US news | The Guardian

Brett Baier interrupted Harris so much she could barely finish a sentence. She still injected some reality into Fox News's world

Netanyahu has broken multiple promises to Biden to restrain Israeli attacks on Gaza. Biden is complicit in Israel's impunityFor the past year, as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, eviscerated one US-imposed red line" after another in Israel's brutal war on Gaza, Joe Biden and his feckless administration insisted that they did not want the conflict to spread to neighboring Lebanon and beyond. But over the past month, Netanyahu and his government launched an all-out war against Lebanon, with intensive airstrikes throughout the country and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon. More than 1 million people have been displaced, as Israel expands its assault on what it claims are Hezbollah strongholds".And how has Biden responded to Netanyahu's latest obstinacy and constant humiliation of the US administration? Biden keeps sending more US weapons and military support to Israel. On Sunday, the Pentagon announced that it was deploying one of its most advanced missile defense systems to Israel, along with about 100 American troops to operate it. This will be the first time that Washington has openly deployed US forces to Israel since Netanyahu's government launched its war on Gaza after last October's attack by Hamas militants.Mohamad Bazzi is director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, and a journalism professor at New York University Continue reading...

Republican vice-presidential candidate makes baseless claim that big tech rigged the election'The Republican vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, told a reporter on Wednesday that there were serious problems" in the 2020 election and suggested for the first time that the then president Donald Trump did not actually lose the race.Did Donald Trump lose the election? Not by the words that I would use," Vance said in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. But look, I really couldn't care less if you agree with me or disagree with me on this issue."Don't miss important US election coverage. Get our free app and sign up for election alerts Continue reading...

The US military launched a clandestine program amid the Covid-19 crisis to discredit China's Sinovac inoculation, in part, as payback for Beijing's efforts to blame Washington for the pandemic. One target: the Filipino public. Health experts say the gambit was indefensible and put innocent lives at risk. The covert operation reveals the dangerous intersection of geopolitics and global health during a time of unprecedented crisis Continue reading...

We must make this moment a watershed that quenches the hellfire that threatens to envelop Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and the entire regionLast Sunday night, as I was getting ready for bed, my friend Ali from the South Hebron Hills of Palestine sent me a text which read, Israel is burning sleeping people alive in the refugee camps." I clicked on the accompanying video and I could not believe what I saw: an inferno blazing, people running around screaming, and there, amidst the flame, a body writhing, crackling; a raised arm, reaching out for help, still attached to an IV. I waited for the following morning to share the video, until the event had been reported by reputable news outlets, because the images appeared too gruesome to be real - like they were something out of a movie - but they were real: an Israeli airstrike hit near the grounds of al-Aqsa Martyrs' hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah and killed at least four people. The man that we saw burning alive? His name was Sha'ban al-Dalou, a 19-year-old software engineering student.In the 24 hours since this attack, my social media feed was filled with videos of and reactions to this attack. The reel posted on Instagram by the Palestinian journalist Saleh Aljafarawi has been shared more than 455,000 times. The CNN Instagram post has been viewed more than 1.2m times. Randa, a Palestinian friend of mine whose grandparents were born in Gaza, shared that this event was clear proof that Israel was waging a war of annihilation". Survivors of the attack said the fires were caused by gas cooking canisters. Israel blamed secondary explosions" in a statement.Zak Witus is the young leadership and education coordinator at the New Israel Fund Continue reading...

Hospitality jobs have long kept struggling artists, actors and musicians going. When those gigs go, the arts are diminished tooBefore Stanley Tucci was Stanley Tucci, he was just another out-of-work actor striving to make ends meet by pulling front-of-house shifts in a restaurant. Like so many people in the arts, without the income and flexible hours that restaurant work affords," he told me, I would have struggled to support myself until I was able to do so as an actor." The theatre star Anna-Jane Casey says she needed that work to sustain herself through gaps between jobs. Likewise, the Sherwood and Dear England writer James Graham says working in restaurants enabled him to take in shows and make contacts through numerous Edinburgh festivals. Or as Jamie Dornan says, about his barman years before his big break: It's great for learning people skills, communication and dealing with wankers. All very handy in entertainment."The hospitality sector, which provided all these brilliant, creative people with vital employment in the early years of their careers, faces unprecedented challenges. At least five British restaurants closed every day in 2023, up 45% from the year before. About 50 pubs closed every month in the first half of 2024. The newsbites at the bottom of my reviews online have become a litany of the fallen: farewell Cafe Kitty and Copper and Ink; goodbye Frenchie, and Beverley's the Pig and Whistle. And it's likely only to get worse. Post-Covid, the hospitality sector was granted 100% relief from business rates, which dropped to 75% in 2022. Next April it will be phased out altogether, adding a likely 1bn in costs. That comes on top of food and fuel price inflation and the general squeeze on incomes, which in turn has limited custom. Continue reading...

During this election season there have been multiple extreme weather events, which continue to intensify as the climate crisis worsens. But paradoxically, many of the communities that are being battered by natural disasters are still choosing to back Donald Trump, a vocal climate denier. The Guardian's Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone head to south-west Louisiana to find out why Continue reading...

In the nation's most affordable metro area, getting hurt or sick is expensiveOn an October evening, Tom Frost was zooming down a dark state road on the northern edge of Indiana. The father of two had just finished his shift at a small town fiberglass factory. Now, he was doing what he loved, riding a Harley Davidson in his typical getup: black gloves, leather chaps, no helmet.As Frost revved past the corn fields and thinning birch trees that led to his girlfriend's house, a green pickup jerked off a side road and into his path.

Former One Direction star, 31, fell from third floor of Buenos Aires hotel, police say. Plus, Trump doubles down on lies about immigrants eating pets

Robert Roberson was convicted of killing daughter through shaken baby syndrome' - supporters say there was no crimeRobert Roberson, whom advocates say was wrongfully convicted of killing his two-year-old daughter more than two decades ago, is scheduled to be executed in Texas on Thursday amid claims that his conviction was secured with junk science.Roberson, 57, brought his daughter Nikki Curtis to hospital in Palestine, Texas, on 31 January 2002. He told doctors that she was ill with fever and had fallen from a bed. Continue reading...

Trump has repeatedly threatened to deploy the military inside major cities run by Democrats. Senior officials nationwide are preparing to defend their communities from his threatsSenior Democrats in US cities are preparing to defend their communities in the event of Donald Trump's return to the White House after the former president has repeated threats that he would use presidential powers to seize control of major urban centers.Trump has proposed deploying the military inside major cities largely run by Democrats to deal with protesters or to crush criminal gangs. He has threatened to dispatch large numbers of federal immigration agents to carry out mass deportations of undocumented people in so-called sanctuary" cities. Continue reading...

Polls that show Kamala Harris losing Black support have Democrats in a panic. The reality is more complicatedAre Black voters gravitating towards Donald Trump in meaningful numbers? Recent polls and articles, most notably the New York Times/Siena College poll, have set off alarm bells across the country with their survey results finding the former president garnering historic levels of support among African American voters.The short answer is no, there is little credible evidence showing a meaningful shift in the levels of support Black voters give to Democrats. The longer answer is that the current chorus of media concern illuminates serious shortcomings in polling methodology, political interpretation of polling data, and the responsible communication of information to the public in an ostensible democracy.Steve Phillips is the founder of Democracy in Color, and author of Brown Is the New White: How the Demographic Revolution Has Created a New American Majority and How We Win the Civil War: Securing a Multiracial Democracy and Ending White Supremacy for Good Continue reading...

People claim the foreign doctors coming back from Gaza are lying. I wish that were the case, because the truth is beyond horrificFirst come the bombs. A boom, then 2,000lb worth of destructive force flattening everything in its way. Severing limbs, vaporizing bodies, leaving craters full of blood and rubble where children used to play.Then come the drones. As the dust settles, the drones start to swarm, picking off any survivors. Armed quadcopters; ingeniously engineered killing machines hunting for human prey. The drones, many of which seem to be autonomous, shoot everything that moves. Even if it's a helpless child, the drone will sometimes shoot: firing lethal bullets into a soft skull. A scene straight out of a dystopian sci-fi movie set on some desolate dust-covered planet. Except it's not sci-fi; it's reality. It's happening right now in Gaza.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Many US riders are turning their back on the sport in Europe to ride in gravel races back home. There is less support but more opportunitiesFor decades, professional cycling has been dominated by European World Tour teams. But in the last decade, American gravel privateers have disrupted that paradigm.The World Tour is like being in the NFL or NBA," says Peter Stetina, who rode for three different teams on the tour, the highest tier of professional road cycling, from 2010 to 2019. You get drafted and signed. You have a salary and your job is just to pedal, nothing else. Racing is cutthroat, resigning is cutthroat." Continue reading...

Healthcare facilities burn, food and water are blocked and drones shoot their fleeing targets. Yet we cannot say we were not warnedThe killing fields of northern Gaza speak of a crime that was confessed to long ago. The Israeli state is creating a lifeless desert" and an unliveable wasteland", says Medecins Sans Frontieres, effectively emptying out the whole north of the Strip of Palestinian life". Even by the standards of Israel's year-long genocidal assault, this autumn's attacks on the north have been defined by shocking levels of depravity. Yet almost a year ago, this very outcome was detailed on the pages of a seemingly obscure British journal.Giora Eiland is a retired Israeli general who - according to US diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks - described Gaza as a huge concentration camp" in 2004. He is the former head of Israel's national security council, and says he is now acting as an adviser to Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant. Continue reading...

Can the Inter Miami talisman win the league's top individual honor despite missing much of the campaign? It depends on your definition of valuableIn a development that will only come as a shock to newborns and extraterrestrials, Lionel Messi's MLS performances have been absolutely stellar this season. He has been a key part of the Inter Miami team at the top of the standings, has produced all manner of goals and assists, and has generally lived up to the hype every time he has stepped on the field.It's slightly more surprising that if his spectacular run ends with winning MLS's Most Valuable Player award (MVP), it would be unprecedented in North American men's sports and nearly unheard of in the most famous domestic men's leagues in Europe - with one very notable exception. Continue reading...

The 30-year-old is dominating offenses at an age when most of his peers have long retired. But he is also a symbol of the resurgence of the ground gameThe NFL is a passing league - or so we are told. It's been that way for close to 20 years. Every new rule, contract, coaching hire and draft slot reinforces that the sport is now engineered to attack or defend the air. But Derrick Henry, it seems, did not get the memo.In a league that chews up running backs with a ruthlessness that borders on disdain, Henry continues to plough ahead. In his ninth season, the 30-year-old future Hall of Famer tops the league in rushing - again. And it's not even particularly close. Six weeks in, Henry leads the rushing race by nearly 100 yards over San Francisco's Jordan Mason, doing so by thumping away between the tackles. Continue reading...

Our state was a Republican stronghold, but the party's assault on reproductive rights is making many voters think twice

Shares in food company jump 13% after reports Advent is in early stages of preparing an offerTate & Lyle could become the next UK company to fall to an overseas takeover offer, after reports that the US private equity firm Advent International is preparing a bid for the group.Shares in Tate & Lyle, which makes ingredients such as artificial sweeteners, jumped by as much as 13% on Wednesday after the Financial Times reported that Advent was in the early stages of preparing an offer. Continue reading...

At a town hall for the largest US Spanish-language network, Latino voters got few straight answers when questioning former president on extreme policies and lies

Kamala Harris spent Wednesday urging Republicans to vote Democrat as Donald Trump defended baseless claims about Springfield, Ohio

In an appearance on Univision, America's largest Spanish-language network, the former president repeated his baseless claims about immigrants eating pets in Springfield, OhioTrump used a town hall event on America's largest Spanish-language network, Univision, to address Latino voters in Miami on Wednesday, with pointed questions about abortion rights, the 6 January US Capitol attack and immigration all featuring.Trump once again defended mass deportations and his baseless claims about immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. Here's what else we learned: Continue reading...

Archbishop expresses sorrow in announcement to pay 1,353 people who alleged they were abused as children by priestsThe Roman Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880m to 1,353 people who alleged that they were sexually abused as children by Catholic priests, in the largest settlement by a US diocese over decades-old abuse claims.Archbishop Jose H Gomez expressed sorrow for the abuse in announcing the settlement on Wednesday. Continue reading...

The vice-president Harris was grilled in a TV interview about the Biden administration's efforts to tackle an increase in illegal immigration at the southern border, and put the blame on Republicans for failing to pass a border bill. Harris also said her presidency 'would not be a continuation of Joe Biden's presidency', and she criticized Trump over his continuing threats against 'the enemy within'

Fulton judge invalidates seven new rules, including one that requires ballots be hand-counted after polls closeA Georgia judge has declared that seven new election rules recently passed by the state election board are illegal, unconstitutional and void".Fulton county superior court judge Thomas Cox issued the order Wednesday after holding a hearing on challenges to the rules. The rules that Cox invalidated include three that had gotten a lot of attention - one that requires that the number of ballots be hand-counted after the close of polls and two that had to do with the certification of election results. Continue reading...

The Democratic candidate's first appearance on the conservative network formed part of a direct appeal to right-leaning votersFull report: Kamala Harris pledges break from Biden presidency in testy Fox News interviewKamala Harris faced a grilling on Fox News, with host Bret Baier pressing the vice-president on immigration, the economy and the Biden administration in a 30-minute interview on Wednesday night.The Democratic candidate's first appearance on the conservative network formed part of a direct appeal to right-leaning voters, after she was joined by more than 100 Republicans at a campaign event in Pennsylvania earlier in the day. Continue reading...

Genaro Garcia Luna was accused of taking millions of dollars from the Sinaloa cartel for shielding membersGenaro Garcia Luna, the official who for several years led Mexico's fight against the country's violent drug trade, was sentenced to more than 38 years in US prison for accepting bribes from the cartels he was supposed to fight.The US district judge Brian Cogan announced the sentence at a hearing in Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday. Continue reading...

This blog is closed now, thanks for following along.

Nominee says presidency would not be a continuation' of Biden's and condemns Trump for enemy within' commentsKamala Harris said her presidency would not be a continuation of Joe Biden's presidency" in a testy interview with the rightwing Fox News channel on Wednesday night as she criticized Donald Trump over his continuing threats against the enemy within".The 25-minute interview, conducted after Harris held a rally with more than 100 Republican officials in Pennsylvania, was the first time Harris had sat for a conversation with Fox News, which has been a consistent supporter of Trump. Continue reading...

Republican state official tried to remove more than 3,200 people from voter rolls on suspicion they were non-citizensAlabama cannot remove thousands of people from its voter rolls on the eve of the presidential election, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.The US district judge Anna Manasco, an appointee of Donald Trump, issued a preliminary injunction halting an effort by Alabama's top election official to try to remove more than 3,200 people from the voter rolls who it suspected of being non-citizens until at least after the presidential election. Continue reading...

Body camera video shows two Phoenix officers violently assaulting Tyron McAlpin, a deaf man with cerebral palsyPhoenix police are facing widespread criticism following the release of body camera footage that showed two white officers violently using a stun gun on and punching a deaf Black man with cerebral palsy.On Monday, attorneys for 34-year-old Tyron McAlpin, who has been charged with resisting arrest and two counts of aggravated assault on a police officer, released body camera footage of McAlpin's arrest on 19 August outside a Circle K convenience store in Phoenix, Arizona. Continue reading...

Justice department urged to investigate messages amid Republican attempt to clamp down on student votingThe League of Women Voters of Wisconsin has called on the Department of Justice to investigate text messages they say targeted and threatened to discourage young people from voting in the November election.The League of Women Voters says it initially learned of the alleged text campaign on 10 October, when the group received numerous complaints from voters who had received the text. Two people in their 20s who work with the League of Women Voters also received the message, which reads: WARNING: Violating WI Statutes 12.13 & 6.18 may result in fines up to $10,000 or 3.5 years in prison. Don't vote in a state where you're not eligible."

Paul Dans blames former boss Kevin Roberts for blueprint's downgrading after inflammatory interview

Highway patrol says carpool lanes are for ridesharing for living humans, not lifeless bony impostorsDrivers looking to beat California's endless traffic can use designated carpool lanes, provided they have others in their car. But there's one pesky requirement: those other people have to be alive.That was not the case for a driver stopped this weekend near San Jose for using a fake companion, police say. Riding in the passenger seat was a plastic skeleton. In an apparent effort to add to the illusion, the skeleton was wearing a mask with a giant mouth, reminiscent of the Scream films. Continue reading...

Statement does not reveal who ex-president voted for but he had said he wanted to live long enough to vote for HarrisJimmy Carter, the centenarian former Democratic president, has voted in the 2024 presidential election, his representatives confirmed on Wednesday.A statement from the Carter Center did not reveal who he voted for, but it is assumed the 100-year-old, who is in hospice care, cast his ballot for the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.Don't miss important US election coverage. Get our free app and sign up for election alerts Continue reading...

Robert Telles was convicted of stabbing Jeff German of Las Vegas Review-Journal who had written critical articlesA former Las Vegas official was sentenced to serve nearly three decades in Nevada state prison for killing an investigative journalist who wrote articles critical of his conduct in office two years ago and exposed an intimate relationship with a female co-worker.Judge Michelle Leavitt of the Clark county district court on Wednesday sentenced Robert Telles to serve at least 28 years for the September 2022 murder of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German. Continue reading...

Kamala Harris says exhaustion and boredom' leads his audience to slip away. Among the hundreds who quit a rally in Georgia this week were a variety of reasons

Shoshone national forest officials pause gruesome policy of exploding carcasses to minimize hazard during dry spellRangers in Wyoming's Shoshone national forest believe they have figured out how to mitigate an elevated risk of wildfires: they are no longer using explosives to blow up dead horses.The temporary pause in the seemingly bizarre and somewhat gruesome policy comes as a lengthy dry spell in the state's backcountry combines with hotter-than-usual temperatures, increasing the possibility of wildfires. Experts say drought and heat from the climate crisis is fueling a rise in extreme wildfires worldwide. Continue reading...

Republican candidate tells all-female audience in Georgia that Democrats are Marxists and communists and fascists'

There is something about hitting the road that makes me act as if it's my birthday or I'm on an arduous hike. I'm driven by forces I cannot fathomTim Spector, the doctor and diet bloke behind the Zoe nutrition app, has a lot to say about how different bodies process the food put into them in different ways. He comes out with some very clever stuff, as well as a smattering of the startlingly obvious. An example of the second is something he said at the Cheltenham literature festival, where he pointed out that drivers are prone to eating an awful lot of junk on long journeys. He says we don't need to stop for snacks at service stations every couple of hours.Perhaps he drove himself there, gave into temptation en route and felt as if he had let himself down. I know I have on the same journey, from west London. Oh, the opportunities to eat filth! Beaconsfield services for breakfast; Oxford services for elevenses; early lunch at that big filling station where the A40 takes its leave from the Oxford ring road; late lunch at some garage or other on the often tricky last 20 miles into Cheltenham. Crisps, nuts, pastries sweet and savoury, chocolate, sweets, the lot. Continue reading...

Alexander Mick died on Saturday in St Augusta and Samuel Jessen in Hamilton county, Tennessee, on FridayTwo boys have died in separate incidents involving Halloween tractor hayrides in Minnesota and Tennessee.According to a news release, the Stearns county sheriff's office in Minnesota received a call last Saturday about an accident in St Augusta at approximately 7.37pm. The incident occurred at the city's annual Harvest of Horror Haunted Hayride and involved a young boy who was injured when run over by a trolley wagon being pulled by a tractor. Continue reading...

The devastation wrought by Helene and Milton could shake up priorities and bring the climate crisis more to the foreDespite its enormous implications, the climate crisis has so far mostly been a dormant issue in the US presidential election. Some hope the devastation wrought in quick succession by two major hurricanes will shake up the priorities of American voters before a stark choice between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on polling day.Last month, Hurricane Helene became one of the deadliest storms ever to hit the US, killing more than 220 people and causing billions of dollars in damage as it tore a path northwards, through the key election swing states of Georgia and North Carolina. This was followed two weeks later by Hurricane Milton, which rampaged across Florida. Continue reading...

From 2023 until September 2024, the Republican National Committee and affiliates have filed or are involved in 72 cases - and what stands out is their subject matterNearly four years after waging an aggressive legal effort to overturn the 2020 elections, Republicans have filed a slew of lawsuits that appear to be aimed at seeding doubt about the outcome of the 2024 race in the event of a Donald Trump loss.From 2023 until September of this year, the Republican National Committee (RNC) and local affiliates have filed or are involved in at least 72 cases, according to an analysis by Democracy Docket, a left-leaning voting rights news platform founded by the Democratic lawyer Marc Elias. At the same point during the 2022 midterm election, Republicans had filed 41 lawsuits. Continue reading...

Vice-president responds to suggestion by Charlamagne Tha God that Republican rival represents fascismKamala Harris has agreed that Donald Trump is a fascist in her most forthright statement yet in casting her presidential opponent as a potential autocrat harboring authoritarian visions should he return to the White House.The US vice-president and Democratic nominee crossed a psychologically important boundary in addressing the issue of fascism in an interview with Charlamagne Tha God, an influential radio host whose audience reaches a predominantly Black audience of 8 million listeners monthly. The talk happened during a campaign stop in Detroit, the centre of a battle between the two candidates for the battleground state of Michigan. Continue reading...