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The defending Premier League champions spent big over the summer, but it's hard to see how the new players fit

Seven Democrats and an independent face fury over support to advance funding bill amid 40-day shutdownAfter weeks of false starts and failed votes, the US Senate secured the 60 votes needed late Sunday night to pass a compromise continuing resolution that would reopen the federal government after seven Democrats and an independent sided with Republicans to support the measure to send it back to the House for another vote. The Democratic caucus has aimed anger at the defectors, who nonetheless branded their decision as being the best available option.They were Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, and independent Angus King of Maine who caucuses with the Democrats. Republican senator Rand Paul of Kentucky was the sole member of his party to vote against the bill, which he has done for weeks. Continue reading...

The amended package will still have to be passed by the House and sent to Trump for his signature, a process that could take daysThe Senate on Sunday made significant progress towards ending the longest US government shutdown in history, narrowly advancing a compromise bill to reauthorize funding and undo the layoffs of some employees.But the measure, which resulted from days of talks between a handful of Democratic and Republican senators, leaves out the healthcare subsidies that Democrats had demanded for weeks. Most Democratic senators rejected it, as did many of the party's lawmakers in the House of Representatives, which will have to vote to approve it before the government can reopen. Continue reading...

Federal clemency towards president's close allies largely symbolic as some still face legal exposure at state levelRudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows, both close former political allies of Donald Trump, are among scores of people pardoned by the president over the weekend for their roles in a plot to steal the 2020 election.The maneuver is in effect symbolic, given it only applies in the federal justice system and not in state courts where Giuliani, Meadows and the others continue facing legal peril. The acts of clemency were announced in a post late on Sunday to X by US pardon attorney Ed Martin, covers 77 people said to have been the architects and agents of the scheme to install fake Republican electors in several battleground states, which would have falsely declared Trump their winner instead of the actual victor: Joe Biden. Continue reading...

Leaked BBC report said film had completely misled' viewers by splicing two parts of January 6 speech togetherDonald Trump has threatened legal action against the BBC and welcomed the resignations of two of its most senior figures after a campaign against the broadcaster that reached fever pitch over criticism that its flagship documentary programme in 2024 used a misleading edit of a Trump speech.Reacting to the resignations of the BBC director general, Tim Davie, and its News CEO, Deborah Turness, who stepped down on Sunday, the US president praised the rightwing Telegraph newspaper, which this month published a leaked internal report by a former BBC standards adviser alleging failings in the broadcaster's coverage, including on transgender issues, Gaza and the edit of a Trump speech from January 6 during the Capitol Hill insurrection. Continue reading...

With a ceasefire in place, rebuilding must begin, justice be delivered and healing seriously addressed by Palestinian and Israeli societies

US defense secretary says without providing evidence that dead from strikes in eastern Pacific were narco-terrorists'US forces struck two more alleged drug trafficking boats off the coast of South America, killing six people, the Trump administration's defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has said.The US began carrying out such strikes - which some experts say amount to extrajudicial killings even if they target known traffickers - in early September, taking aim at vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. More than 70 people have been killed in the strikes so far. Continue reading...

A look at the realities the mayor-elect will face to pay for his progressive policies - and whose support he needs

It's great the taboo is fading. But as TikTok influencers tout them, it's a slippery slope to the memeification of disordersAntidepressants are all the rage now, so much so that influencers are promoting them on TikTok, where mostly millennial and gen Z women have built micro-communities around hashtags like #lexaprotok, #zoloftgang and #livelaughlexapro.According to data analyzed by the Wall Street Journal, content related to antidepressants has recently exploded. The hashtag #antidepressants has surpassed 1.3bn views, according to the data, and searches for #lexapro have more than tripled since 2022. The data also showed that user shares per video tagged #ssri nearly quadrupled from 2022 to 2025.Tayo Bero is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Amended package must be passed by the house and signed by the president. Plus, Volodymyr Zelenskyy on why he's not afraid of Donald Trump

Employees providing assistance to recipients expressed fears on how lack of aid will affect those who need it mostWhen Stacy Smith, a government worker, showed up to work last Monday - the first working day after food benefits lapsed, amid the ongoing federal shutdown - she found a long line outside her office door. Elderly and disabled individuals desperately wanted answers.Some had gone to buy groceries, not realizing that their usual benefits were unavailable. Continue reading...

The NFL is built on parity. But this season the NFC only has a few contenders while even the best teams in the AFC have worrying flawsNo league sells parity like the NFL: it's the entire brand. But through 10 weeks of this season, this isn't a league that is equally balanced between the good, the bad and the mediocre. It's one where most of the league is simply fine.In the NFC, at least, there is some clarity. The Rams and Seahawks (both 7-2) look like the most complete teams in football, and secured blowout wins on Sunday. The 6-2 Eagles, despite their struggles, still have one of the most talented rosters in the league, likewise with the Packers (5-2-1). Even the Lions (6-3), who have been inconsistent along both lines of scrimmage and have been dealing with tension on their coaching staff, have proven they can hammer good teams. For all five, you can still easily put together a Super Bowl path. Continue reading...

As Democrats bask in electoral success the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary offer a cautionary taleIn the afterglow of electoral triumph, hope springs renewed for Democrats confined to the frustrating impotence of political opposition.Boosted by last week's electoral wins in New York City, Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere, as well as California's affirmation of Proposition 50 allowing for congressional redistricting, party members suddenly feel able to dream that future elections may herald an escape route from the Donald Trump era. Continue reading...

Donald Trump is using US power to insert himself into other countries' affairs, treating them as vassalsFor decades, president after president has sought to rid the US of its image as a bullying, imperialistic nation. But with his blustering, often brutish behavior toward other countries, Donald Trump has rapidly revived that notion. Under Trump, the Ugly American is back.Trump has done this by using US power in aggressive and arrogant ways - by attacking other countries' policies and then threatening to punish them if they don't bow to his demands. Trump is doing exactly what international law says national leaders shouldn't be doing. He has repeatedly inserted himself into other countries' affairs, browbeating their leaders, berating their policies and disrespecting their sovereignty. Too often, Trump treats other countries as vassals of the US (and of his ego). Continue reading...

Trial's findings go against common beliefs that people with atrial fibrillation should avoid caffeinated coffeeDrinking coffee may protect people against irregular heartbeats, despite the conventional wisdom to the contrary, according to a new study.The Does Eliminating Coffee Avoid Fibrillation (Decaf) clinical trial found 200 patients with persistent irregular heartbeats had a significantly" lower risk of the condition recurring if they belonged to the study group that was allocated coffee consumption rather than the one abstaining from it - 47% to 64%. Continue reading...

Donald Trump became the first sitting US president in nearly 50 years to attend a regular-season NFL game when he dropped in on the Detroit Lions' win over the Washington Commanders on Sunday.There were boos from large sections of fans, as well as scattered cheers, at the Commanders' Northwest Stadium when Trump was shown on the screens late in the first half - and again when the president was introduced by the stadium announcer at half-time. The Washington DC area has strong Democratic support, while Trump's cuts to the government have affected many workers in the vicinity of the Commanders' stadium. Sunday was not the first time Trump has received a hostile reception from a Washington sports crowd: he was greeted with lock him up' chants at the Washington Nationals' home stadium during the 2019 World Series.

New York's newly elected mayor rooted his campaign in the personal while, ironically, exemplifying the tradition of the American melting pot'It is inevitable that too much will be laid on Zohran Mamdani's head. So large is the vacuum on the left of politics that his victory will occupy an outsized space for progressives beyond New York City. And so, before I lay too much on his head myself, some caveats. New York is a specific place. It has a specific demographic and economic profile. And Mamdani is a man of a specific background, racial, political and religious. But with that out of the way, I think the successful practice of identity politics" during his campaign offers some universal lessons.I put identity politics in quote marks because the term now means little that is universally agreed upon. Broadly, it has come to mean something derogatory, kind of in the same way that wokeness" has. It increasingly has negative connotations: a political appeal to race or other markers of identity that is shallow, rooted in perpetual victimhood, focused only on representation and disconnected from material reality. Seen this way, identity politics is not about universal goals, such as lifting people out of poverty and so mobilising broad coalitions of voters, but simply about visibility.Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Bill, a first step to ending the shutdown, will still need to be deliberated and passed by the Senate, and win approval in the house. Key US politics stories from 9 November at a glanceThe first step toward ending the US government shutdown has been made after a handful of Democrats and dozens of Republicans voted to advance legislation in the Senate.The funding bill will still need to be deliberated and passed by the Senate and approved by the House to end what has been the longest government shutdown in US history. Continue reading...

Senators vote on advancing House-passed stopgap funding bill, suggesting end to historic 40-day shutdown in reachThe US Senate on Sunday took a key vote on a bill that would end the record-setting federal government shutdown without extending the healthcare subsidies that Democrats have demanded.Senators began voting on Sunday night to advance House-passed stopgap funding legislation that Senate majority leader John Thune said would be amended to combine another short-term spending measure with a package of three full-year appropriations bills. Continue reading...

US president promoted fictional claim from satirical website that has been debunked repeatedly since 2017Donald Trump promoted the false claim that Barack Obama has earned $40m in royalties linked to Obamacare" in a post to his 11 million followers on Truth Social on Sunday.The fictional claim that the former US president receives royalty payments for the use of his name to refer to the Affordable Care Act, which he signed into law in 2010, has been repeatedly debunked since at least 2017, when it was featured on America's Last Line of Defense, a satirical website that produces fake news reports designed to generate engagement from outraged conservatives. Continue reading...

Plus, the Texans staged an epic comeback against the Jaguars and the Saints shocked the PanthersColts 13-7 Falcons 4:36, 1st quarterAnd our commentary team kindly informs us that Pierce's brother played basketball in Germany. So him scoring today was meant to be I suppose. Continue reading...

Directive comes after supreme court order allowing Trump officials to pause food aid payments amid shutdownThe US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is directing states to immediately undo" any steps that have been taken to send out full food aid benefits to low-income Americans, following a supreme court order on Friday that temporarily halted a lower court order requiring those payments.The USDA's directive, issued in a memo on Saturday, followed a supreme court order granting the Trump administration's emergency request to pause an order for the USDA to provide full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) benefits during the ongoing federal government shutdown, which is now in its 40th day. Continue reading...

Congressional approval would likely be required for plan to take effect, an idea Trump has floated beforeDonald Trump on Sunday mused about giving most Americans $2,000 funded by tariff revenues collected by the president's administration - an evident bid to rally public support on the issue.A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Sunday. Continue reading...

The corporation should have stood up to the Telegraph, Trump and the Tories. Now, its enemies know how little it takes for it to foldThe resignation of the BBC's director general, Tim Davie, over accusations of bias comes as a shock and leaves a gulf at the top of the corporation when it needs leadership most. Davie stressed that the decision was his alone - neither the board, nor even many of those who led the coordinated attack among rightwing press and politicians expected it.Now the resignations of both Davie and the CEO of BBC News, Deborah Turness, have shown that baying for blood gets results.Jane Martinson is professor of financial journalism at City St George's and a member of the board of the Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian Media Group. She writes in a personal capacityDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Activists in Los Angeles say the energy from the Hollywood strikes has been reignited by the success of the mayor-electWhile the excitement for mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has radiated through New York, his win has also energized young activists across the country - particularly some in Los Angeles, who flew to the east coast to canvass for Mamdani and now want to bring their experiences westward.Standing near the poll site at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Neda Davarpanah - a screenwriter and actor based in Los Angeles - was inspired by Mamdani's campaign for mayor so she flew out to New York in late October to canvass on the Upper East Side. Continue reading...

The president reportedly wants the new home of the Washington Commanders to bear his name. There are reasons to think he will succeedThat's if a well-sourced report from ESPN is to be believed. The US president has apparently let it be known to the ownership group of the Washington Commanders that he wants the team's new stadium, which is scheduled to open in 2030, to take his name. It's what the president wants, and it will probably happen," a senior White House official told ESPN. Continue reading...

Alex de Minaur had a chance to win the first set, leading 5-3 in the tie-break, but Carlos Alcaraz would not be denied, coming back to take it 7-5 before playing a wondrous second...and here comes the genius.Here comes the Demon... Continue reading...

Local observers cite a reversal of social dynamics, a revitalized police department and violence interventionThe national conversation about crime is being driven by rhetorical attacks - and national guard call-ups - by Donald Trump, who routinely demonizes places like Chicago, Washington DC, Portland and even New York City, which has a lower homicide rate than Orlando, Florida, home to Disneyland.Somehow, we don't talk about Birmingham. Continue reading...

Americans are choosing between heating their homes and putting food on the table. Officials and utilities can prevent thisAs the stalemate over government funding and healthcare benefits continues, winter is approaching - but federal heating assistance, blocked by the shutdown, isn't arriving in time. Millions of American families are about to face an impossible choice: heating their homes or putting food on the table. As the senator for a state known for its volatile winters and as executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, we call on states and utilities to choose a different outcome for those families and shut off the shutoffs. A nationwide freeze on utilities' ability to disconnect customers from heat for nonpayment isn't about politics - it's about public safety.The breakdown in federal budget negotiations has frozen the release of funding for many of the essential services families rely on nationwide, including the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (Liheap). Liheap helps struggling households keep their heat and lights on by helping eligible families pay their utility bills. With those dollars locked up in Washington gridlock, America's seniors and working families are now at risk of losing power - just as temperatures start to plummet.Edward J Markey represents Massachusetts in the United States Senate and is a long-time advocate for affordable energy, consumer protection, and climate action. Mark Wolfe is an an energy economist and serves as the executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, representing the state directors of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and co-director of the Center on Climate, Energy and Poverty Continue reading...

Experts suspect that dust from the sea contains endotoxic bacteria membranes caused by fertilizer runoffChemical-laden dust from southern California's drying Salton Sea is likely harming the lungs of people around the shrinking body of water, and the effects are especially pronounced in children, new peer-reviewed research from the University of California, Irvine, shows.A separate peer-reviewed study from the University of California, Riverside, also found the Salton Sea's contaminated dust seemed to alter lung microbiome, which could trigger pulmonary issues that have been reported around the lake. Continue reading...

After 45 years as chief fake blood thrower, Ingrid Newkirk is still waging war on everything from leather to cashmere. Is she still relevant?Ingrid Newkirk was 54 when she thought she was going to die in a plane crash. It was late summer and the founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) was flying from Minneapolis in the US to the company HQ in Norfolk, Virginia when her plane encountered strong wind shear. The pilot attempted an emergency landing, but failed; back up they went.On the third attempt, with a teaspoon of fuel" in the tank, he finally got the plane down safely. During those moments, Newkirk, now 76, scribbled a will on a napkin. She has tweaked it over the years, but it still reads like a horror movie prop list: her liver is to be sent to France to be made into foie gras, her skin to Hermes to create a handbag and her lips to whichever US president is in power, to shame them for granting a patronising" pardon to a turkey each Thanksgiving. As wills go, it's straight out of the Peta playbook: an audacious stunt of the kind that has made them the world's most well-known, successful and in some quarters reviled animal rights organisation. I know I'll never be made a dame," Newkirk says, laughing. I'm too controversial." Continue reading...

White House is manipulating voting system, from redistricting to rule changes, to affect midtermsA year out from the 2026 midterms, with Republicans feeling the blows from a string of losses in this week's elections, Donald Trump and his allies are mounting a multipronged attack on almost every aspect of voting in the United States and raising what experts say are troubling questions about the future of one of the world's oldest democracies.While Democratic leaders continue to invest their hopes in a blue wave" to overturn Republican majorities in the House and Senate next year, Trump and some prominent supporters have sought to discredit the possibility that Republicans could lose in a fair fight and are using that premise to justify demands for a drastically different kind of electoral system. Continue reading...

Annual migration from frigid Canadian winter to Florida sunshine could become thinner as travellers look elsewhereThe annual migration of hundreds of thousands of Canadian snowbirds" escaping freezing temperatures in their homeland and heading to warmer US states such as Florida for the duration of the winter could be about to become noticeably thinner.Many have ditched plans to visit their southern neighbor and are looking to spend their valuable dollars elsewhere, largely put off by Donald Trump's escalating economic war with Canada and strict new immigration rules that have created fear and confusion. Continue reading...

Americans have shown a tremendous amount and variety of opposition - more than some may realizeA young white woman in yoga clothes berating masked ICE agents in a parking lot this spring. A pope speaking up again and again for immigrants. Furious judges dressing down the Trump administration and ruling against it time after time after time, in response to the blizzard of lawsuits filed by human rights and environmental groups, states, cities and individuals. A senator speaking nonstop for 25 hours and another flying to El Salvador to find out what happened to his kidnapped constituent. The biggest day of protest in US history as an estimated 7 million people showed up for No Kings on 18 October in small towns and red counties as well as big blue cities.Weekly protests at Tesla salesrooms earlier this year that succeeded in damaging the brand, depressing global sales and prompting Tesla CEO Elon Musk to retreat from his Doge slash-and-burn project. Federal workers resisting sometimes merely by adhering to law, truth and fact, and sometimes by speaking out as whistleblowers or in protests, as with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff who staged a walkout in late August in solidarity with senior staff who'd just resigned in protest against the health and human services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr's anti-vaccine policies.Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. She is the author of Orwell's Roses and co-editor with Thelma Young Lutunatabua of the climate anthology Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility Continue reading...

Trump's team flirts with weakening the dollar, threatening US influence, low borrowing costs and global stabilityMagical thinking is indispensable to understanding Team Trump's economic policymaking. The White House often seems to believe two opposing policies can work together while one policy can do two or three contradictory things.A heavy dose of hocus pocus will be needed to make the administration's dollar policy work in the interest of the United States, for it appears that they want to end the US dollar's supremacy in global finance. Continue reading...

New York City mayor-elect refused to be in the shadows' in the face of Islamophobic attacks during his campaignAcross the country, Donald Trump's crackdown on immigrants has shaken neighbourhoods, torn apart families and engendered a sense of panic among communities. But in New York, on Tuesday night, Zohran Mamdani, the first Muslim mayor of New York, and an immigrant from Uganda, chose to underline his identity. New York will remain a city of immigrants: a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants and, as of tonight, led by an immigrant," he told an ecstatic crowd at Paramount theater in Brooklyn.The son of a Muslim father and a Hindu mother, he was born in Kampala, raised in Queens, and identifies as a democratic socialist. Almost every aspect of Mamdani's identity had been an issue of contention during the election. Earlier this week, the Center for Study of Organized Hate published a report highlighting the surge in Islamophobic comments online between July and October, most of which labelled Mamdani as an extremist or terrorist. Continue reading...

Back at the ATP finals one year after reaching the last hurdle, Fritz remains a top-five talent. It's a reminder that a certain major-title drought is not his burden to bearI would like to have some words with ESPN broadcaster Chris Fowler about what he said after Novak Djokovic beat Taylor Fritz, for the 11th straight time, in the US Open quarter-finals. Look - Fritz is American, Fowler is American - and sports often lend themselves to nationalism. A little bit of disappointment was appropriate. Instead, Fowler invoked the continued drought of American men at the majors: none of them had lifted a trophy since Andy Roddick in 2003, and Fritz had been the last one standing in the tournament.We all love a narrative, myself included. But come on. Even if Fritz had beaten Djokovic for the first time, force of nature Carlos Alcaraz was waiting in the next round, who Fritz has yet to beat in an official match. And if he'd somehow survived that, it would have been defending champion Jannik Sinner in the final, against whom Fritz had lost 10 of the last 11 sets. Alcaraz and Sinner had also split the last seven major titles (and Alcaraz went on to thrash a fatigued Djokovic in the next round). Fritz said in press after the loss that he actually liked his draw, because it presented the opportunity to beat the three best players in the world in succession. Fritz is more than within his right to aspire to the accomplishment; an athlete is meant to believe in themselves. But going into that Djokovic quarter-final who else in their right mind had the drought of American champions on the brain? Continue reading...

In a bid to exercise absolute power, today's crop of authoritarian leaders is recruiting - and exploiting - believersDonald Trump's crusading threat to invade Nigeria and save Christians from Islamist terrorists is typical attention-seeking. Surely even he must realise that unilateral US military intervention would invite disaster. And he's got his facts wrong. The threat of Islamist terrorism is real, but it affects Nigerian Muslims as much, if not more, than Christians. There's no evidence of genocide, contrary to the alarmist claims of US far-right internet warriors. Trump's intervention was about politics, not faith.In speaking out, he was massaging a key domestic constituency, not acting from genuine, God-fearing concern for our cherished Christians" in a land he's never visited. Christian nationalist votes helped clinch Trump's two presidential victories despite the obvious insincerity of his professed beliefs. His support among white evangelical Protestants is much higher than the average - 72% in April, compared with 40% among all US adults. Trump's histrionics about Nigeria were primarily for their (and his) benefit.Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator Continue reading...

Charlotte, North Carolina, has the most cancellations - at 120 - as industry experts say other sectors might also feel effectsUS airlines canceled 1,460 flights on Saturday, the second day of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) order to reduce air traffic because of the government shutdown.So far, the slowdown at many of the nation's busiest airports hasn't caused widespread disruptions. But it has deepened the impact felt by what is now the nation's longest federal shutdown. Continue reading...

Trump urged Republican senators to redirect federal money toward direct payments to individuals. Key US politics stories from 8 November at a glanceDonald Trump on Saturday urged Republican senators to redirect federal money used to subsidize health insurance costs under the Affordable Care Act toward direct payments to individuals, in an effort to overcome an issue at the heart of the US government shutdown.I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare, BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE, and have money left over," Trump wrote in a social media post. Continue reading...

Gregory Bovino was called out by a judge only two days earlier for lying about being assaulted by a protesterA border patrol chief claimed on Saturday that his agents came under fire in Chicago while conducting immigration enforcement operations, just two days after a federal judge said that he had lied to her about having been struck by a rock during a previous confrontation with protesters in the city.Gregory Bovino, the border patrol chief and frequent Fox News guest who has become the face of the Trump administration's mass deportation efforts, said on social media that his agents had been shot at", and subjected to vehicular assaults, physical assaults, impeding, violent mobs, vehicular blockades", for a number of hours. Continue reading...

Amid a historic government shutdown, some senators on Capitol Hill are working this weekend on an unpopular billUS senators are working through the weekend for the first time since the government shutdown began more than a month ago, but hopes for a bipartisan agreement on how to end the standoff, and keep healthcare affordable for millions of Americans, appeared to recede as Republican senators floated a proposal toxic to Democrats: scrapping the Affordable Care Act (ACA), known as Obamacare.The impact on Americans from the longest shutdown of the federal government in history deepened on Saturday, as federal workers went unpaid, airlines were forced to cancel flights and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) benefits have been delayed for 42 million Americans. Continue reading...

Police say vehicle was involved in street racing before driver fled from authorities and then crashed into Ybor City barA speeding car fleeing police slammed into a crowded bar early on Saturday, killing four people and injuring 11 in a historic district of Tampa, Florida, known for its nightlife and tourists.An air patrol unit with the Tampa police department spotted the car driving recklessly on a freeway at about 12.40am after police said the silver sedan had been seen street racing in another neighborhood, according to a police department statement. Continue reading...