' leeway to make voting laws that would have previously been deemed discriminatoryThe last remaining piece of the 1965 Voting Rights Act - section 2, which empowers the federal government to protect voters from racial gerrymandering meant to dilute Black political power - appears headed for an untimely end. At oral arguments in Louisiana v Callais on Wednesday, the US supreme court appeared ready to strike down section 2, effectively completing the gradual nullification of the Voting Rights Act that it has pursued for over a decade.The case stems from new congressional districting maps that were drawn in Louisiana after the 2020 census, which found both that the state was eligible for six seats in the House of Representatives and that its population was about one-third Black. The state initially drew maps that featured only one majority-Black congressional district, rejecting seven more racially fair maps; voters sued, and federal courts ordered Louisiana to comply with the Voting Rights Act by drawing new maps in which Black voters would be a majority in a second district, thereby reflecting their share of the population and giving Black Louisianans an equal opportunity to elect representatives of their choice.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

I am not celebrating the end of the war' because this was not a war - and it's not over, eitherThank you, Donald Trump. Thank you, Benjamin Netanyahu. Thank you, Jared Kushner. Let's all pause, shall we, and have a moment of appreciation for these three wise men who have finally brought peace to the Middle East. Blessed are the peacemakers!And, of course, thank you to the Israeli military which, as a US taxpayer, I have done my part to help fund. To echo Kushner: Instead of replicating the barbarism of the enemy, [Israel] chose to be exceptional." Continue reading...

Mark Ford, extradited from Indiana to New Orleans jail, faces life in prison if convicted of sexual abuse chargesA man working as a Roman Catholic priest in New Orleans positioned himself as a mentor to a young disabled boy grieving two family deaths - and then exploited the proximity to abuse him for years, police allege.Those details are contained in criminal court records generated by the arrest of Mark Francis Ford in Indiana in September as well as his subsequent transfer to New Orleans's jail, a process which was completed late on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Angel City and New Zealand defender on injury pain, losing her childhood home in LA's wildfires and why the sport needs to talk more about IVFUnder a blazing-hot sun, among a crowd of 90,185 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on 10 July 1999, an 11-year-old girl was standing behind the goal where Brandi Chastain struck the penalty that won the World Cup for the United States, soaking in pure inspiration. Ali Riley, now 37, captain of New Zealand and a veteran of five World Cup campaigns, looks back on witnessing that moment in person and says: That made me want to be a strong woman that could show her abs in front of the entire world and be on the front page of a newspaper. I think about how uncool it was to be good at sports, back then, and that moment was pivotal for me to see those women do what they did and be celebrated for it."On Sunday it will be Riley being celebrated at what is being billed as her farewell match at her home-town club Angel City, who named her as their first captain in 2022. She is retiring at the end of this season after a remarkable career that has included 163 international caps, four Olympic Games and spells with Rosengard, Bayern Munich and Chelsea, and Sunday is poised to be Angel City's final home game of a season in which the playoffs appear to be beyond them. Her decision to retire comes after a year in which she has been through IVF, seen her childhood Los Angeles home burn down and got married, all while attempting to rehabilitate from a chronic nerve injury, so being able to hang up her boots on her own terms, back in Angel City's squad, may be her biggest achievement. Continue reading...

The world of soccer throws up no shortage of questions on a regular basis. In today's column, Graham Ruthven endeavors to answer three of themBy the time next summer's World Cup kicks off, it'll have been 12 years since Italy last played at the tournament they have won more times (four) than any other nation besides Brazil (five) and Germany (also four). The way things are going, the Azzurri's 12-year wait for World Cup qualification could become a 16-year one at the very least. Continue reading...

Donald Trump has again said he'd pressure Fifa to remove 2026 World Cup games from a host city on the basis of that city's politics, with Boston becoming the third such city to receive such a threat from the US president. Trump also said he would consider a similar action against Los Angeles for the 2028 Olympics on account of potential safety issues. Trump has no legal authority to directly take either action, but he can apply pressure to each competition's governing body to move host cities.

ADF, a conservative Christian lobby group that counts among its allies JD Vance, has stated that its goal is to see abortion rights curtailed in BritainNigel Farage's obsession with free speech has become the mood music of his own party, the Conservatives and the BBC, so it shouldn't have been shocking or troubling to learn that he'd testified in the US Congress on 3 September on the subject of this elemental liberty, and how profoundly at risk it is in the UK.His position we could recite in our sleep - it hasn't deviated, and remains nonsense on stilts. Free speech is only at risk in the UK insofar as 80-year-olds can now be arrested for opposing genocide with homemade placards, and that's quite a big only". But in Nigel's upside-down world he is remorselessly censored, and a leftist cabal is still calling the shots - and will only get stronger. The troubling element wasn't what he said, but who orchestrated his appearance.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

President pushes hyperbolic claims of out-of-control crime as city leaders say no need for Trump's personal army'Donald Trump suggested Wednesday that San Francisco could be the next city he targets with federal troops, threatening a deployment that local and state officials have said is unnecessary and unwelcome.Speaking at the White House to FBI director Kash Patel, the president said: I'm going to be strongly recommending, at the request of government officials ... that you start looking at San Francisco ... one of our great cities 10 years ago, 15 years ago, and now it's a mess ... Every American deserves to live in a community where they're not afraid of being mugged, murdered, robbed, raped, assaulted or shot." Continue reading...

Move marks escalation in Maduro pressure campaign as president says US mulling strikes on Venezuelan territoryDonald Trump said on Wednesday he had authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations in Venezuela, marking a sharp escalation in his administration's pressure campaign against Nicolas Maduro's government.Trump further suggested he was considering strikes on Venezuelan territory, a dramatic step that would go beyond a series of recent lethal attacks on boats in the Caribbean, which Democrats and United Nations experts have forcefully condemned as unlawful. Continue reading...

This liveblog is now closed.The far-right US congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is further distancing herself from her fellow Republicans and accusing men in her party of being weak".In an interview with the Washington Post, Greene expressed her frustrations with Republicans, signaling her further deviation from the political strategies of her party, as the government shutdown beginning 1 October was slated to enter its third week. Continue reading...

Vice-president downplays messages such as I love Hitler' in chat by 24 to 35-year-olds to stupid jokes'JD Vance sought to downplay the revelation that leaders of a group called the Young Republicans exchanged hundreds of racist, sexist text messages - including one in which rape was called epic", and another in which someone wrote I love Hitler" - as youthful indiscretions.Vance, speaking on a new episode of the Charlie Kirk Show, the podcast run by colleagues of the late conservative activist, suggested that the participants in the leaked chats were much younger than they in fact are. Some of the participants are barely younger than the 41-year-old vice-president. Continue reading...

Federal court approves temporary injunction blocking Trump administration from mass layoffs. Key US politics stories from Wednesday 15 OctoberAs the US government shutdown grinds into its third week, a federal court has approved a temporary injunction blocking the Trump administration from sacking thousands of federal employees.The judge ruled the president may have exceeded his authority to try to take advantage of the shutdown. Continue reading...

University joins MIT in refusing invitation, saying that compact would restrict academic freedom'Brown University has become the second higher-education institution to turn down an invitation from Donald Trump to sign onto his administration's 10-page college compact that would overhaul university policies in return for preferential access to federal funding.The Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education" is a proposed agreement that would impose restrictions on diversity, equity and inclusion programs and limits on international student enrollment. Continue reading...

Flanked by Kash Patel and Pam Bondi, president claimed it was most peaceful summer in the last two decades'Donald Trump held a press conference on Wednesday to take credit for decreases in violent crime that were already happening without his intervention.I campaigned on crime, but I never thought we would go into every city and take a really safe city that we've all been living with for years and make it safe," he said. And now it's a passion for me. I did get elected for crime, but I didn't get elected for what we're doing." Continue reading...

Majority of US justices appear sympathetic to weakening key civil rights law in Callais v Louisiana caseThe US supreme court heard oral arguments on Wednesday in Callais v Louisiana, a high-stakes voting rights case in which the court's conservative majority appears poised to gut one of the most powerful provisions of the Voting Rights Act.At the heart of the case is section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits electoral maps that dilute the voting power of minority groups. Lawyers for the state of Louisiana, a group of non-African American voters" and the Trump administration say that the court needs to do away with the 2024 map. If the court agrees, it would ultimately set a precedent that makes it considerably harder to bring redistricting lawsuits on the basis of race, and undercut section 2. Continue reading...

Authorities reportedly looking into modified flag displayed on cubicle wall of House member Dave Taylor's staffUS Capitol police are reportedly investigating after a US flag bearing a swastika was discovered inside the office of Republican House member Dave Taylor of Ohio.The image, obtained by Politico, shows a modified flag featuring red and white stripes arranged in the form of a swastika - which is virtually synonymous with the Nazis' genocidal regime. The flag was displayed on what appears to be a cubicle wall behind Angelo Elia, one of Taylor's staff members, during a virtual meeting. Continue reading...

New York mayoral contender steps into lion's den and says he is ready to speak at any time' to help lower cost of livingZohran Mamdani, the leading candidate to be the next mayor of New York, stepped into the lion's den on Wednesday when he sat for an interview with Fox News, the rightwing news organization that has spent weeks demonizing him and his democratic socialist goals.Speaking to host Martha MacCallum, Mamdani was asked about funding for his proposals, which include freezing increases on rent-stabilized apartments, providing free buses and offering free childcare - and whether other services would be cut to achieve those goals. Continue reading...

Chelsea kickstarted their European campaign with a comfortable victory over Paris FC. Alyssa Thompson scored her first goal in west London as Sonia Bompastor's side dominated proceedings. Sandy Baltimore opened the scoring from the penalty spot while Johanna Rytting Kaneryd and Erin Cuthbert also got on the scoresheet.Chelsea had endured a frustrating start to their Champions League challenge, the only trophy to elude their grasp. A 1-1 draw against Twente last week in Enschede had added a bit of pressure on this encounter at Stamford Bridge with sterner opposition to come. Continue reading...

US defense secretary was returning from a brief trip to Brussels, and everyone onboard was safe, Pentagon saidA plane carrying Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, on Wednesday made an unscheduled landing in the United Kingdom due to a crack in the aircraft's windshield, the Pentagon said, adding Hegseth was safe.The plane landed based on standard procedures and everyone onboard, including Secretary Hegseth, is safe," Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesperson, said in a post on X. Continue reading...