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JD Vance addressed the shooting of two members of the West Virginia national guard near the White House in a Thanksgiving Day speech at Fort Campbell, Kentucky

State prosecutor dismisses charges against US president and others in election interference caseThe case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants in Georgia ended on Wednesday with a filing for dismissal by the state prosecutor who took over after the removal of Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney.Pete Skandalakis, the prosecutor and the executive director of the prosecuting attorneys' council of Georgia, confirmed to the Guardian that it's over"after superior court judge Scott McAfee issued a one-page order on Wednesday dismissing the 2020 racketeering case. Skandalakis said he would be making no further comments about the matter. Continue reading...

Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem says allowing Haitians to remain is contrary to US national interest'The Trump administration has once again moved to halt humanitarian protections for Haitians living in the US, this time announcing that their temporary protected status (TPS) will expire on 3 February.According to a new Department of Homeland Security notice issued on Wednesday, TPS for approximately 340,000 Haitian migrants will be terminated next year. Continue reading...

Southern California residents shared disastrous effects of Trump's immigration crackdown at a congressional hearingThe Trump administration's ICE raids across southern California have had disastrous effects on the region's immigrants and swept up US citizens in the process, community leaders and residents said at a congressional hearing in Los Angeles on Monday.Andrea Velez, an American arrested by US immigration officials over the summer, described how she was accosted by masked agents while on her way to work. She said she was charged with assaulting an officer and held for two days in a federal detention center, where detainees had to pay for a cup in order to have water. The charges against her were ultimately dismissed due to what her attorney described as a lack of evidence. Continue reading...

In a Truth Social post, the president lashed out at journalist Katie Rogers after an article questioned whether he was slowing downDonald Trump lashed out on Wednesday against a New York Times reporter, calling her ugly inside and out" in his latest personal insult against female members of the media after last week calling another piggy".In a Truth Social post, Trump criticized the newspaper for an article suggesting he was running low on energy in his 80th year, insisting he had never worked so hard in my life". Continue reading...

Scouting America decries accusations by defense secretary that the organization is attacking boy-friendly spaces'Scouting America, formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America, has said it is surprised and disappointed" by a report that the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, could sever all military ties to the organization for being genderless" and failing to cultivate masculine values".In a draft memo to Congress obtained by NPR, Hegseth criticized Scouting America, which began admitting girls in 2018, for purportedly attempting to attack boy-friendly spaces". Continue reading...

Republicans and Democrats warn Witkoff cannot be trusted' after reportedly advising officials on peace planA handful of US representatives have reacted furiously to a leaked recording in which the special envoy to Ukraine reportedly coached Moscow on how to handle Donald Trump, but most have so far remained mute on the revelation that American officials were advising a US adversary.Don Bacon, a Republican representative, called for Steve Witkoff's immediate dismissal. For those who oppose the Russian invasion and want to see Ukraine prevail as a sovereign & democratic country, it is clear that Witkoff fully favors the Russians," the Nebraska lawmaker wrote on X. Continue reading...

Justice department maintains that Trump administration didn't violate judge's order to return flights to USThe Department of Justice said in a statement that Kristi Noem, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, was the one who made the decision to continue with the deportation flights of Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador in March, despite a federal judge's directive that the flights must be returned to the United States.In a court filing on Tuesday, the justice department said that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove provided DHS with legal advice regarding the court's order as to flights that had left the United States before the order issued, through DHS Acting General Counsel Joseph Mazzara" and that after receiving that legal advice, Secretary Noem directed that the AEA detainees who had been removed from the United States before the Court's order could be transferred to the custody of El Salvador". Continue reading...

Katie Wilson's rise from transit campaigner to city hall shows how trust, volunteers and years of organizing overcame big-money politicsWhile a blue wave was sweeping key races in New York City, Virginia, and New Jersey on 4 November, Seattle progressives were biting their nails down to a quick. At 8pm, only the first round of ballots had been counted in Seattle, and Katie Wilson, a longtime community organizer and the progressive challenger in the mayoral race, was behind by seven points.But it was far from over. Because Washington state votes almost entirely by mail, that first ballot count was less than a quarter of the vote. As the week wore on, and progressives' fingernails disappeared, Wilson's share of the vote crept up, slowly but steadily. Eight days after the election, Seattle declared that Wilson would be the next mayor of Seattle. Continue reading...

Binaifer Nowrojee, Open Society Foundations president, said the organization will go to court if need be'As Donald Trump menaces the Open Society Foundations (OSF), which funds a long list of progressive causes, Binaifer Nowrojee, the OSF president, says the global grant-making network will pursue legal action against the federal government if it must.Open Society Foundation supports the right of free speech, supports the constitutional rights of organizations to be able to organize themselves, including through peaceful protest and is willing to actually ensure that those rights are upheld, including by going to court if need be," she said. Continue reading...

Bloomberg publishes extraordinary transcripts of secret discussions, but their provenance remains unclearBloomberg's scoop showing how Trump aide Steve Witkoff coached the Kremlin on the best way to get into Trump's good graces is extraordinary for what it tells us about Witkoff's dubious loyalties and the Kremlin's potential influence over US negotiation efforts. But equally interesting is the leaked material itself and where it may have come from.The story covers two intercepted phone calls: one between Witkoff and top Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, and another between Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev, who has been deeply involved in negotiations with the Trump White House. Continue reading...

In dozen of cases officers have used Marsy's Law, which gives victims of crime anonymity, to shield their namesFor months, Ohio police officer Connor Grubb and his department attempted to hide his identity following an incident that saw him shoot and kill Ta'Kiya Young and her unborn daughter in a Kroger parking lot outside Columbus in August 2023.Grubb, who on 21 November was acquitted of murder and other charges, claimed that Young, who was stopped for allegedly stealing, attempted to drive over him - which would make him a victim of a crime and eligible to protect his identity from public view through a legal provision called Marsy's Law. Police footage of the killing shows Young slowly driving the car forward and to the right before Grubb fires through the windshield and into Young's chest. Continue reading...

In Dearborn, provocateurs have held anti-Islam rallies, attempted to burn the Qur'an and rile residents for clickbaitWhite nationalist and rightwing agitators recently descended on Dearborn, Michigan, to hold an anti-Islam rally at which they attempted to burn a Qur'an and manufacture controversy over the city's large Arab-American population. But the protest has been dismissed by local leaders as a cheap publicity stunt aimed at generating money and clicks for far-right influencers.But there is little doubt the Michigan city has become a repeated target for the publicity-hungry far-right because it holds the US's highest percentage of Arab-American residents. Similar provocateurs have marched with a pig's head on a pole at an Arab-American fair. Meanwhile, Christian evangelists regularly attempt to convert Muslim children at parks or outside schools. Continue reading...

White House pressure campaign has not found willing participants in all states - including Republican-led onesThe unprecedented push to create new congressional districts mid-decade is hitting roadblocks in the form of local elected officials from both parties.Republicans face headwinds in the 2026 midterms: the party in power often loses ground in the election after a presidential win, and Trump's agenda isn't going over well. The 2025 off-year elections showed voters favoring Democrats at higher-than-expected margins. Trump wants to keep the House in Republican control by redrawing congressional maps to create more Republican-friendly districts. He first pressured Texas, which responded by drawing five additional red districts, which led California to advance a now-approved ballot measure to create five more Democrat-friendly districts to offset Texas's maps. Continue reading...

Trump has suggested on at least 28 occasions over past eight years that a national TV network's license be revoked - even though it doesn't work that wayFacing aggressive questioning from Mary Bruce, an ABC News White House correspondent, about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, Donald Trump last week suggested a form of punishment he thought would be appropriate for her crappy company": the Federal Communications Commission should revoke ABC's license, the US president declared.It wasn't the first time he has done so. As he has sought redress for what he has considered to be unfair reporting about him and his administration, Trump has suggested at least 28 times over the last eight years that a television network should lose its license, according to analysis by the Guardian. Continue reading...

The world of soccer throws up no shortage of questions. Today, Graham Ruthven endeavors to answer three of themThis time last season, Liverpool had just registered their 10th win in 12 games to go nine points clear at the top of the Premier League. It was around this time the narrative around Slot's team shifted from questioning if they could win the title in their first season post-Jurgen Klopp to predicting just how far ahead of the chasing pack they would finish. A year on, the narrative has shifted tremendously. Continue reading...

Raymond Hager says he enjoys driving too much and struggles to sit at home to think about retiringA 95-year-old bus driver from Texas who has gained recognition as his profession's oldest member worldwide says he enjoys driving his passengers around too much - and struggles mightily to just sit at home - to think about retiring quite yet.I've always liked to drive - I still do," Raymond Hager said at a recent ceremony where officials in his home town of Wichita Falls honored him for his record-setting career in bus transportation. And hopefully I stay safe and drive as long" as his boss and physician each allow him. Continue reading...

National news organizations have treated the borough like flyover country. It's time to change thatAs the extraordinary Oval Office meeting between Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani shows, there's a new bellwether in American politics.For years, Ohio played that role. In every election from 1964 to 2016, the state voted for the winning presidential candidate, and every four years journalists would travel there to interview voters in Columbus and Cincinnati, Dayton and Youngstown. But in 2020 Biden won without carrying the state, and today Ohio is deeply red, costing it its bellwether status. Several other states once considered battlegrounds - Iowa, Missouri, and Florida - have also turned firmly Republican.Michael Massing is an American writer based in New York City. He is a former executive editor of the Columbia Journalism Review Continue reading...

Millions of sexual violent survivors will not live a day longer with this torturous injusticeIt began as I finished Nobody's Girl, the torturous and devastating account of Virginia Giuffre's life. It was what I can only describe as a kind of corporeal attack, an existential clutch followed by days of such powerful anxiety my body was taken in bouts of uncontrollable shaking. A sense of not mattering, a virulent dread and dissolving into an all-encompassing nothingness impossible to shake. How many times as a child, after being abused by my father, had I experienced this sense of erasure and disappearance?Feeling that no matter what I did, what I accomplished, how hard I tried to lift my head above the parapet I would be cast out forever. This attack lasted days. Perhaps it was Virginia's story, parts of which felt much like my own. Raped as a child by her father, then raped by her father's good friend, then raped when she ran away, then the years of being raped by Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, then being sexually trafficked to powerful and sadistic men to be raped again. Continue reading...

Three ICC judges have been put on a sanctions list with terrorists after approving an arrest warrant for Israel's prime minister. This is the charade of the rules-based order'The fate of one French judge is a case study in the west's long unravelling. Nicolas Guillou cannot shop online. When he used Expedia to book a hotel in his own country, the reservation was cancelled within hours. He is blacklisted by much of the world's banking system", unable to use most bank cards.Guillou, you see, has been sanctioned by the United States, putting him on a 15,000-strong list alongside al-Qaida terrorists, drug cartels and Vladimir Putin. Why? Because alongside two other judges of the international criminal court pre-trial chamber I, he approved arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and Mohammed Deif, the former commander of Hamas's military wing. Guillou and his colleagues had actively engaged in the ICC's illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America or our close ally, Israel", the US claimed when imposing the sanctions in June. All are now barred from entering the US - but that is the least of the consequences.Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Steve Witkoff spoke to Yuri Ushakov on territorial control and suggested congratulating Donald Trump and framing talks more optimistically, audio recording suggestsDonald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff told a senior Kremlin official last month that achieving peace in Ukraine would require Russia gaining control of Donetsk and potentially a separate territorial exchange, according to a recording of their conversation obtained by Bloomberg.In the 14 October phone call with Yuri Ushakov, the top foreign policy aide to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Witkoff said he believed the land concessions were necessary all while advising Ushakov to congratulate Trump and frame discussions more optimistically. Continue reading...

Donald Trump's defense secretary sends memo to John Phelan asking him to review Kelly's comments; House Democrats from video confirm FBI is seeking to investigate. This blog is now closed.Senator Mark Kelly has responded to the Pentagon's announcement that it is investigating the Arizona lawmaker for possible breaches of military law after he joined five other Democratic members of Congress in a video calling for US troops to refuse illegal orders.I said something that was pretty simple and non controversial, and that was that members of the military should follow the law," Kelly said in an MS NOW interview with Rachel on Monday. And in response to that, Donald Trump said I should be executed." Continue reading...

Though president's order is legally questionable, advocates worry community could be targeted for immigration raidsIn the days since the president said he would be ending a legal immigration status program for Somalis in Minnesota, local elected officials and community members said they will fight back.On Truth Social on Friday, Trump wrote that he would be terminating, effective immediately" temporary protected status for Somalis in Minnesota. Trump wrote that Minnesota was a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity". Send them back to where they came from. It's OVER!" he wrote. Continue reading...

Interior department, which has defunded conservation organizations, claims fee hike is for conservationThe interior department announced today new America-first" entrance fees for national parks, commemorative annual passes featuring Donald Trump and resident-only patriotic fee-free days for 2026" including Trump's birthday.Starting next year, entrance fees for international visitors will more than triple. Continue reading...

Trump's defense secretary orders US Navy secretary to investigate potentially unlawful comments' made by Kelly - key US politics stories from 25 November 2025The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, escalated attacks by Trump administration chiefs on Arizona senator Mark Kelly on Tuesday by ordering the secretary of the US navy to investigate potentially unlawful comments" made by Kelly in a social media video with other lawmakers.Hegseth's order came in the form of a memorandum to John Phelan asking the Navy secretary to review Kelly and a group of fellow Democrats' comments in the video last week that sought to remind serving soldiers and intelligence officers that they have the right to refuse unlawful orders. Continue reading...

District judge in California says detainees who were already living in the US are legally entitled to a bond hearingA federal judge has ruled that Donald Trump's administration cannot impose mandatory detention on thousands of migrants held by US immigration authorities without first giving them an opportunity to seek release on bond.US district judge Sunshine Sykes in Riverside, California, certified a nationwide class of individuals who were already living in the United States when they were detained and are legally entitled to a hearing to determine whether they can be released on bond while their deportation cases proceed. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Officials frame strikes as self-defense against violence, without naming aggressor, while Trump claims they're to stop US overdose deathsThe Trump administration is framing its boat strikes against drug cartels in the Caribbean in part as a collective self-defense effort on behalf of US allies in the region, according to three people directly familiar with the administration's internal legal argument.The legal analysis rests on a premise - for which there is no immediate public evidence - that the cartels are waging armed violence against the security forces of allies like Mexico, and that the violence is financed by cocaine shipments. Continue reading...

Defense secretary escalates attacks by Trump administration on Arizona senator by ordering reviewThe US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, escalated attacks by Trump administration chiefs on Arizona senator Mark Kelly on Tuesday by ordering the secretary of the US navy to investigate potentially unlawful comments" made by Kelly in a social media video with other lawmakers.Hegseth's order came in the form of a memorandum to John Phelan asking the Navy secretary to review Kelly and a group of fellow Democrats' comments in the video last week that sought to remind serving soldiers and intelligence officers that they have the right to refuse unlawful orders. Continue reading...

Fuel from the pipeline, operated by BP, was first spotted in a ditch near an Everett, Washington, blueberry farmInvestigators have identified the source of a leak in the Olympic pipeline two weeks after fuel was first spotted in a ditch near an Everett, Washington, blueberry farm.Oil and gas company BP, the operator of the pipeline, shared in a statement that it had determined the leak occurred in a 20in pipeline and not a neighboring 16in pipeline, allowing that pipeline to be restarted. Continue reading...

The US president made jokes at the annual turkey pardoning ceremony. It went as well as you would expectDon't give up the day job. On Tuesday, Donald Trump came to the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardoning ceremony at the White House ready to serve up some political satire. It went about as well as you would expect.Like a startled turkey flapping in zigzags, the US president's speech ricocheted bafflingly from topic to topic. He told jokes in the worst possible taste and watched them arc through the Rose Garden sky before landing with a thud. And on a day intended for charity and good cheer, he described a state governor as a big, fat slob". Continue reading...

Ralph Abraham appointed deputy director as RFK Jr continues to reshape US federal health leadershipRalph Abraham, a top Louisiana health official who stopped promoting mass vaccination policies and once described Covid-19 vaccines as dangerous", has been appointed deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it was revealed on Tuesday.The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has not formally announced Abraham's appointment, but the center's internal database now lists Abraham as the federal agency's principal deputy director, effective this week. Abraham's appointment was confirmed to the Washington Post by an HHS spokesperson. Continue reading...

Chad Charley' Mecca says Morgan Geyser ran away out of fear that the two would no longer be able to visit each otherA companion of Slender Man stabber Morgan Geyser who temporarily escaped from her Wisconsin group home says Geyser fled the facility out of fear that the two would no longer be able to visit each other.She ran because of me," Chad Charley" Mecca - a transgender woman who was detained alongside Geyser at a truck stop just outside Chicago on Sunday night - said in a phone call to Wisconsin news outlet WKOW. Continue reading...

Executive Martin Bally put on leave after alleged remarks were purportedly recorded and attributed to him in lawsuitA Campbell's Soup Company executive has been put on temporary leave after he allegedly referred to the firm's offerings as shit for fucking poor people" - a remark purportedly caught on an audio recording and attributed to him in a former employee's wrongful termination lawsuit.The lawsuit was filed last Thursday in Wayne county circuit court in Michigan by Robert Garza, who had joined Campbell's New Jersey headquarters remotely in September 2024 as a security analyst. Garza alleges he was fired in January after he raised concerns about comments made by Martin Bally, Campbell's vice-president of information technology - including referring to one of the company's ingredients as bioengineered meat" while going off on a racist tirade. Continue reading...

Senator hits back at Trump administration after Pentagon launches investigation for possible breaches of military lawSenator Mark Kelly said it was non-controversial" for him and other congressional Democrats to implore military personnel to disobey illegal orders" from the Trump administration - hitting back at accusations of serious allegations of misconduct" leveled against him by the Pentagon.I said something that was pretty simple and non-controversial - and that was that members of the military should follow the law," the Arizona Democrat senator, a former US navy officer and astronaut who flew on four separate space shuttle missions between 2001 and 2011, told MS Now on Monday night. Continue reading...

Gramma came to San Diego Zoo from Bronx Zoo in 1928 or 1931 and lived through 20 US presidentsAfter more than a century of munching on her favorite foods of romaine lettuce and cactus fruit, beloved Galapagos tortoise Gramma, the oldest resident of the San Diego Zoo, has died.Gramma was born in her native habitat and was estimated to be about 141 years old, zoo officials said. She died on 20 November. Continue reading...

The VP wouldn't be where he is today without the patronage of the Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel. But with voters becoming more and more concerned about the firm's surveillance tech, could that relationship affect his chances?The US is the land of the free and the home of the world's most expensive, and most excruciatingly drawn-out, elections. In most democracies, the election cycle lasts just a few weeks or months. In most democracies there are strict laws regulating how long politicians can campaign, and how much money political parties can accept. But the US is not most democracies. Continue reading...

Pei Chung allegedly ate at multiple fancy restaurants around New York City and then skipped out on payingA would-be food influencer known online as the dine-and-dash diva" has been jailed in Brooklyn, New York, after multiple previous arrests for allegedly skipping out on the bill at high-end restaurants.Pei Chung, 34, is said to have developed a habit of going to fancy restaurants around New York City, ordering extensively off the menu - and then trying to get out of paying. Continue reading...

Lawsuit filed in West Virginia claimed Justice and his wife received notice of the funds due since 2009 but didn't payJim Justice, the Republican US senator, and his wife have agreed to pay more than $5m that the couple owes in back taxes shortly after they were sued over the 16-year-old debt by the federal government.The lawsuit, filed on Monday in federal court in their home state of West Virginia, maintained that the Justices had received notice from the US treasury department of the funds due since 2009 but had neglected or refused to make full payment of those assessments". Continue reading...

National spotlight, after video of violent fight went viral, has led residents to question just how safe their city is or isn't - and who is responsible for sparking the debateIt took only a few days for footage of a violent brawl in downtown Cincinnati in July to catch the attention of some of the country's most high-profile figures.The fight, which saw a white woman punched in the face from behind by an African American man, among other incidents, took place when around 150,000 people were attending events in the city's urban core. Continue reading...

CBP press release calls seized drugs and lettuce a salad unfit for this year's Thanksgiving table'Officials at Texas's border with Mexico seized roughly $10.3m worth of methamphetamine hidden in a lettuce shipment on Friday, according to US Customs and Border Protection.A press release from CBP officials called the seized drugs and lettuce a salad unfit for this year's Thanksgiving table", adding that the 500 packages of meth in question weighed about 1,153lbs. Continue reading...

Designation of groups from Italy, Germany and Greece labelled ridiculous' as experts say no active threat posedExperts have told the Guardian the same anti-fascist groups the US state department recently named as foreign terrorist organizations and accused of conspiring to undermine foundations of western civilization" barely qualify as groups, let alone terrorist organizations, and pose no active threat to Americans.The whole thing is a bit ridiculous," said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, which tracks extremist movements worldwide, because the groups designated by the administration barely exist and certainly aren't terrorists." Continue reading...

A judge tossed indictments against two of the president's political enemies, standing against politicized prosecutionsYesterday brought good news for two of Donald Trump's most hated enemies: the former FBI director James Comey, and the New York state attorney general, Letitia James. A federal judge dismissed the sham indictments the administration had obtained against them.Judge Cameron McGowan Currie reminded the president and his attorney general of the great lessons of a society governed by the rule of law: how things are done matters as much as what is done. Without fair procedures, no one can be safe from the arbitrary exercise of government power. Continue reading...

The US health secretary's digital affair' with Olivia Nuzzi doesn't need sombre analysis. Take it from this Brit: sometimes laughter is the only optionLiterally nothing on this earth takes itself as seriously as American journalism. There are rogue-state dictators it's more permissible to laugh at than the endlessly hilarious pretensions of newsmen and newswomen in the United States. The crucial difference between the British press and US press is that at least we in the British press know we're in the gutter. The Americans have always imagined - and so loudly - that they are involved in some kind of higher calling. Guys, I love you and stuff, but get over it, because you're missing one of the great jokes of the century. Yourselves.I don't deny that everything's bigger in America. Our former health secretary had a knee-trembler up against his office door in the pandemic; their current one apparently wrote felching ... poetry, is it ... felching poetry? ... to a superstar journalist who was worrying about his brainworm, yet the story is being written up like it's Dante, instead of X-rated Italian brainrot.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

State department proposes excluding 38 institutions from Diplomacy Lab partnership including Harvard and YaleMore than three dozen universities including Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Duke have their participation in a federal research partnership on the chopping block after the state department proposed to suspend them over their diversity, equity and inclusion hiring practices.Last week, the Guardian obtained an internal memo and spreadsheet showing that the state department is moving to exclude 38 institutions from the Diplomacy Lab program, which pairs university researchers with state department policy offices on foreign policy projects. The suspensions would take effect on 1 January, and because the list is not finalized, the school's have not yet been informed. Continue reading...

Maybe. Let's hope it is not too late for Democrats to win back the working class and WashingtonSince the Democrats' sweeping victories on 4 November, a strange thing has happened among the party factions: a semblance of unity has emerged.At first, affordability" became the slogan of rapprochement. Moderates, populists and socialists agreed Democrats must campaign around the cost-of-living crisis and hang the broken economy around Donald Trump's neck. Continue reading...